Culling experiments demonstrate size-class specific biomass increases with mortality.

ABSTRACT: Size-selective mortality inevitably leads to a decrease in population density and exerts a direct negative effect on targeted size classes. But density and population size structure are also shaped by food-dependent processes, such as individual growth, maturation, and reproduction. Mortality relaxes competition and thereby alters the dynamic interplay among these processes. As shown by the recently developed size-structured theory, which can account for food-dependent individual performance, this altered interplay can lead to overcompensatory responses in size class-specific biomass, with increasing mortality. We experimentally tested this theory by subjecting laboratory fish populations to a range of size-selective mortality rates. Overall, the results were in agreement with theoretical

SUBMITTER: Schroder A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2635838 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature