Is Climate Change Impacting Salmon Populations?

Climate change is a topic we hear about every day, from increasing sea levels, warming oceans, and melting polar ice caps. But is climate change impacting our salmon populations? Students will utilize Pacific Decadal Oscillation data, and Coho and Chinook Salmon data to explore the connection between salmon returns and water temperature.

Author: Dina DiSantis; EARTH 2018

Lesson Resources

• Lesson Plan
• Video Questions [Student Version | Teacher Version]
• Table 1: Pacific Decadal Oscillation [Student | Teacher]
• Graphed Data for Yearly Average PDO
• Data of Chinook Salmon Returns
• Graphed Data for Chinook Salmon Returns
• Comparison of Yearly Salmon Returns [Teacher]
• Teacher Answer Sheet to Support PDO Data and Chinook Anomaly of Numbers of Adults Returning to Spawn
• Interpretation of Data [Student | Teacher]