Data for: Behavioral evidence of olfactory imprinting during embryonic and larval stages in lake sturgeon

Many migratory fishes are thought to navigate to natal streams using
olfactory cues learned during early life stages. However, direct evidence
for early-life olfactory imprinting is largely limited to Pacific salmon,
and other species suspected to imprint show life history traits and
reproductive strategies that raise uncertainty about the generality of the
salmonid-based conceptual model of olfactory imprinting in fishes. Here,
we studied early-life olfactory imprinting in lake sturgeon (Acipenser
fulvescens), which have a life cycle notably different from Pacific
salmon, but are nonetheless hypothesized to home via similar mechanisms.
We tested one critical prediction of the hypothesis that early-life
olfactory imprinting guides natal homing in lake sturgeon: that exposure
to odorants during early-life stages results in increased
activity when exposed to those odorants later in life. Lake sturgeon were
exposed to artificial odorants (phenethyl alcohol and morpholine) during
specific developmental windows and durations (limited to the egg,
free-embryo, exogenous feeding larvae, and juvenile stages), and later
tested as juveniles for behavioral responses to the odorants that were
demonstrative of olfactory memory. Experiments revealed that lake sturgeon
reared in stream water mixed with artificial odorants for as little as 7
days responded to the odorants in behavioral assays over 50 days after the
initial exposure, specifically implicating the free-embryo and larval
stages as critical imprinting periods. Our study provides evidence for
olfactory imprinting in a non-salmonid fish species, and supports further
consideration of conservation tactics such as stream-side rearing
facilities that are designed to encourage olfactory imprinting to targeted
streams during early life stages. Continued research on lake sturgeon can
contribute to a model of olfactory imprinting that is more generalizable
across diverse fish species and will inform conservation actions for one
of the world’s most imperiled fish taxonomic groups.