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Exploitation promotes earlier sex change in a protandrous patellid limpet, Patella aspera Röding, 1798

Exploitation of organisms can prompt the reduction in the number and size of target populations consequently affecting reproductive output and replenishment. Here, we investigated the effects of exploitation on the population structure of a protandrous patellid limpet, Patella aspera, an overexploit...

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Autores principales: Martins, Gustavo M., Borges, Carla D. G., Vale, Maria, Ribeiro, Pedro A., Ferraz, Rogério R., Martins, Helen R., Santos, Ricardo S., Hawkins, Stephen J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5433971/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28515897
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2925
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author Martins, Gustavo M.
Borges, Carla D. G.
Vale, Maria
Ribeiro, Pedro A.
Ferraz, Rogério R.
Martins, Helen R.
Santos, Ricardo S.
Hawkins, Stephen J.
author_facet Martins, Gustavo M.
Borges, Carla D. G.
Vale, Maria
Ribeiro, Pedro A.
Ferraz, Rogério R.
Martins, Helen R.
Santos, Ricardo S.
Hawkins, Stephen J.
author_sort Martins, Gustavo M.
collection PubMed
description Exploitation of organisms can prompt the reduction in the number and size of target populations consequently affecting reproductive output and replenishment. Here, we investigated the effects of exploitation on the population structure of a protandrous patellid limpet, Patella aspera, an overexploited Macaronesian endemic. Timed dives were used to collect animals across eleven islands of Macaronesia. Individuals were inspected for sex, size, and gonad stage. Using catch effort (time per person) per island coastal perimeter as a surrogate for exploitation intensity, we found that limpet abundance (CPUE) and mean size tended to decrease with exploitation intensity. When considering the sex of animals separately, the size of the largest male, but not females, decreased with exploitation. In contrast, the size of the smallest male remained relatively consistent, whereas the size of the smallest female decreased significantly with exploitation. As exploitation is mostly targeting larger individuals, results suggest that males are compensating the removal of larger females, by undergoing sex change at smaller and presumably earlier sizes. These results have wider implications for the conservation of P. aspera, as a reduction in female size will likely affect the numbers of oocytes produced, hence fecundity. Regulations promoting the protection of the larger‐sized animals should be enforced to safeguard the replenishment of the population.
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spelling pubmed-54339712017-05-17 Exploitation promotes earlier sex change in a protandrous patellid limpet, Patella aspera Röding, 1798 Martins, Gustavo M. Borges, Carla D. G. Vale, Maria Ribeiro, Pedro A. Ferraz, Rogério R. Martins, Helen R. Santos, Ricardo S. Hawkins, Stephen J. Ecol Evol Original Research Exploitation of organisms can prompt the reduction in the number and size of target populations consequently affecting reproductive output and replenishment. Here, we investigated the effects of exploitation on the population structure of a protandrous patellid limpet, Patella aspera, an overexploited Macaronesian endemic. Timed dives were used to collect animals across eleven islands of Macaronesia. Individuals were inspected for sex, size, and gonad stage. Using catch effort (time per person) per island coastal perimeter as a surrogate for exploitation intensity, we found that limpet abundance (CPUE) and mean size tended to decrease with exploitation intensity. When considering the sex of animals separately, the size of the largest male, but not females, decreased with exploitation. In contrast, the size of the smallest male remained relatively consistent, whereas the size of the smallest female decreased significantly with exploitation. As exploitation is mostly targeting larger individuals, results suggest that males are compensating the removal of larger females, by undergoing sex change at smaller and presumably earlier sizes. These results have wider implications for the conservation of P. aspera, as a reduction in female size will likely affect the numbers of oocytes produced, hence fecundity. Regulations promoting the protection of the larger‐sized animals should be enforced to safeguard the replenishment of the population. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2017-04-13 /pmc/articles/PMC5433971/ /pubmed/28515897 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2925 Text en © 2017 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Martins, Gustavo M.
Borges, Carla D. G.
Vale, Maria
Ribeiro, Pedro A.
Ferraz, Rogério R.
Martins, Helen R.
Santos, Ricardo S.
Hawkins, Stephen J.
Exploitation promotes earlier sex change in a protandrous patellid limpet, Patella aspera Röding, 1798
title Exploitation promotes earlier sex change in a protandrous patellid limpet, Patella aspera Röding, 1798
title_full Exploitation promotes earlier sex change in a protandrous patellid limpet, Patella aspera Röding, 1798
title_fullStr Exploitation promotes earlier sex change in a protandrous patellid limpet, Patella aspera Röding, 1798
title_full_unstemmed Exploitation promotes earlier sex change in a protandrous patellid limpet, Patella aspera Röding, 1798
title_short Exploitation promotes earlier sex change in a protandrous patellid limpet, Patella aspera Röding, 1798
title_sort exploitation promotes earlier sex change in a protandrous patellid limpet, patella aspera röding, 1798
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5433971/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28515897
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2925
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