Maximum Intrinsic Rate of Population Increase in Sharks, Rays, and Chimaeras: The Importance of Survival to Maturity

The maximum intrinsic rate of population increase rmax  is a commonly estimated demographic parameter used in assessments of extinction risk. In teleosts, rmax can be calculated using an estimate of spawners per spawner, but for chondrichthyans, most studies have used annual reproductive output b instead. This is problematic as it effectively assumes all juveniles survive to maturity. Here, we propose an updated rmax equation that uses a simple mortality estimator which also accounts for survival to  maturity: the reciprocal of average lifespan. For 94 chondrichthyans, we now estimate that rmax values are on average 10% lower than previously published. Our updated rmax estimates are lower than previously published for species that mature later relative to maximum age and those with high annual fecundity. The most extreme discrepancies in rmax values occur in species with low age at maturity and low annual reproductive output. Our results indicate that chondrichthyans that mature relatively later in life, and to a lesser extent those that are highly fecund, are less resilient to fishing than previously thought

Half a century of global decline in oceanic sharks and rays

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Research via the DOI in this recordData availability: Data are available on https://www.sharkipedia.org/ and at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4135325. Source data are provided with this paper.Overfishing is the primary cause of marine defaunation, yet declines in and increasing extinction risks of individual species are difficult to measure, particularly for the largest predators found in the high seas. Here we calculate two well-established indicators to track progress towards Aichi Biodiversity Targets and Sustainable Development Goals: the Living Planet Index (a measure of changes in abundance aggregated from 57 abundance time-series datasets for 18 oceanic shark and ray species) and the Red List Index (a measure of change in extinction risk calculated for all 31 oceanic species of sharks and rays). We find that, since 1970, the global abundance of oceanic sharks and rays has declined by 71% owing to an 18-fold increase in relative fishing pressure. This depletion has increased the global extinction risk to the point at which three-quarters of the species comprising this functionally important assemblage are threatened with extinction. Strict prohibitions and precautionary science-based catch limits are urgently needed to avert population collapse, avoid the disruption of ecological functions and promote species recovery.Shark Conservation FundUS National Science FoundationAustralian Government National Environmental Science ProgramNatural Science and Engineering Research CouncilCanada Research Chairs Progra

Ecological and evolutionary consequences of alternative sex-change pathways in fish

Sequentially hermaphroditic fish change sex from male to female (protandry) or vice versa (protogyny), increasing their fitness by becoming highly fecund females or large dominant males, respectively. These life-history strategies present different social organizations and reproductive modes, from near-random mating in protandry, to aggregate- and harem-spawning in protogyny. Using a combination of theoretical and molecular approaches, we compared variance in reproductive success (V k*) and effective population sizes (N e) in several species of sex-changing fish. We observed that, regardless of the direction of sex change, individuals conform to the same overall strategy, producing more offspring and exhibiting greater V k* in the second sex. However, protogynous species show greater V k*, especially pronounced in haremic species, resulting in an overall reduction of N e compared to protandrous species. Collectively and independently, our results demonstrate that the direction of sex change is a pivotal variable in predicting demographic changes and resilience in sex-changing fish, many of which sustain highly valued and vulnerable fisheries worldwide

Female reproductive competition explains variation in prenatal investment in wild banded mongooses

PublishedArticleFemale intrasexual competition is intense in cooperatively breeding species where offspring compete locally for resources and helpers. In mammals, females have been proposed to adjust prenatal investment according to the intensity of competition in the postnatal environment (a form of ‘predictive adaptive response’; PAR). We carried out a test of this hypothesis using ultrasound scanning of wild female banded mongooses in Uganda. In this species multiple females give birth together to a communal litter, and all females breed regularly from one year old. Total prenatal investment (size times the number of fetuses) increased with the number of potential female breeders in the group. This relationship was driven by fetus size rather than number. The response to competition was particularly strong in low weight females and when ecological conditions were poor. Increased prenatal investment did not trade off against maternal survival. In fact we found the opposite relationship: females with greater levels of prenatal investment had elevated postnatal maternal survival. Our results support the hypothesis that mammalian prenatal development is responsive to the intensity of postnatal competition. Understanding whether these responses are adaptive requires information on the long-term consequences of prenatal investment for offspring fitness.ER

Fear conditioned potentiation of the acoustic blink reflex in patients with cerebellar lesions

OBJECTIVE—To investigate whether the human cerebellum takes part in fear conditioned potentiation of the acoustic blink reflex.
METHODS—A group of 10 cerebellar patients (eight patients with lesions involving the medial cerebellum, two patients with circumscribed lesions of the cerebellar hemispheres) was compared with a group of 16 age and sex matched healthy control subjects. The fear conditioned potentiation paradigm consisted of three phases. During the first, habituation phase subjects received 20 successive acoustic blink stimuli. In the subsequent fear conditioning phase, subjects passed through 20 paired presentations of the unconditioned fear stimulus (US; an electric shock) and the conditioned stimulus (CS; a light). Thereafter, subjects underwent the potentiation phase, which consisted of a pseudorandom order of 12 trials of the acoustic blink stimulus alone, 12 acoustic blink stimuli paired with the conditioned stimulus, and six conditioned stimuli paired with the unconditioned stimulus. The EMG of the acoustic blink reflex was recorded at the orbicularis oculi muscles. The potentiation effect was determined as the difference in normalised peak amplitude of the blink reflex evoked by pairs of CS and acoustic blink stimuli and evoked by the acoustic stimulus alone.
RESULTS—In the habituation phase, short term habituation of the acoustic blink reflex was preserved in all cerebellar patients. However, in the potentiation phase, the potentiation effect of the blink reflex was significantly reduced in patients with medial cerebellar lesions compared with the controls (mean (SD) potentiation effect (%), patients: −6.4 (15.3), controls: 21.6 (35.6)), but was within normal limits in the two patients with lateral lesions.
CONCLUSIONS—The present findings suggest that the human medial cerebellum is involved in associative learning of non-specific aversive reactions—that is, the fear conditioned potentiation of the acoustic blink reflex.


