Biology subjects

Arlinghaus, R.

Publications and source records attributed to Arlinghaus, R..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2018

Managing river fish biodiversity generates substantial economic benefits in four European countries

Ecosystems and biodiversity produce benefits to society, but many of them are hard to quantify. For example, it is unclear whether European societies gain benefits from experiencing rivers that host high native biodiversity. Without such knowledge, monetary investments into ecologically oriented river management plans are difficult to justify. The objective of this study was to reveal how the public in four European countries values ecological characteristics of domestic rivers and the outcomes of hypothetical river basin management plans designed to improve river ecosystems, particularly fish biodiversity. We conducted a choice experiment among the populations in Norway, Sweden, Germany and France. We found similar preference structures in all countries with high marginal willingness-to-pay for improvements of abiotic river attributes (increased accessiblity of the river banks, improved bathing water quality, decreased river fragmentation). Citizens also benefited from certain fish species occurring in a river with native salmonid species being more valued than nonnatives, particularly in Norway, and from the degree of a rivers native biodiversity. Welfare measures calculated for selected river basin management plans (policy scenarios) revealed societal benefits that were primarily derived from ecological river management whereas a scenario focusing on hydroelectricity production generated the lowest utility. We conclude that ecological river management may produce high nonmarket economic benefits in all study countries, particularly through the management of abiotic river attributes and the restoration of declining or extinct fish species. Our results help to inform decisions on restoration efforts by showcasing the benefits that these measures have for the public.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2018

Impact of recreational fisheries management on fish biodiversity in gravel pit lakes with contrasts to unmanaged lakes

Gravel pit lakes constitute novel ecosystems that can be colonized by fishes through natural or anthropogenic pathways. Many of these man-made lakes are used by recreational anglers and experience regular fish stocking. Recreationally unmanaged gravel pits may also be affected by fish introductions, e.g., through illegal fish releases, thereby contributing to the formation of site-specific communities. Our objective was to compare the fish biodiversity in gravel pit lakes with and without the recent influence of recreational fisheries management. We sampled 23 small (< 20 ha) gravel pit lakes (16 managed and 7 unmanaged) in north-western Germany and compared fish community and diversity metrics obtained using littoral electrofishing and multimesh gillnet catch per unit effort data. Given the size of the lakes we sampled we expected species poor communities and elevated fish diversity in the managed systems due to stocking. The two lake types were primarily mesotrophic and did not differ in key abiotic and biotic environmental characteristics. Both lakes types hosted similar fish abundance and biomass, but were substantially different in terms of the fish community structure and species richness. Fish were present in all lakes with at least three species. We discovered a higher -diversity and a lower {beta}-diversity in managed gravel pit lakes compared to unmanaged lakes. Thus, recreational fisheries management appeared to foster homogenization of fish communities, likely because fisheries managers stock these lakes with desired fish species (e.g., piscivorous fishes and large bodied cyprinids). However, we also detected anthropogenic pathways in the colonization of unmanaged gravel pit lakes, presumably from illegal releases by private people. Importantly, hardly any non-native species were detected in the gravel pits we studied, suggesting that recreational fisheries management not necessarily promotes the spread of exotic species.\n\nSignificance StatementLittle is known about fish communities in artificially created gravel pit lakes. We compared those managed by recreational fishers with those lacking fisheries management in north-western Germany. We found fishes in all gravel pit lakes and demonstrated a higher -diversity but more homogenized fish communities in managed gravel pit lakes compared to unmanaged lakes. We did not detect the establishment of relevant abundances of non-natives fishes despite intensive fisheries management.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2017

Ecological, angler and spatial heterogeneity drive social and ecological outcomes in an integrated landscape model of freshwater recreational fisheries

Freshwater recreational fisheries constitute complex adaptive social-ecological systems (SES) where mobile anglers link spatially structured ecosystems. We present a general social-ecological model of a spatial recreational fishery for northern pike (Esox lucius) that included an empirically measured mechanistic utility model driving angler behaviors. We studied emergent properties at the macro-scale (e.g., region) as a result of local-scale fish-angler interactions, while systematically examining key heterogeneities (at the angler and ecosystem level) and sources of uncertainty. We offer three key insights. First, the angler population size and the resulting latent reginal angling effort exerts a much greater impact on the overall regional-level overfishing outcome than any residential pattern (urban or rural), while the residential patterns strongly affects the location of local overfishing pockets. Second, simplifying a heterogeneous angler population to a homogenous one representing the preference and behaviours of an average angler risks severely underestimating landscape-level effort and regional overfishing. Third, we did not find that ecologically more productive lakes were more systematically overexploited than lower-productive lakes. We conclude that understanding regional-level outcomes depends on considering four key ingredients: regional angler population size, the angler population composition, the specific residential pattern in place and spatial ecological variation. Simplification of any of these may obscure important dynamics and render the system prone to collapse.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2017

Spearfishing promotes a timidity syndrome and increases the safe operating distances in fish

In a landscape of fear, humans are altering key behaviors expressed by wild-living animals, including those related to foraging, reproduction and survival. When exposed to potentially lethal human actions, such as hunting or fishing, fish and wildlife is expected to behaviorally respond by becoming more timid, but proving such responses underwater in the wild has been challenging. Using a rich dataset collected in situ, we provide evidence of spearfishing-induced behavioral effects in five coastal fish species using the flight initiation distance (FID) as a proxy of predator avoidance and boldness. We document that spearfishing promotes a timidity syndrome (i.e., an increase of the average timidity of harvested populations) and that the wariness of preys wariness is influenced by individual size, level of protection offered through marine protected areas and the ability to recognize the risk posed by underwater human predators. In particular, we show that changes in the appearance of the observer (spearfisher vs. snorkeler) modulate the risk perception among the exploited species, and these differences are more evident outside marine protected areas where spearfishing is allowed. We also detected a positive correlation between FID and fish size, with larger specimens (that are more likely targets of spearfishers) revealing larger FID. The behavioral effects were most clearly expressed in the most heavily exploited species and declined towards the less desired and less targeted ones, which may be a result of learning mechanisms and plasticity and/or fisheries-induced evolution of timidity. Our study reveals a trade-off where intensive spearfishing negatively affects future spearfishing success through behavior-based alteration of catchability. Either rotating harvest or implementation of mosaics of protected and exploited areas might be needed to manage spearfishing-induced timidity in exploited stocks.

ecology↗