Eight decades of adaptive changes in herring reproductive investment: the joint effect of environment and exploitation

Abstract Reproductive investment is a central trait for population dynamics and productivity. Fishing and environmental variations are major drivers affecting population structure, dynamics, and adaptation of life-history and behavioural traits. However, those factors are often considered independen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ICES Journal of Marine Science
Main Authors: Claireaux, Marion, dos Santos Schmidt, Thassya C, Olsen, Esben Moland, Slotte, Aril, Varpe, Øystein, Heino, Mikko, Enberg, Katja
Other Authors: Bartolino, Valerio, Research Council of Norway, National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Brazil
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Oxford University Press (OUP) 2020
Subjects:
Ecology
Aquatic Science
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Oceanography
North Atlantic
North Atlantic oscillation
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa123
http://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article-pdf/78/2/631/38696128/fsaa123.pdf
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Summary:Abstract Reproductive investment is a central trait for population dynamics and productivity. Fishing and environmental variations are major drivers affecting population structure, dynamics, and adaptation of life-history and behavioural traits. However, those factors are often considered independently, and few studies take into account their joint effect. In this study, we investigate the contribution of environment, fishing pressure, and intra-specific competition to variation in the reproductive investment of the Norwegian spring-spawning herring (Clupea harengus), a stock that has been fished for centuries, and monitored for decades. Reproductive investment and post-spawning weight were affected differently by growth rate (measured as mean age-at-length), sea surface temperature, North Atlantic Oscillation, and spawning stock biomass in periods with no fishing, unselective fishing, and low but size-selective fishing. We hypothesize that those changes can be explained by direct effects of exploitation such as age truncation and changes in migration patterns. Our results highlight how fishing, by affecting population-level dynamics, can modify the impact of environmental variations on life-history traits.

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