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Life tables and elasticity analyses of Yangtze River fish species with implications for conservation and management

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Abstract

In conservation biology, knowing the life history strategy of a species is crucial for deciding which stage needs the greatest protection: reproduction, juveniles, or adults. Here, we compiled biological data for 83 Yangtze River fish species, constructed their life tables and conducted elasticity analyses, which calculates the proportional contribution of each vital rate (age-specific survival and fecundity) to the annual population multiplication rate. Life tables showed that, for our analyzed species, the survival rate of age 0 fish was extremely low, ranging from 1.25 × 10−6 to 1.74 × 10−2 year−1. All species showed a type III survivorship curve. Elasticity analysis revealed slow–fast continuum life histories ranging from species with a high contribution of fertility elasticity to the population growth rate, but lower juvenile and adult survival elasticity, as well as early maturation and short generation time to species that mature late, possess a long generation time, exhibit low fertility elasticity, and a high adult or juvenile survival elasticity. In addition, the analysis of all the species showed that fertility elasticity was significantly smaller than the sum of juvenile and adult survival elasticity, indicating the need to increase the juvenile and adult survival rates of Yangtze fish rather than focusing only on protecting reproduction and age 0 survival via a breeding season fishing ban which is the current conservation practice. Since overfishing has been proposed as the major factor responsible for the decline of Yangtze fish populations, we further suggest that controlling fishing pressure on juvenile and adult fish is another key conservation requirement.

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Acknowledgements

This research was financially supported by the Three Gorges Corporation (0799533) and the National Natural Science foundation of China (NSFC 51509239, 31400359). We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editor for providing valuable comments and suggestions. Thanks also to Dr. Patrick Danley for correcting the English.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Teng Wang, Xin Gao & Huan-Zhang Liu

  2. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Teng Wang

  3. The Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430072, Hubei, China

    Teng Wang, Xin Gao & Huan-Zhang Liu

  4. Key Lab of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction of Ministry of Education/Key Lab of Freshwater Animal Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Fisheries, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Ivan Jakovlić

  5. Bio-Transduction Lab, Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology, No. 666 Gaoxin Road, Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone, Wuhan, China

    Ivan Jakovlić

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  1. Teng Wang
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Correspondence to Huan-Zhang Liu.

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Wang, T., Gao, X., Jakovlić, I. et al. Life tables and elasticity analyses of Yangtze River fish species with implications for conservation and management. Rev Fish Biol Fisheries 27, 255–266 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11160-016-9464-8

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