The Riddle of How Fisheries Influence Genetic Diversity
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This review paper is well prepared and organized. It summarized the possible factors that associated with the loss of genetic diversity, even though most of them were thought to be caused by overfishing. It is very important for scientists as well as students to distinguish the different causal relationships, and this paper provided a good example. I am glad to read it before it is being published. I recommend to accept after minor revisions.
Some minor revisions I found should be corrected:
Line 182. delete the “,” between name and year in “D’Aloia et al., (2020)”.
Line 250. Figure 1. The data source of this figure (from Table S1?) should be mentioned in the figure caption.
Line 262. Delete the “.” after “anticipated”.
Line 269. “Is” shoud be “is”.
Line 282. (Vitorino et al., 2017) should be Vitorino et al. (2017)
By the way, I think the two figures could be revised for a better looking.
Author Response
This review paper is well prepared and organized. It summarized the possible factors that associated with the loss of genetic diversity, even though most of them were thought to be caused by overfishing. It is very important for scientists as well as students to distinguish the different causal relationships, and this paper provided a good example. I am glad to read it before it is being published. I recommend to accept after minor revisions.
Thank you for this inspiring comment and other helpful comments below.
Line 182. delete the “,” between name and year in “D’Aloia et al., (2020)”.
Deleted.
Line 250. Figure 1. The data source of this figure (from Table S1?) should be mentioned in the figure caption.
Figure legend has now been corrected according to the reviewer’s comment.
Line 262. Delete the “.” after “anticipated”.
Deleted.
Line 269. “Is” should be “is”.
Corrected.
Line 282. (Vitorino et al., 2017) should be Vitorino et al. (2017).
Corrected.
By the way, I think the two figures could be revised for a better looking.
Figures have been now modified.
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript "The riddle of how fisheries influence genetic diversity" includes a comprenhensive review about how the fisheries alone and in combination with abiotic and biotic factor can affect species genetic diveristy and further their adaptive potential. The authors also included a good review of the common molecular markers used and currently broadly use to asses genetic diversity. It was a good reading and will be very helpful to anyone willing to understand loss of genetic diversity due to overfishing and provides the reader elements for a deeper dive in the issue.
Just a few minor comment on format:
1. Figures need larger font size and if possible a better captioning, figures are very intuitive but maybe provide a little more information. For Figure 2 suggest a vertical layout to avoid a large bank area,
2. Line 269 correct typo "Is"
3. Sugges to check references for format and scientific names in italics, for example, reference 1 "Dicentrachus".
Author Response
The manuscript "The riddle of how fisheries influence genetic diversity" includes a comprehensive review about how the fisheries alone and in combination with abiotic and biotic factor can affect species genetic diversity and further their adaptive potential. The authors also included a good review of the common molecular markers used and currently broadly use to assess genetic diversity. It was a good reading and will be very helpful to anyone willing to understand loss of genetic diversity due to overfishing and provides the reader elements for a deeper dive in the issue.
Thank you for the encouraging review.
- Figures need larger font size and if possible, a better captioning, figures are very intuitive but maybe provide a little more information. For Figure 2 suggest a vertical layout to avoid a large bank area.
Figures have been now modified according to the reviewer’s comment: the font size has been increased and Figure 2 has a vertical layout. Figure legend has been modified.
- Line 269 correct typo "Is".
Corrected.
- Suggest to check references for format and scientific names in italics, for example, reference 1 "Dicentrachus".
Thank you, we have now checked the reference list.
Reviewer 3 Report
Review of The riddle of how fisheries influence genetic diversity.
This review article explores the various factors that intersect fisheries with scientific knowledge especially targeting genetic diversity. The authors provide an excellent review of this field despite the extensive set of publications on this topic.
I thoroughly enjoyed the article and I believe it will be a very useful review for many people at both the scientific side and the fisheries management side. My comments are minor.
1. Line 32 clarify the millions of eggs as belonging to individuals or populations.
2. Line 85 include more spatial aspects here such as metapopulation structure (noting line 273) and if populations are cosmopolitan across fishery protected areas (like tuna).
3. Line 107 change I to we.
4. Figure 1. Specify the data source here. This figure is very large for what it shows. Perhaps a box plot might be better?
5. Line 293. Importantly the genetic drift can be random or targeted. Many strong evolutionary traits have arisen from a targeted stress (think cheetah and gazelles) and the population size is a factor here. Might be good to outline for fisheries managers the impact of bias in fisheries techniques.
6. Figure 2 note the data source here.
7. Line 487 the spatial overlap of species being exploited and interacting can be a factor here. See Cod and Sprat interactions at Diversity 2022, 14(2), 90; https://doi.org/10.3390/d14020090.
Author Response
This review article explores the various factors that intersect fisheries with scientific knowledge especially targeting genetic diversity. The authors provide an excellent review of this field despite the extensive set of publications on this topic. I thoroughly enjoyed the article and I believe it will be a very useful review for many people at both the scientific side and the fisheries management side.
Thank you very much for this comment and excellent suggestions below.
- Line 32 clarify the millions of eggs as belonging to individuals or populations.
This has been clarified.
- Line 85 include more spatial aspects here such as metapopulation structure (noting line 273) and if populations are cosmopolitan across fishery protected areas (like tuna).
The sentence has been modified according to the reviewers’ suggestion.
- Line 107 change I to we.
Corrected.
- Figure 1. Specify the data source here. This figure is very large for what it shows. Perhaps a box plot might be better?
Data source has been specified in the revised figure legend. The figure has been modified (i.e. changed to boxplot).
- Line 293. Importantly the genetic drift can be random or targeted. Many strong evolutionary traits have arisen from a targeted stress (think cheetah and gazelles) and the population size is a factor here. Might be good to outline for fisheries managers the impact of bias in fisheries techniques.
Thank you for this suggestion. In the text, we specifically meant random genetic drift and have now corrected the sentence.
- Figure 2 note the data source here.
Data source has been specified in the revised figure legend.
- Line 487 the spatial overlap of species being exploited and interacting can be a factor here. See Cod and Sprat interactions at Diversity 2022, 14(2), 90; https://doi.org/10.3390/d14020090.
Thank you for this suggestion, this has been added in the revised text and a reference added in the reference list.
