Exploitation and recovery of a sea urchin predator has implications for the resilience of southern California kelp forests.

ABSTRACT: Size-structured predator-prey interactions can be altered by the history of exploitation, if that exploitation is itself size-selective. For example, selective harvesting of larger sized predators can release prey populations in cases where only large individuals are capable of consuming a particular prey species. In this study, we examined how the history of exploitation and recovery (inside marine reserves and due to fisheries management) of California sheephead (Semicossyphus pulcher) has affected size-structured interactions with sea urchin prey in southern California. We show that fishing changes size structure by reducing sizes and alters life histories of sheephead, while management measures that lessen or remove fishing impacts (e.g. marine reserves, effort restrictions) reverse th

SUBMITTER: Hamilton SL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4286036 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature