Meeting Abstract
Human-induced selection caused by angling is a major selective force leading to phenotypic and genetic changes in fish populations, affecting their sustainability and responses to other environmental changes. Angling selects for individuals that show less explorative personalities, lower growth rate and earlier maturation, which could be reflected on a suite of other correlated traits. Our goal was to study the heritable effects of angling-induced selection on pace-of-life syndrome -related traits: growth, personality, stress responsiveness and minimum oxygen consumption (MO2min) in brown trout Salmo trutta. The parents of experimental fish were selected for high (HV) and low vulnerability (LV) to angling and bred with a fully factorial breeding design to produce progeny in common garden conditions. The HV and LV progenies were reared in hatchery conditions, tagged with passive integrated transponders (PIT-tags), and used in the experiments at the age of 1+ y.o. This study is among the first to assess whether offspring differ in correlated behavioral and physiological traits in relation to parent’s vulnerability to angling. The results will give insight into fishing-induced evolution, as well as the process by which animal personality traits can evolve in natural populations.
