Marine protected areas rescue a sexually selected trait in European lobster.

ABSTRACT: Marine protected areas (MPAs) are increasingly implemented worldwide to maintain and restore depleted populations. However, despite our knowledge on the myriad of positive responses to protection, there are few empirical studies on the ability to conserve species' mating patterns and secondary sexual traits. In male European lobsters (Homarus gammarus), the size of claws relative to body size correlates positively with male mating success and is presumably under sexual selection. At the same time, an intensive trap fishery exerts selection against large claws in males. MPAs could therefore be expected to resolve these conflicting selective pressures and preserve males with large claws. We explored this hypothesis by contrasting claw size of males and females in three pairs of MPAs a

SUBMITTER: Sordalen TK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7513721 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature