1. Introducing the symposium "Building on Beverton's legacy: life history variation and fisheries management".
- Author
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Shuter, Brian J. and Abrams, Peter. A.
- Subjects
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FISHERY management , *CONFERENCES & conventions , *FISHES , *FISHERIES , *FISHING , *PREDATORY animals , *HABITATS - Abstract
Throughout his career, Ray Beverton displayed an interest in the life history diversity in marine and freshwater fish. The papers collected here describe recent research directed at documenting this diversity and understanding both its consequences and the processes that generate it. There are three themes: factors that direct life history dynamics; fishing as a force that redirects life history dynamics; and roles for life history statics in conservation management. The "dynamics" papers show that fish life histories can evolve in response to both natural and harvest-induced selective pressures. Evolution in response to harvesting can be rapid, with potentially dramatic effects on population dynamics and sustainable exploitation. The "statics" articles demonstrate how maturity traits combine with shifts in habitat use to shape the sensitivity of a population to habitat loss. Life history shifts can dramatically alter the safety of harvesting policies that were prudent in the past; shifts of the predators or prey of a harvested species can be as important as shifts in the harvested species itself. Further work on the ecological circumstances that favour different degrees of plastic or genetic life history responses to human impacts are needed to prevent inadvertent induction of long-lasing evolutionary changes in fish life histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
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