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Evolutionary assembly rules for fish life histories
Author(s) -
Charnov Eric L,
Gislason Henrik,
Pope John G
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
fish and fisheries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.747
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1467-2979
pISSN - 1467-2960
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-2979.2012.00467.x
Subject(s) - merge (version control) , reproduction , fish <actinopterygii> , power function , biology , life history theory , life history , scaling , fishery , ecology , statistics , mathematics , computer science , mathematical analysis , information retrieval , geometry
We revisit the empirical equation of Gislason et al. (2010, Fish and Fisheries 11 :149–158) for predicting natural mortality ( M , year −1 ) of marine fish. We show it to be equivalent to , where L ∞ (cm) and K (year −1 ) are the von Bertalanffy growth equation (VBGE) parameters, and L (cm) is fish length along the growth trajectory within the species. We then interpret K in terms of the VBGE in mass , and show that the previous equation is itself equivalent to a −⅓ power function rule between M and the mass at first reproduction ( W α ); this new −⅓ power function emerges directly from the life history that maximizes Darwinian fitness in non‐growing populations. We merge this M , W α power function with other power functions to produce general across‐species scaling rules for yearly reproductive allocation, reproductive effort and age at first reproduction in fish. We then suggest a new way to classify habitats (or lifestyles) as to the life histories they should contain, and we contrast our scheme with the widely used Winemiller–Rose fish lifestyle classification.