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Media type:
Electronic Thesis;
E-Book
Title:
Evolutionary Ecology of the European eel
Contributor:
Soares, Miguel
[Author]
Published:
OceanRep (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre für Ocean Research Kiel), 2014
Extent:
text
Language:
English
Origination:
Footnote:
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Description:
The ongoing paradigm on the preservation of living resources argues that both the ecological and evolutionary background of exploited species should be taken into account as to devise effective and sustainable management practices. This perspective stems from the apparent ineffectiveness of traditional methods in preserving and predicting the dynamics of marine fish stocks: worldwide collapsing fish populations show no signs of recovery. These drastic scenarios severely compromise not only the ecosystems biodiversity and viability of the species, but also affect the social and economical welfare of communities that are dependent on those resources. The European eel constitutes a critical example. For centuries, it served as prominent fishing item to a large number of communities all across Europe. However, the steep recruitment decline that occurred in the 1980s drove the eel population to the low numbers still observable nowadays. Management attempts to raise eel abundance were apparently inconsequent and culminated with a “critically endangered” conservation status attributed to the species and with the enforcement of a European-wide eel management plan in 2007. Still, the 1980s decline triggered an extensive scientific research on the European eel, which translated in significant improvements concerning the knowledge on its ecology and evolution. Amongst those one can name the identification of potential ecological drivers for the decline and the disclosure of the complex evolution of the species, where the apparent absence of a structured population – panmixia – became paradigmatic. Surprisingly, and despite those achievements having wide application in the conservation of the European eel population, the link between ecology and evolution only has seldom been investigated. The main objective of the present doctoral thesis was therefore to shed light on the evolutionary ecology of the endangered European eel. First, we employed a multidisciplinary approach, which incorporated ocean modelling techniques and ...