Fishing erodes natural size variation

Wednesday, September 21, 2016 - 09:31 in Biology & Nature

Fishing typically removes the large individuals from the population. Over time, this not only leads to evolutionary shrinking of fish but it also erodes natural trait variability in fish stocks. This was demonstrated in a study partly funded by the Academy of Finland where researchers experimentally harvested zebrafish. The loss of natural trait variability is an alarming observation, as variability facilitates population viability in changing environments.

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