NEWS

Friday, August 04, 2006

Viva Vino Salmonido

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(Excerpt from University of California press release dated August 4, 2006. The full press release was originally published at http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news).

California Wine: Complex and Smooth With Hints of Salmon

August 4, 2006—What does it take to make a fine California wine? Grapes, water, sunshine, the skilled hand of a master vintner—and a few thousand dead salmon.

A few thousand dead chinook salmon, that is, according to new research that shows for the first time that the salmon that die naturally in California’s Mokelumne and Calaveras rivers contribute significantly to the growth—and likely the quality—of wine grapes raised nearby. How? Wild animals eat the salmon carcasses, converting the nutrient-laden fish into fertilizer for the grapevines.

The study was led by Joseph Merz, a Lodi-based fisheries biologist with East Bay Municipal Utility District and an instructor at Sacramento State University. Merz’s research collaborator was his former Ph.D. adviser and the leading authority on California native fishes, Peter Moyle of UC Davis—which also happens to be the world’s premier wine school.

The study, “Salmon, Wildlife, and Wine: Marine-Derived Nutrients in Human-Dominated Ecosystems of Central California,” is published in the June 2006 issue of the journal Ecological Applications and was noted in the news pages of the July 21 issue of the journal Science.

UC Davis media contact(s):

• Joseph Merz, East Bay Municipal Utility District, (209) 365-1093,
• Peter Moyle, UC Davis Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, (530) 752-6355, (Moyle is best reached by e-mail.)
• Sylvia Wright, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-7704,