Breaking Bergmann's rule: truncation of Northwest Atlantic marine fish body sizes
A strictly species-centric view of human impacts on ecological communities may conceal important trait changes key to ecosystem functioning and stability. Analyses of body size and community composition data for 326 Northwest Atlantic fish species sampled across >900 000 km 2 over three decades r...
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ftdatacite:10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3303429 2023-05-15T17:45:23+02:00 Breaking Bergmann's rule: truncation of Northwest Atlantic marine fish body sizes Fisher, Jonathan A. D. Frank, Kenneth T. Leggett, William C. 2016 https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3303429 https://figshare.com/collections/Breaking_Bergmann_s_rule_truncation_of_Northwest_Atlantic_marine_fish_body_sizes/3303429 unknown Figshare https://dx.doi.org/10.1890/09-1914.1 CC-BY http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us CC-BY Environmental Science Ecology FOS Biological sciences Collection article 2016 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3303429 https://doi.org/10.1890/09-1914.1 2021-11-05T12:55:41Z A strictly species-centric view of human impacts on ecological communities may conceal important trait changes key to ecosystem functioning and stability. Analyses of body size and community composition data for 326 Northwest Atlantic fish species sampled across >900 000 km 2 over three decades revealed a rapid and widespread reduction of body sizes driven by declines within species and changes in relative abundances. The changes were unrelated to species richness but of sufficient magnitude to eliminate biogeographic scale gradients of increasing body size with latitude commonly characterized as Bergmann's rule. These changes have persisted despite reduced potential for intraspecific competition and favorable bottom water temperatures, both of which should lead to increased growth rates. The aggregate body sizes in these Northwest Atlantic fish communities may now represent a mismatch between the environmental variability characteristic of the Northwest Atlantic and the historical body size, life history traits, and productivity of species across this region. We discuss how these changes may jeopardize the potential for recovery of these important temperate/subarctic ecosystems. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northwest Atlantic Subarctic DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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topic |
Environmental Science Ecology FOS Biological sciences |
spellingShingle |
Environmental Science Ecology FOS Biological sciences Fisher, Jonathan A. D. Frank, Kenneth T. Leggett, William C. Breaking Bergmann's rule: truncation of Northwest Atlantic marine fish body sizes |
topic_facet |
Environmental Science Ecology FOS Biological sciences |
description |
A strictly species-centric view of human impacts on ecological communities may conceal important trait changes key to ecosystem functioning and stability. Analyses of body size and community composition data for 326 Northwest Atlantic fish species sampled across >900 000 km 2 over three decades revealed a rapid and widespread reduction of body sizes driven by declines within species and changes in relative abundances. The changes were unrelated to species richness but of sufficient magnitude to eliminate biogeographic scale gradients of increasing body size with latitude commonly characterized as Bergmann's rule. These changes have persisted despite reduced potential for intraspecific competition and favorable bottom water temperatures, both of which should lead to increased growth rates. The aggregate body sizes in these Northwest Atlantic fish communities may now represent a mismatch between the environmental variability characteristic of the Northwest Atlantic and the historical body size, life history traits, and productivity of species across this region. We discuss how these changes may jeopardize the potential for recovery of these important temperate/subarctic ecosystems. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Fisher, Jonathan A. D. Frank, Kenneth T. Leggett, William C. |
author_facet |
Fisher, Jonathan A. D. Frank, Kenneth T. Leggett, William C. |
author_sort |
Fisher, Jonathan A. D. |
title |
Breaking Bergmann's rule: truncation of Northwest Atlantic marine fish body sizes |
title_short |
Breaking Bergmann's rule: truncation of Northwest Atlantic marine fish body sizes |
title_full |
Breaking Bergmann's rule: truncation of Northwest Atlantic marine fish body sizes |
title_fullStr |
Breaking Bergmann's rule: truncation of Northwest Atlantic marine fish body sizes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Breaking Bergmann's rule: truncation of Northwest Atlantic marine fish body sizes |
title_sort |
breaking bergmann's rule: truncation of northwest atlantic marine fish body sizes |
publisher |
Figshare |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3303429 https://figshare.com/collections/Breaking_Bergmann_s_rule_truncation_of_Northwest_Atlantic_marine_fish_body_sizes/3303429 |
genre |
Northwest Atlantic Subarctic |
genre_facet |
Northwest Atlantic Subarctic |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1890/09-1914.1 |
op_rights |
CC-BY http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3303429 https://doi.org/10.1890/09-1914.1 |
_version_ |
1766148328753463296 |