title: Global assessment of extinction risk to populations of Sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Concern about the decline of wild salmon has attracted the attention of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The IUCN applies quantitative criteria to assess risk of extinction and publishes its results on the Red List of Threatened Species. However, the focus is on the species level and thus may fail to show the risk to populations. The IUCN has adapted their criteria to apply to populations but there exist few examples of this type of assessment. We assessed the status of sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka as a model for application of the IUCN population-level assessments and to provide the first global assessment of the status of an anadromous Pacific salmon.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found from demographic data that the sockeye salmon species is not presently at risk of extinction. We identified 98 independent populations with varying levels of risk within the species' range. Of these, 5 (5%) are already extinct. We analyzed the risk for 62 out of 93 extant populations (67%) and found that 17 of these (27%) are at risk of extinction. The greatest number and concentration of extinct and threatened populations is in the southern part of the North American range, primarily due to overfishing, freshwater habitat loss, dams, hatcheries, and changing ocean conditions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although sockeye salmon are not at risk at the species-level, about one-third of the populations that we analyzed are at risk or already extinct. Without an understanding of risk to biodiversity at the level of populations, the biodiversity loss in salmon would be greatly underrepresented on the Red List. We urge government, conservation organizations, scientists and the public to recognize this limitation of the Red List. We also urge recognition that about one-third of sockeye salmon global population diversity is at risk of extinction or already extinct.
authors.affiliation: Wild Salmon Center, Portland, Oregon, United States of America. prand@wildsalmoncenter.org
authors.forename: Peter S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Rand
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goslin
authors.forename: Mart R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Gross
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Irvine
authors.forename: Xanthippe
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Augerot
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: McHugh
authors.forename: Victor F
authors.initials: VF
authors.lastname: Bugaev
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D044822:Biodiversity; D002170:Canada; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D056727:Endangered Species; D053476:Extinction, Biological; D005843:Geography; D015205:Northwestern United States; D011157:Population Dynamics; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012474:Salmon / Q000502:physiology*