The Department of Commerce has announced the development of a groundbreaking model capable of predicting the growth, survival and reproductive strategies of every known fish species in the world.
The model will offer an essential tool for ecosystem-based fisheries management, climate change predictions and advancing evolutionary understanding, according to a March 27 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries news release.
“Because of limited scientific resources, we can assess only a fraction of the fish species we catch around the world. Now we have a model that can predict traits and strategies for all the rest. That information is essential to set sustainable fishing limits and prepare for future change,” Jim Thorson, of the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Fisheries Science Center, said in the release.
The model uses 33 traits to classify more than 34,000 fish species among three dominant strategy types, informed by relationships among these traits from data-rich species, the release reported. This will help ecosystem-based fisheries management, climate change forecasting and advance evolutionary understanding.
The traits of a species were shaped by its past environment and reflect the tradeoffs made between growth, reproduction and survival, the release reported. Species traits are the result of tradeoffs, which is why we see differences in lifespan, parental care and body size among various fish species.
“That’s how we end up with a short-lived guppy that reproduces early and often, versus a shark that lives 20 years, versus a rockfish that doesn’t begin spawning for decades and lives 100 years,” Thorson added, according to the release.
The model, developed by an international team and led by Thorson, will enable greater understanding of how different fish species will respond to future environmental changes, the release reported.
Fish have been categorized among three dominant life history strategies since the 1990s, and the new model is built on this framework, according to the release. It provides a comprehensive tool for studying fish ecology, evolution and management that will help us better understand the complexities of the fish world.
