Shifting habitats expose fishing communities to risk under climate change

Details

• Journal Title:
  Nature Climate Change
• Personal Author:
  Rogers, Lauren A. ; Griffin, Robert ; Young, Talia ; Fuller, Emma ; St. Martin, Kevin ; Pinsky, Malin L.
• NOAA Program & Office:
  NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) ; AFSC (Alaska Fisheries Science Center)
• Description:
  Climate change is expected to have a profound impact on the distribution, abundance and diversity of marine species globally1,2. These ecological impacts of climate change will affect human communities dependent on fisheries for livelihoods and well-being3. While methods for assessing the vulnerability of species to climate change are rapidly developing4 and socio-ecological vulnerability assessments for fisheries are becoming available5, there has been less work devoted to understanding how impacts differ across fishing communities. We developed a linked socio-ecological approach to assess the exposure of fishing communities to risk from climate change, and present a case study of New England and Mid-Atlantic (USA) fishing communities. We found that the northern part of the study region was projected to gain suitable habitat and the southern part projected to lose suitable habitat for many species, but the exposure of fishing communities to risk was strongly dependent on both their spatial use of the ocean and their portfolio of species caught. A majority of fishing communities were projected to face declining future fishing opportunities unless they adapt, either through catching new species or fishing in new locations. By integrating climatic, ecological and socio-economic data at a scale relevant to fishing communities, this analysis identifies where strategies for adapting to the ecological impacts of climate change will be most needed.
• Source:
  Nature Climate Change, 9(7), 512-516.
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0503-z
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Rights Information:
  Accepted Manuscript
• Rights Statement:
  The NOAA IR provides access to this content under the authority of the government's retained license to distribute publications and data resulting from federal funding. While users may legally access this content, the copyright owners retain rights that govern the reproduction, redistribution, and re-use of this work. The user is solely responsible for complying with applicable copyright law.
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:0d98c1a863b469b44656fe9fb89129aa74c35e9e391832ed34a05587f735ae5196385de956431df166762bb07acc0cee7e05215a03d3d92b7c7e603471e801f8
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/21806/noaa_21806_DS1.pdf
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