Selection on fish personality differs between a no‐take marine reserve and fished areas

Abstract

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Restoration of Abundance and Dynamics of Coastal Fish and Lobster Within Northern Marine Protected Areas Across Two Decades

“…While rebuilding of local lobster populations was the main goal when implementing the MPAs, the decreased harvest pressure in these areas also conferred effects on several fish species. Striving to test hypotheses of general interest to conservation science, we deem the study of lobster and sympatric fish species as case studies with attributes that are transferable to other aquatic species using the marine environment for all or part of their life cycle (e.g., Sørdalen et al, 2018Sørdalen et al, , 2020Thorbjørnsen et al, 2021). Two wrasse species, goldsinny (Ctenolabrus rupestris) and corkwing wrasse (Symphodus melops), both harvested to provide cleaner fish services in the salmonid aquaculture industry, showed moderate positive responses to protection in MPAs reviewed herein.…”

“…Using data from the Tvedestrand fjord MPAs, Villegas-Ríos et al (2017b) suggested that a small no-take zone could be maladaptive for fjord cod by favoring behavioral phenotypes characterized by small home ranges. While testing this hypothesis for sea trout in the Tvedestrand fjord, Thorbjørnsen et al (2021) suggested a seascape mosaic of marine reserves, partially protected areas and areas open to harvest as a management tool to preserve behavioral variation in a sea trout population. Preserving behavioral variation is important to maintain a population's resilience to environmental change (Dingemanse et al, 2004).…”

“…Individuals were captured in the fjord using a beach seine to minimize potential selective fishing of any behavioral type, and by electrofishing in the spawning river. Individuals were anaesthetized with clove oil before being tagged internally with an acoustic transmitter (Vemco V9P/V13P, for details, see Thorbjørnsen et al, 2019Thorbjørnsen et al, , 2021.…”

“…Last, movement traits must be at least partially heritable to affect population behavioral composition over time, which seems to be the case across species and taxa according to a recent metanalysis by Dochtermann et al (2019). Using sea trout as a model species, Thorbjørnsen et al (2021) showed that home range size represented a personality trait that also affected survival differently depending on how much time the fish spent in the reserve. Having a larger home range led to a decrease in survival for individuals spending more time in the reserve, while having a larger home range led to an increase in survival for individuals spending less time in the reserve.…”

“…To preserve behavioral variation in a population, a mosaic of marine protected areas Sørdalen et al, 2018); (B) disparate protection potential (proportion of time spent in a no-take MPA) with increasing home range size in S. trutta tagged inside (blue, circles) and outside (orange, triangles) of the no-take zone in Tvedestrand fjord (modified from Thorbjørnsen et al, 2019). and areas open to harvest was suggested as a management tool (Thorbjørnsen et al, 2021).…”