RT Journal Article
T1 The effect of harvesting on the spatial synchrony of population fluctuations
A1 Engen, Steinar
A1 Cao García, Francisco Javier
A1 Saether, Bernt-Erik
AB Harvesting in space affects, in general, the spatial scale of the synchrony in the population fluctuations, which determines the size of the areas subjected to simultaneous quasi-extinction risk. Here we show that harvesting reduces the population synchrony scale if it depends more strongly on population fluctuations than the density dependence of the growth rate in the absence of harvesting. We show that constant and proportional harvesting always increases the spatial scale, using a theta-logistic model for density regulation. We also provide exact scaling results under harvesting for the Beverton–Holt and the Ricker stock-recruitment models that are commonly applied, e.g. in fisheries. Our results indicate that harvest in areas with large abundances should be encouraged to avoid increase of the spatial scale of synchrony in the population fluctuations that can lead to unexpected quasi-extinction of populations over large areas. Our results quantify this harvesting impact giving the resulting scales of spatial synchrony of population fluctuations. This emphasizes the importance of estimating the form of density dependence as well as the dependency of harvest upon population density of exploited populations, in order to get reliable predictions of the size of areas that can undergo simultaneous quasi-extinction.
PB Elsevier
YR 2018
FD 2018-09
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/105481
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/105481
LA eng
NO Engen, S., Cao, F. J., & Sæther, B. E. (2018). The effect of harvesting on the spatial synchrony of population fluctuations. Theoretical Population Biology, 123, 28-34.
NO Se deposita la versión postprint del artículo
NO European Commission
NO Universidad Complutense de Madrid
NO Research Council of Norway
NO Banco de Santander (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 9 abr 2025