Maladaptive changes in multiple traits caused by fishing: impediments to population recovery

Some overharvested fish populations fail to recover even after considerable reductions in fishing pressure. The reasons are unclear but may involve genetic changes in life history traits that are detrimental to population growth when natural environmental factors prevail. We empirically modelled thi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology letters Vol. 9; no. 2; pp. 142 - 148
Main Authors: Walsh, Matthew R, Munch, Stephan B, Chiba, Susumu, Conover, David O
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Oxford, UK Oxford, UK : Blackwell Science Ltd 01.02.2006
Blackwell Science Ltd
Subjects:
Animals
Biodiversity
Body Size
conservation biology
correlated characters
correlated responses
Ecosystem
environmental factors
exploited fisheries
Feeding Behavior
Fisheries
Fishes - physiology
food consumption
foraging
Larva - growth & development
larval development
life history
life history evolution
marine fish
Menidia menidia
Oceans and Seas
overharvesting
Ovum - growth & development
Population Growth
Reproduction - physiology
size selection
ISSN:1461-023X, 1461-0248, 1461-0248
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Some overharvested fish populations fail to recover even after considerable reductions in fishing pressure. The reasons are unclear but may involve genetic changes in life history traits that are detrimental to population growth when natural environmental factors prevail. We empirically modelled this process by subjecting populations of a harvested marine fish, the Atlantic silverside, to experimental size-biased fishing regimes over five generations and then measured correlated responses across multiple traits. Populations where large fish were selectively harvested (as in most fisheries) displayed substantial declines in fecundity, egg volume, larval size at hatch, larval viability, larval growth rates, food consumption rate and conversion efficiency, vertebral number, and willingness to forage. These genetically based changes in numerous traits generally reduce the capacity for population recovery.
Bibliography:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00858.x
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ISSN:1461-023X
1461-0248
1461-0248
DOI:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2005.00858.x