CREAF

TITLE: "Fisheries-induced evolution of behavior: Experimental evidence from size-selective harvesting of zebrafish (Danio rerio)"

DATE: Friday 8th April 2022

TIME & FORMAT: form 12 to 1pm CET - Online & onsite

Seminars will combine online and onsite formats (CREAF, Sala Graus II, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain) but in all cases, talks will be always streamed (not recorded), so they can be followed online.

HOW TO CONNECT: Direct link to Valerio Sbragaglia's conference.

SUBSCRIPTON FORM: Subscribe to Valerio Sbragaglia's talk!

"Intensive and size-selective harvesting is an evolutionary driver of life-history as well as individual behavioural traits. Yet, whether and to what degree harvesting modifies the collective behaviour and the circadian system of exploited species is largely unknown. I will present a multi-generation harvest selection experiment with zebrafish (Danio rerio) as a model species to understand the effects of size-selective harvesting on shoaling behaviour and the circadian system. The experimental system is based on a large-harvested (typical of most wild capture fisheries targeting larger size classes) and small-harvested (typical of specialized fisheries and gape-limited predators targeting smaller size classes) selection lines. I will first show the effects of size-selective harvesting on fish individual personality traits and possible repercussions in terms of mating behaviour and reproductive isolation. Then, I will document an overlooked evolutionary pathway through which size-selective mortality can affect group risk-taking behaviour and consequently the circadian system of fish both at behavioural and molecular level. Finally, I will present an elegant interdisciplinary approach by combining high resolution tracking with computational agent-based modelling and document a mechanism driving fisheries-induced evolution of collective behaviour and predict possible effects on natural and fishing mortality. Overall, I will provide new evidences on how size-selective harvesting can affect fisheries and trophic dynamics".

Valerio Sbragaglia is a behavioural ecologist with a strong interest in fisheries. He moved to Spain in 2010 where he got a second Master degree at the University of Barcelona and a PhD in marine sciences at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (working at ICM-CSIC as MICINN-FPI fellow). He was awarded a DAAD postdoctoral fellowship at Leibniz-Institute IGB in Berlin (Germany), he did a second postdoc in Italy at ISPRA (Italy) in the context of a EU Project. The researcher is now back at the ICM-CSIC (Barcelona) after being awarded a Juan de la Cierva Incorporación.

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For more information, please contact Teresa Rosas, Talent & Gender officer at CREAF t.rosas@creaf.uab.cat