Thermal habitat of adult Atlantic salmon Salmo salar in a warming ocean

The year-round thermal habitat at sea for adult Atlantic salmon Salmo salar (n = 49) from northern Norway was investigated using archival tags over a 10 year study period. During their ocean feeding migration, the fish spent 90% of the time in waters with temperatures from 1.6-8.4 degrees C. Daily mean temperatures ranged from -0.5 to 12.9 degrees C, with daily temperature variation up to 9.6 degrees C. Fish experienced the coldest water during winter (November-March) and the greatest thermal range during the first summer at sea (July-August). Trends in sea-surface temperatures influenced the thermal habitat of salmon during late summer and autumn (August-October), with fish experiencing warmer temperatures in warmer years. This pattern was absent during winter (November-March), when daily mean temperatures ranged from 3.4-5.0 degrees C, in both colder and warmer years. The observations of a constant thermal habitat during winter in both warmer and colder years, may suggest that the ocean distribution of salmon is flexible and that individual migration routes could shift as a response to spatiotemporal alterations of favourable prey fields and ocean temperatures.