Alfonso Pita

University of Vigo | UVIGO · Department of Ecology and Animal Biology

An authentic ecological transition for fisheries sustainability requires the integration of all relevant biological criteria in assessment models. Current analyses aim to dissect the evolution of some demographic and genetic metrics in the overharvested Southern European hake fishery in the last four decades. Demographic data were drawn from the of...

Three regional gene pools of Polyprion americanus have been described so far, i.e., the North Atlantic, the Southwest Atlantic, and the Indo-Pacific Ocean. However, there is taxonomic uncertainty about the Southeast Atlantic population and there is suspicion on the existence of a third species of Polyprion in that area. Additionally, prior studies...

A fishery’s structure and connectivity are priors to its effective management. A successful description of such processes depends on both the sampling design and the choice of adequate genetic markers. EST markers are perfusing the studies of marine metapopulations and are believed to provide access to functional polymorphisms. However, the assumed...

• This study was intended to identify mussel species from the Magellanic ecotone, quantifying interspecific hybridization within Mytilus and depicting the genetic architecture of Mytilus chilensis in its South Pacific range. • The analysis comprises the sub‐Antarctic Magallanes Province as a rich ecotone of climates, ecosystems and admixed faunas e...

Aim The relationship of population genetics with the ecology and biogeography of species may be explored by comparing phenotypically similar but ecologically different congeners with overlapping ranges. We compared genetic differentiation between two congeneric rocky intertidal gastropods across a major portion of their sympatric range. We hypothes...

Suspension cultures of the Mediterranean blue mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis is a long-lasting tradition in the Alboran Sea (SE Iberian Peninsula). The goal of this study was to characterize current seed batches used to enhance culture density in rafts and longlines in the Alboran Sea. Samples consisted on 100 individuals of M. galloprovincialis...

Knowledge of genetic structuring is a prior for the effective management of marine fisheries. The genetic representativeness of the tools applied to unveil population structure is currently unwarranted so new genetic tools are welcome to deal with new challenges. We report the screening of 476,747 sequences from a transcriptome library of the Europ...

The historical analysis of genetic diversity in the southern European hake fishery allows to measuring its remnant genetic background. This study comprises the fishing period 1975-2014 and the molecular analyses employing microsatellites and mitochondrial DNA suggest that there has been a significant decrease of the expected effective population si...

The genetic erosion of populations exposed to human exploitation plays a detrimental role on a species ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions. The Macaronesia (NE Atlantic) endemic limpet Patella aspera (Röding 1798) has been subject to overexploitation throughout its geographic distribution. We analysed 841 limpet specimens from ele...

Scarce evidence exists on the amount of genetic diversity remaining after fishing overharvest, on how the genetic effective population size (Ne) behaves under counteracting forces such as drift and migration, and on Ne predictability of population status and trends. This study aims testing both, the temporal stability of the genetic diversity among...

The uptake of natural living resources for human consumption has triggered serious changes in the balance of ecosystems. In the archipelagos of Macaronesia (NE Atlantic), limpets have been extensively exploited probably since islands were first colonized. This has led to profound consequences in the dynamics of rocky shore communities. The Patella...

Once the metapopulation structure of the European hake (Merluccius merluccius) has been outlined, temporal stability of its stock units and their connectivity pattern are key factors to understand its population dynamics and design appropriate management policies. Using five microsatellite markers from the European hake and an extensive sampling co...

The intertidal limpet Patella candei represents an important exploited resource in the Macaronesian archipelagos of Azores, Madeira and Canaries (NE Atlantic). Despite being considered endemic, the taxonomic status of P. candei throughout the region remains unclear. The aim of this study was to develop novel microsatellite markers using next gener...

Historical processes leading to the emergence of marine stocks, the mechanisms maintaining stock structure, and present-day connectivity patterns are elementary pieces of information to design wiser and more sustainable management of marine resources, and to understand speciation processes in the sea. Over geographical scales, biological and geneti...

The wreckfish Polyprion americanus is a component of directed and admixed species fisheries throughout its world range and has recently been identified for its aquaculture potential. Several wreckfish broodstocks were founded in Galician hatcheries in the last decade and are now approaching maturity. The combination of genetic markers with classic...

The fish stock delineation concept has now evolved informed by knowledge affordable from a variety of new genetic and geochemical life cycle tracers in addition to traditional morphometric, parasitological and life history trait approaches. These can be coupled with better definition of oceanographic processes enhanced by GIS-related modelling tool...

Patellid limpets are ecologically important keystone grazers having a long history of overexploitation in the Macaronesian Archipelagos (NE Atlantic islands), where some species, such as Patella aspera, are under serious risk.[1, 2] Patella aspera is a protandric sequential hermaphrodite species with external fertilization, in which individuals sta...

Population genetic data of marine genetic resources add up to establish their pattern of connectivity. Such pattern determines the choice of a suitable management strategy to those resources in space and time. This study addresses the pattern of connectivity among European hake grounds upon the largest sampling effort so far developed in this speci...

Connectivity in benthic marine animals with complex life cycles occurs primarily during the pelagic larval stage and depends deterministically on oceanographic dynamics. The scale of such larval dispersal is highly uncertain due the difficulty of direct measurement and poor knowledge of larval dynamics and ocean flow variability. This study charact...

Systematic genetic analyses of fish populations allow the testing of temporal stability in their genetic structures and better understanding their pattern of connectivity. In this study the pattern of gene flow between the two Atlantic stocks of the European hake has been examined for the period 2000–2002. Present analyses indicate that a large gen...

Incorporating population genetic data into assessment processes would prove useful for the management of hake fisheries. We have analysed the molecular variation of five polymorphic microsatellites and a 465 bp fragment from the cytochrome b gene on 27 hake populations to determine the genetic status of this species across European fisheries. While...