Increased natural mortality at low abundance can generate an Allee effect in a marine fish

Anna Kuparinen, Jeffrey A. Hutchings

Producción científica: Contribución a una revistaArtículorevisión exhaustiva

23 Citas (Scopus)

Resumen

Negative density-dependent regulation of population dynamics promotes population growth at low abundance and is therefore vital for recovery following depletion. Inversely, any process that reduces the compensatory density-dependence of population growth can negatively affect recovery. Here, we show that increased adult mortality at low abundance can reverse compensatory population dynamics into its opposite—a demographic Allee effect. Northwest Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) stocks collapsed dramatically in the early 1990s and have since shown little sign of recovery. Many experienced dramatic increases in natural mortality, ostensibly attributable in some populations to increased predation by seals. Our findings show that increased natural mortality of a magnitude observed for overfished cod stocks has been more than sufficient to fundamentally alter the dynamics of density-dependent population regulation. The demographic Allee effect generated by these changes can slow down or even impede the recovery of depleted populations even in the absence of fishing.

Idioma originalEnglish
Número de artículo140075
PublicaciónRoyal Society Open Science
Volumen1
N.º2
DOI
EstadoPublished - oct. 2014

Nota bibliográfica

Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 The Authors.

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • General

Huella

Profundice en los temas de investigación de 'Increased natural mortality at low abundance can generate an Allee effect in a marine fish'. En conjunto forman una huella única.

Citar esto