High fishery catches through trophic cascades in China.

ABSTRACT: Indiscriminate and intense fishing has occurred in many marine ecosystems around the world. Although this practice may have negative effects on biodiversity and populations of individual species, it may also increase total fishery productivity by removing predatory fish. We examine the potential for this phenomenon to explain the high reported wild catches in the East China Sea-one of the most productive ecosystems in the world that has also had its catch reporting accuracy and fishery management questioned. We show that reported catches can be approximated using an ecosystem model that allows for trophic cascades (i.e., the depletion of predators and consequent increases in production of their prey). This would be the world's largest known example of marine ecosystem "engineering" and sug

SUBMITTER: Szuwalski CS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5278447 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature