Global Analysis of Trends in Projected and Documented Effects of Climate Change on Inland Fish
Global Synthesis of Climate Change Effects on Inland Fish
Dates
Start Date
2015-09-01
End Date
2017-04-30
Release Date
2016
Summary
Inland fish populations are a crucial resource to humans and communities around the world. Recreational fishing throughout the United States, for example, provides important revenue to local and state economies; globally, inland fisheries are a vital food source for billions of people. Warming temperatures and changing precipitation patterns, however, are already causing significant changes to fish communities worldwide. Since the mid-1980s, scientists have projected the effects of climate change on inland fish, and in more recent years, documentation of impacts has increased. However, the number of documented impacts of climate change on inland fish remains low. A comprehensive understanding of how climate change is and will impact [...]
Summary
Inland fish populations are a crucial resource to humans and communities around the world. Recreational fishing throughout the United States, for example, provides important revenue to local and state economies; globally, inland fisheries are a vital food source for billions of people. Warming temperatures and changing precipitation patterns, however, are already causing significant changes to fish communities worldwide.
Since the mid-1980s, scientists have projected the effects of climate change on inland fish, and in more recent years, documentation of impacts has increased. However, the number of documented impacts of climate change on inland fish remains low. A comprehensive understanding of how climate change is and will impact inland fish worldwide is needed to further research efforts and to inform decisions related to management of this ecologically and economically important natural resource.
To help address this informational need, the project team conducted an extensive, systematic literature review to identify examples of both projected and documented effects of climate change on fish globally. The researchers categorized the documented studies into 6 groups based on the type of response variable studied (i.e., demography, phenology, distribution, etc.), and used the associated data to quantitatively analyze trends across species and locations.
Providing a synthesis of current global trends in fish responses to climate change will help resource managers anticipate future changes in fish populations and develop more strategic management plans for individual species and groups.
Climate change effects on inland fish manifest in non-linear and often confounding ways over varying ecoregions and time-scales. A comprehensive understanding of how climate change is and will impact inland fishes worldwide is key to sustainable management of this ecologically and economically important natural resource. Synthesis of projected and documented impacts of climate change on inland fishes globally can be useful to inform future research and management efforts. Since the mid-1980s, scientists have projected the effects of climate change on inland fish, and in more recent years, documentation of climate change impacts on fish has increased, albeit the number of documented impacts of climate change on inland fish remains low. We conducted an extensive, systematic literature review to identify both projected and documented examples of climate change impacts on fish globally. We did not include studies that analyzed climate variability; thus, all documented examples showed a change in precipitation, temperature, or other climate variable that was be attributed to climate change by the authors. We then categorized the documented studies into 6 groups based on the type of response variable studied (i.e., demographic, phenological, distributional, etc.) and extracted the data to quantitatively analyze trends across species traits and thermal guilds. Dissecting and providing current global trends in fish responses to climate change by ecological and thermal guild will help managers anticipate future changes in fish populations and develop more strategic management plans for individual species and groups.