Demographic plasticity facilitates ecological and economic resilience in a commercially important reef fish

1. Variation in life-history characteristics is evident within and across animal populations. Such variation is mediated by environmental gradients and reflects metabolic constraints or trade-offs that enhance reproductive outputs. While generalizations of life-history relationships across species provide a framework for predicting vulnerability to overexploitation, deciphering patterns of intraspecific variation may also enable recognition of peculiar features of populations that facilitate ecological resilience. 2. This study combines age-based biological data from geographically disparate populations of bluespine unicornfish (Naso unicornis)—the most commercially-valuable reef-associated species in the insular Indo-Pacific—to explore the magnitude and drivers of variation in life span and examine the mechanisms enabling peculiar mortality schedules. 3. Longevity and mortality schedules were investigated across eleven locations encompassing a range of latitudes and exploitation levels...