Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/S008772/1
The interactive effects of physiology and climate change on capture vulnerability of individual fish
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr S Killen, University of Glasgow, College of Medical, Veterinary, Life Sci
- Grant held at:
- University of Glasgow, College of Medical, Veterinary, Life Sci
- Science Area:
- Atmospheric
- Earth
- Marine
- Overall Classification:
- Unknown
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Science Topics:
- Foraging behaviour
- Population dynamics
- Behavioural Ecology
- Conservation Ecology
- Integrative animal physiology
- Animal & human physiology
- Animal behaviour
- Ecosystem impacts
- Marine ecosystem services
- Climate & Climate Change
- Behavioural modelling
- Evolutionary biology
- Abstract:
- There is increasing evidence that intense commercial fishing pressure is not only depleting fish stocks but also causing evolutionary changes to fish populations. In particular, a wide body of research suggests size-selective harvesting is altering growth rates, body size, and fecundity in wild fish populations. More recent work also suggests that there are a range of traits besides body size which could also affect the vulnerability of fish to fishing gears - and therefore the fisheries-induced evolution. For example, within a given species, variation in physiological traits related to energy demand and swimming ability are especially likely to influence vulnerability to capture through a variety of mechanisms. Critically, many of the same traits that may make individuals vulnerable to capture by fishing could also be linked to a fish's sensitivity to climate change. For fishes, factors such as aerobic capacity, swimming performance, metabolic rate and feeding levels are all affected by ambient temperature. Therefore, as fish are exposed to varying environmental conditions while moving throughout a habitat, the individuals that are most susceptible to capture may change depending on the prevailing temperature. Novel modelling approaches that incorporate behaviour and respiratory constraints are well suited to generate predictions for how populations may respond to the synergistic effects of fishing and climate change. However, such models urgently need information on how physiological phenotypes affect vulnerability of individual fish to capture in a natural setting. We propose to use current technology for tracking the movements of wild fish to examine: (1) whether individual variability in thermal physiology affects habitat use and vulnerability to capture; and (2) if selection on phenotypes by fishing make fish populations less able to cope with changing climates. Indeed, fishing may be causing evolutionary changes to the intrinsic physiological traits of fish that have so far gone unnoticed but which could be crucial for influencing species' geographic distributions, resilience, and capacity to respond to environmental degradation. This multi-disciplinary project will address this critical gap in knowledge by generating data on trait-based capture vulnerability and habitat use in a natural environment and then feeding this data directly into a modelling framework for understanding the interactive effects of fishing and climate change on populations over various timescales.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/S008772/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Directed - International
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- GPSF
This grant award has a total value of £76,063
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Other Costs | Indirect - Indirect Costs | DA - Investigators | DI - Staff | DA - Estate Costs | DI - T&S | Exception - T&S | DA - Other Directly Allocated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £23,726 | £16,359 | £3,565 | £11,016 | £3,299 | £8,178 | £9,171 | £751 |
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