Influence of decreased biomass on the ogive of sex change of northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis)

Abstract

Abstract Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) are protandrous hermaphrodites that reproduce first as males, go through a transition phase and transform to females, and then spawn as such for the rest of their lives. No clear consensus exists as to which factors influence the activation of the sex change process, but one possible factor is population density. Here, we investigate whether changes in stock size can influence the ogive of sex change, and use a 26-year time series (i.e. 1990–2015) of survey data on shrimp biomass from three different stocks in Iceland as a test case. Two of the stocks experienced periods of high biomass during the 1990 s, with a pronounced and prolonged depletion observed after 2000. In contrast, stock biomass of the third stock decreased only slightly during the time series. We found that the ogives of sex change of the two stocks where the biomass decreased to very low levels have changed significantly, and that shrimp now change sex at a lower size compared to earlier. Furthermore, Lmax has decreased significantly.