Small-scale Spatial Variation in the Population Biology of Fishes: Examples, Implications, and Management Concerns

Moderators: Doug DeVries and Robert Allman
Emails: Doug.Devries@noaa.gov and Bob.Allman@noaa.gov

Date: Monday, September 12, 2005
Time: 1:20 pm to 5:20 pm
Location: Sydney Laurence Theatre

Levin (1992) argued that scale is the central problem in ecology, and concluded that “the development and maintenance of spatial and temporal pattern, and the consequences of that pattern for the dynamics of populations and ecosystems” were fundamental, closely connected themes. Sale (1998) noted that the obvious patchy nature of reef environments forces certain spatial scales on reef-fish populations and that the spatial scale of a study determines which processes and patterns will be discovered and which will be missed. Recently, several studies, primarily on reef fishes on the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, have found considerable spatial variability in life history traits and demography at scales of only 10's of kilometers.  The main objectives of this symposium are to present examples of such variability from several families (not just reef fishes) and locations, and address the implications of this variability, including the concept of metapopulations in marine fisheries. . This symposium should be of interest and value to a wide range of AFS members and participants, in that this small scale variability in population characteristics has potentially significant implications for stock identification and assessment, sampling design, fisheries management, and MPA design.  It certainly could confound stock assessments and may explain why some fisheries fail to respond, or respond very slowly, to management measures. 

Link to list of presentations in this symposium

Sponsor:

NOAA Fisheries Service, Panama City Laboratory