Jeffrey HutchingsCanada Research Chair in Marine Conservation and Biodiversity, Dalhousie UniversityLife History Correlates of the Collapse, Recovery, and Biodiversity of Marine Fishes
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In the past decade, historically unprecedented declines by marine fishes worldwide have drawn attention to the causes of population collapse and to the factors that can influence population recovery. Although most collapses can be attributed primarily to over-exploitation, the factors that influence recovery are not well understood. For many of the most severely depleted populations, it has become clear that stringent controls on fishing activity, albeit necessary for recovery, are often not sufficient to ensure recovery. Among the factors that have received comparatively little attention are life history traits, those characteristics that determine individual fitness and rate of population growth, the latter parameter being the primary determinant of rates of sustainable harvest and population recovery. Life history traits, such as age and size at maturity, have changed considerably in association with population decline; there is good reason to believe that these changes represent, in part, evolutionary responses to fishing. The potential consequences of life history change to population recovery will be explored, using data on Atlantic cod from collapsed population off eastern Canada. Patterns of population decline and recovery worldwide also permit an examination of recent trends in marine fish biodiversity.
Jeff Hutchings is Professor of Biology, and Canada Research Chair in Marine Conservation & Biodiversity, at Dalhousie University, where he has been a member of faculty since 1995. Following completion of his doctorate at Memorial University of Newfoundland (1991), where he examined adaptive variation in the life histories of salmon and trout, he undertook postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and at the Department of Fisheries & Oceans, St. John's, Newfoundland. Jeff Hutchings is an evolutionary ecologist interested in questions pertaining to (a) life history evolution and phenotypic plasticity; (b) population ecology and conservation biology of marine fishes; (c) alternative reproductive strategies in salmonids; and (d) interactions between farmed and wild Atlantic salmon. He is currently Editor of Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, a member of Canada's national science advisory body for species-at-risk (COSEWIC; Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada), and Co-Chair of the Grant Selection Committee responsible for federally-supported research on evolution and ecology in Canada.
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