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Hidalgo M, Rouyer T, Molinero JC, Massutí E, Moranta J, Guijarro B, Stenseth NC
Synergistic effects of fishing-induced demographic changes and climate variation on fish population dynamics
Interactions among fishing pressure, climate change and species population dynamics, and resulting fluctuations in fish populations, are poorly understood. Hidalgo and co-workers show that fishery-induced modification of the demographic structure in an overexploited NW Mediterranean fish, the European hake Merluccius merluccius, can trigger a shift from internally generated to externally forced population fluctuations. Changes in the seasonality of the hydroclimate in the early 1980s may have led to a mismatch between favourable environmental conditions and development in early life stages of hake, thus increasing the dependence of the population on recruitment and, ultimately, on environmental variability.
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