Evolutionary Ecology, Plasticity, and Adaptability of Fish Life Histories: a Symposium in Two Parts

Environmental changes, rapid declines in fish stock abundance, and anthropogenic selection induced by fishing are questions intimately related to the reproductive capacity of a fish stock and the conservation of its phenotypic and genetic diversity. To these ends, insights into current and future dynamics of harvested fish stocks, and how fishing might affect targeted populations, can be provided by analyses of fish life-histories, specifically investigations on 1) the plasticity of life-histories in response to environmental change, 2) the potential for, and constraints resulting from, evolutionary changes in vital fitness-related traits, and 3) the evolvability of plasticity itself.  One aim of the symposium is to bridge life-history studies of classical theory, plasticity, and evolution on the one hand with fisheries science, stock assessment, and fisheries management on the other. Reaction norms (which describe how genotypes are expressed across a range of environments) and their evolution will be of particular interest. Genotypic differences in plasticity are fundamentally important from both conservation and applied perspectives, having the potential to influence everything from recovery rates, responses to climate change, fisheries reference points, and harvest-induced evolution. The symposium will investigate how plastic and genetic variation in fish life-histories translates into a population’s ecology and relevant demographic rates. Part II of this symposium concerns evidence and consequences of increased variability in fish populations, including presentations that identify changes in the population ecology of fishes that have intensified in recent years. Presenters are encouraged to identify the management consequences of the increased variability and how the species is adapting to these changes according to its life history strategy.