A1 Journal article (refereed)
Fisheries-induced life-history changes recover in experimentally harvested fish populations (2024)

van Dijk, S. N., Sadler, D. E., Watts, P. C., & Uusi-Heikkilä, S. (2024). Fisheries-induced life-history changes recover in experimentally harvested fish populations. Biology Letters, 20(11), Article 20240319. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0319

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: van Dijk, Stephan N.; Sadler, Daniel E.; Watts, Phillip C.; Uusi-Heikkilä, Silva

Journal or series: Biology Letters

ISSN: 1744-9561

eISSN: 1744-957X

Publication year: 2024

Publication date: 06/11/2024

Volume: 20

Issue number: 11

Article number: 20240319

Publisher: Royal Society

Publication country: United Kingdom

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0319

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Partially open access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/98273

Abstract

Overfishing is one of the greatest threats to fish populations. Size-selective harvesting favours faster juvenile growth, younger maturation, small adult body size and low reproductive output. Such changes might be slow to recover and ultimately threaten population fitness and survival. To study the recovery potential of exploited experimental populations, we compared life-history traits in three differently size-selected experimental lines (large-selected, small-selected and random-selected) after five generations of harvesting and 10 subsequent generations of recovery (i.e. cessation of harvesting). We show that after a recovery period twice as long as the harvesting period, the differences in adult body size among the selection lines have eroded. While there was still a significant body size difference among the selection lines, this did not translate to differences in reproductive success. Although size-selective harvesting causes phenotypic changes in exploited fish populations, we show that such changes are reversible if the recovery period is long enough.

Keywords: fishing; overfishing; fish populations; population ecology; evolutionary ecology; empirical research

Free keywords: fisheries; experimental; size-selective harvesting; life-history traits; generational

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Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2024

Preliminary JUFO rating: 2