Detection of Allee effects in marine fishes: analytical biases generated by data availability and model selection.

ABSTRACT: The demographic Allee effect, or depensation, implies positive association between per capita population growth rate and population size at low abundances, thereby lowering growth ability of sparse populations. This can have far-reaching consequences on population recovery ability and colonization success. In the context of marine fishes, there is a widespread perception that Allee effects are rare or non-existent. However, studies that have failed to detect Allee effects in marine fishes have suffered from several fundamental methodological and data limitations. In the present study, we challenge the prevailing perception about the rarity of Allee effects by analysing nine populations of Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), using Bayesian statistical methods. We find that populations of th

SUBMITTER: Perala T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5577492 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature