Growth–reproduction trade-off and fecundity regulate population stability in Amazon floodplain fishes

Abstract

Understanding the factors that regulate temporal changes in population size is a core aspiration in ecology given the importance of population stability on the maintenance of species interactions, effects on local communities, the stability of ecosystems, and for biodiversity conservation. Understanding temporal trends in population size can support management practices as this may indicate demographic resilience for exploited species. Theoretical studies have long suggested that life-history traits regulate population stability, but empirical support remains limited, especially for species-rich environments. Additionally, harvesting has been suggested as an important factor increasing the fluctuation in the number of individuals in populations. In this study, we analysed population stability of 70 Amazonian floodplain fish species in relation to life-history traits and the degree of fishing pressure. Our data covered a long time scale and broad geographical range of the Amazon floodplain. For that, we compiled datasets of two monitoring programmes, one comprising data from a single lake for 15 years and a second dataset with information from three floodplain lakes sampled over 5 years. The resulting geographical range spanned one of the most fished areas in the upper Amazon River, between the municipalities of Coari and Manaus, in the Brazilian Amazon. Temporal stability was measured as the coefficient of variation in species abundance. Population life-history traits and the degree of fishing pressure were estimated at the species level. Population temporal stability had significant relationships with three life-history traits: maximum body size, fecundity, somatic investment before sexual maturation (SIBSM), and the interaction of fecundity and SIBSM. Species with small body size, high fecundity, and low SIBSM displayed low stability; the opposite happened to species that invest highly in somatic tissue before the first reproduction and have large body size. Fishing pressure had no significant contribution to explaining population stability. However, the sampling technique employed and the set of species considered in the study do not represent main targets of fisheries. Here we stress the importance of life-history traits in controlling an essential part of the population size variation in a complex and species-rich fish assemblage in the Amazon floodplains. Our results highlight the importance of the trade-off between growth and reproduction in controlling population stability and complement explanations on how life-history functional traits underlie differences in population dynamics over time. Our results contribute to theoretical development and can be used to support fisheries and biological conservation management strategies. Specifically, our results point to the possibility of inferring demographic resilience based on life-history information in the absence of high-quality population data. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.