RT Journal Article
T1 Long-term impacts of human harvesting on shellfish: North Iberian top shells and limpets from the Upper Palaeolithic to the present
A1 Turrero, Pablo
A1 Muñoz Colmenero, Ana Marta
A1 Prado, Andrea
A1 García Vázquez, Eva
AB Humans have contributed to phenotypic and demographic changes in their prey from very early on in the colonization of Europe, including the harvesting of shellfish in coastal ecosystems. We estimated trends in population growth (variation in the number of individuals) from DNA sequences of modern specimens in two North Iberian molluscs, top shells (Osilinus lineatus, from 24 sequences and 14 haplotypes) and limpets (Patella vulgata, taken from the bibliography), which were subjected to very different levels of harvesting pressure during the Upper Palaeolithic (~ 20000 to ~ 6000 years ago). The less harvested Osilinus top shells experienced fluctuations in population numbers coincident with climatic oscillations. Patella limpets, which were harvested in greater numbers, suffered clear and uninterrupted decreases in their numbers during the Upper Palaeolithic. These trends coincided with morphological changes in shell size (length or width) in the same direction (i.e., shell size decreased when population size decreased and vice versa). The differing trends seen in taxa subjected to different intensities of harvesting pressure suggest that climate effects were overcome by anthropogenic selection (leading to a smaller average length) in limpets. We suggest that intense fishing pressure may have induced irreversible shell length decreases in the most exploited species.
PB Elsevier
SN 0924-7963
YR 2014
FD 2014
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/95155
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/95155
LA eng
NO Turrero, Pablo, et al. «Long-Term Impacts of Human Harvesting on Shellfish: North Iberian Top Shells and Limpets from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Present». Journal of Marine Systems, vol. 139, noviembre de 2014, pp. 51-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmarsys.2014.05.011.
NO M. Muñoz-Colmenero holds a National Spanish Grant (reference AP-2010-5211). This study has been supported by the Regional Government of Asturias (grant number SV-PA-13-ECOEMP-41).
NO Principado de Asturias
DS Docta Complutense
RD 6 abr 2025