Sneaker Males Affect Fighter Male Body Size and Sexual Size Dimorphism in Salmon

Large male body size is typically favored by directional sexual selection through competition for mates. However, alternative male life-history phenotypes, such as “sneakers,” should decrease the strength of sexual selection acting on body size of large “fighter” males. We tested this prediction with salmon species; in southern populations, where sneakers are common, fighter males should be smaller than in northern populations, where sneakers are rare, leading to geographical clines in sexual size dimorphism (SSD). Consistent with our prediction, fighter male body size and SSD (fighter male∶female size) increase with latitude in species with sneaker males (Atlantic salmon Salmo salar and masu salmon Oncorhynchus masou) but not in species without sneakers (chum salmon Oncorhynchus keta and pink salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha). This is the first evidence that sneaker males affect SSD across populations and species, and it suggests that alternative male mating strategies may shape the evolution of body size

Data from: Sneaker males affect fighter male body size and sexual size dimorphism in salmon

Large male body size is typically favored by directional sexual selection through competition for mates. However, alternative male life-history phenotypes, such as "sneakers," should decrease the strength of sexual selection acting on body size of large "fighter" males. We tested this prediction with salmon species; in southern populations, where sneakers are common, fighter males should be smaller than in northern populations, where sneakers are rare, leading to geographical clines in sexual size dimorphism (SSD). Consistent with our prediction, fighter male body size and SSD (fighter male∶female size) increase with latitude in species with sneaker males (Atlantic salmon Salmo salar and masu salmon Oncorhynchus masou) but not in species without sneakers (chum salmon Oncorhynchus keta and pink salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha). This is the first evidence that sneaker males affect SSD across populations and species, and it suggests that alternative male mating strategies may shape the evolution of body size

Data from: Costs of reproduction explain the correlated evolution of semelparity and egg size: theory and a test with salmon

Species’ life history traits, including maturation age, number of reproductive bouts, offspring size and number, reflect adaptations to diverse biotic and abiotic selection pressures. A striking example of divergent life histories is the evolution of either iteroparity (breeding multiple times) or semelparity (breed once and die). We analysed published data on salmonid fishes and found that semelparous species produce larger eggs, that egg size and number increase with salmonid body size among populations and species and that migratory behaviour and parity interact. We developed three hypotheses that might explain the patterns in our data and evaluated them in a stage-structured modelling framework accounting for different growth and survival scenarios. Our models predict the observation of small eggs in iteroparous species when egg size is costly to maternal survival or egg number is constrained. By exploring trait co-variation in salmonids, we generate new hypotheses for the evolution of trade-offs among life history traits

Life histories for 94 chondrichthyans used to calculate updated estimates of maximum intrinsic rate of population increase

This dataset includes life history parameters for 94 chondrichthyans used to calculate updated estimates of maximum intrinsic rate of population increase (<i>r</i>_max) as shown in Pardo et al. (2016). The data here was primarily obtained from Garcia et al. (2008), however we have excluded species from their dataset that did not have values for maximum age or litter size. We have included life history parameters for the Basking Shark (<i>Cetorhinus maximus</i>). <br><br>Life history traits included are maximum size (<b>length_max</b>), von Bertalanffy growth coefficient (<b>k</b>), age at maturity (<b>age_mat</b>), maximum age (<b>age_max</b>), average lifespan (<b>ave_lifespan</b>) which was defined as the midpoint between age at maturity and maximum age, litter size (<b>l</b>), and breeding interval (<b>i</b>).<br><br>This dataset includes three different <i>r</i>_max estimates: published estimates of <i>r</i>_max based on the method outlined in Garcia et al. (2008) (<b>rmax_published_previous</b>), <i>r</i>_max estimates we recalculated using the method outlined in Garcia et al. (2008) (<b>rmax_previous_recalc</b>), and updated <i>r</i>_max estimates we calculated using the method outlined in Pardo et al. (2016) (<b>rmax_updated_recalc</b>). <br><br>Given that there are slight discrepancies in <i>r</i>_max estimates for a few species between published values from Garcia et al. (2008) and our recalculated estimates using their methodology, we used our own <i>r</i>_max recalculation using the previous method to compare with our <i>r</i>_max estimates based on our updated method. <br><br><br>References:<br><br>García VB, Lucifora LO, Myers RA (2008) The importance of habitat and life history to extinction risk in sharks, skates, rays and chimaeras.<i> Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B</i> 275: 83-89.<br><br>Pardo SA, Kindsvater HK, Reynolds JD, Dulvy NK. Maximum intrinsic rate of population increase in sharks, rays, and chimaeras: the importance of survival to maturity. <i>Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences</i>, available at <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2016-0069">http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2016-0069</a>. <br