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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Potential of contemporary evolution to erode fishery benefits from marine reserves

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Marine reserves are valued for their ecological role: protecting fish populations from overharvesting while, at the same time, potentially maintaining fisheries yields via recruitment effects (net export of pelagic eggs and larvae) and spillover (net export of post-settled juveniles and mature fish) across reserve borders. Focussing on the spillover effect, we argue that when fitness of the protected individuals depends on the relative size of their home ranges compared to the reserve size, and home range size is a property of the individuals, rapid local adaptation might occur in favour of individuals with smaller home ranges. Individuals that avoid fishing mortality by spending most of the time inside the reserve limits (i.e. with smaller home ranges) will experience a fitness advantage, whereas individuals that move beyond boundaries (i.e. with larger home ranges) will increase their risk of being harvested by spillover fisheries. We use empirical data on Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) home ranges within and around a coastal marine reserve in south Norway as a case to illustrate our idea. Broadly, we highlight how protection-induced selection and contemporary evolution could fundamentally alter our perspective of marine reserve functioning and recommend quantifying behavioural variability and behavioural consistency of protected populations.