ALBERT

Description: Abstract The scombrids (Family Scombridae), commonly known as tunas, bonitos, Spanish mackerels, and mackerels, play an important role as predators and prey in coastal and oceanic marine ecosystems, and sustain some of the most important fisheries in the world. Knowledge of their basic biology and life history traits, such as growth, age and maturity, is fundamental to sustainably manage these species, and maintain their critical role in marine ecosystems. Given the economic and social importance of their fisheries in many regions throughout the world, numerous life history studies have been conducted in the last century. Despite efforts to create global repositories of life history parameters, e.g. FishBase, many life history studies remain scattered and not readily accessible. Here, we compiled 667 life history studies published between 1933 and 2012 describing the growth, age, and reproductive biology of the 51 species of scombrids distributed around the world and create a standardized life history dataset including maximum size, longevity, growth, maturity, fecundity, spawning season and frequency, and egg size information. We created this dataset to promote the best use of the existing life history information and with the intention of providing a data resource suitable to test large‐scale ecological hypotheses on life history strategies and life history evolution, as well as support the management and conservation of this important group of commercially exploited species. We envisage the large repository of standardized life history data compiled will make this endeavor more effective and robust by providing a valuable resource that can help address many research questions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: The scombrids (Family Scombridae), commonly known as tunas, bonitos, Spanish mackerels, and mackerels, play an important role as predators and prey in coastal and oceanic marine ecosystems, and sustain some of the most important fisheries in the world. Knowledge of their basic biology and life history traits, such as growth, age and maturity, is fundamental to sustainably manage these species, and maintain their critical role in marine ecosystems. Given the economic and social importance of their fisheries in many regions throughout the world, numerous life history studies have been conducted in the last century. Despite efforts to create global repositories of life history parameters, e.g. FishBase, many life history studies remain scattered and not readily accessible. Here, we compiled 667 life history studies published between 1933 and 2012 describing the growth, age, and reproductive biology of the 51 species of scombrids distributed around the world and create a standardized life history dataset including maximum size, longevity, growth, maturity, fecundity, spawning season and frequency, and egg size information. We created this dataset to promote the best use of the existing life history information and with the intention of providing a data resource suitable to test large-scale ecological hypotheses on life history strategies and life history evolution, as well as support the management and conservation of this important group of commercially exploited species. We envisage the large repository of standardized life history data compiled will make this endeavor more effective and robust by providing a valuable resource that can help address many research questions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: It has become increasingly evident that many organisms rely on microbial symbionts for defense against natural enemies, but the ecological importance of defensive symbionts for natural communities still needs to be investigated. A well-known example is Hamiltonella defensa , a heritable endosymbiotic bacterium commonly found in aphids. Laboratory experiments have shown that H. defensa strongly protects aphids against parasitic wasps (parasitoids), although this protection is not equally effective against different species of parasitoids, or even different genotypes of the same species. These results suggest that H. defensa plays an important role in reducing aphid mortality by parasitoids and presumably affects the community composition of parasitoids relying on aphids as a resource. However, there is little evidence that this is indeed the case under natural conditions. We tested this in a field experiment with black bean aphids ( Aphis fabae ) by setting up replicated field plots with genetically identical aphids that did or did not harbor H. defensa and following their colonization by natural enemies over a growing season. We observed a clear reduction in parasitism of symbiont-protected aphids, particularly by the parasitoids posing the highest risk. However, protected aphids did not develop larger populations than unprotected ones, possibly reflecting the balancing effect of costs associated with harboring H. defensa . We also observed shifts in the parasitoid species composition on aphids protected by H. defensa , showing that defensive symbionts have the potential to alter the diversity and structure of food webs, with likely consequences for their function and stability. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Description: The scombrids (Family Scombridae), commonly known as tunas, bonitos, Spanish mackerels, and mackerels, play an important role as predators and prey in coastal and oceanic marine ecosystems, and sustain some of the most important fisheries in the world. Knowledge of their basic biology and life history traits, such as growth, age, and maturity, is fundamental to sustainably manage these species, and maintain their critical role in marine ecosystems. Given the economic and social importance of their fisheries in many regions throughout the world, numerous life history studies have been conducted in the last century. Despite efforts to create global repositories of life history parameters, e.g., FishBase, many life history studies remain scattered and not readily accessible. Here, we compiled 667 life history studies published between 1933 and 2012 describing the growth, age, and reproductive biology of the 51 species of scombrids distributed around the world and create a standardized life history data set including maximum size, longevity, growth, maturity, fecundity, spawning season and frequency, and egg size information. We created this data set to promote the best use of the existing life history information and with the intention of providing a data resource suitable to test large-scale ecological hypotheses on life history strategies and life history evolution, as well as support the management and conservation of this important group of commercially exploited species. We envisage the large repository of standardized life history data compiled will make this endeavor more effective and robust by providing a valuable resource that can help address many research questions.