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Climate change : Challenging the sustainability of marine fisheries and ecosystems

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Relation http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/12255/
 
Title Climate change : Challenging the sustainability of marine fisheries and ecosystems
 
Creator Vivekanandan, E
 
Subject Climate Change
 
Description Changes in the important oceanic climate features such as sea surface temperature, sea level, pH, and
rainfall are becoming evident as a result of climate change. In this review, the influence of the primary factor, the
water temperature on the biological systems is presented. Seawater temperature influences biological systems
at four levels: organismal, population, community and ecosystem. At organismal level, temperature has direct
influence on two vital life traits of fish, namely, food utilisation and spawning. Growth rate of fish increases with
increasing temperature within the optimal temperature window. It is likely that the food utilization parameters
may be operating at an elevated level in fishes at higher temperatures, demanding higher food supply to attain
faster growth rate. Fishes may change their phenology of reproductive activity to adapt to elevated temperatures
for spawning and larval survival. At population level, temperature and other factors related to climate change
may strongly influence distribution and abundance, evidences for which are accumulating in Indian seas. As the
tolerance and adaptation capacities are different between species, the species that adapt and gain from warming
are increasingly becoming dominant. On the other hand, those species, which are already at the threshold limits
are vulnerable and lose to adaptable ones. At community level, this is reflected as changes in species composition
over the years. All these changes have the potential to alter the structure and function of ecosystems. Habitat
destruction, pollution, energy production, mining, fisheries, aquaculture, and invasive species are all affecting
marine ecosystems and may exacerbate the effects of climate change. Effectively reducing climate change and
other human-related threats requires integrated management actions with the goal of increasing adaptive capacity
of ecosystems. As a first step, robust indicators need to be developed to understand the changes at ecosystem
level. With regard to fisheries, the changes pose problems on the effectiveness of fisheries management measures.
Reducing fishing pressure would be a major step to increase the capacity of fish stocks to adapt to environmental
changes. It is important that a concerted effort is made to address the issues related to sustainability of tropical
marine fisheries and ecosystems by considering climate change as a component of a suite of anthropogenic
interventions.
 
Publisher Department of Aquatic Biology & Fisheries University
 
Date 2013
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format text
 
Language en
 
Identifier http://eprints.cmfri.org.in/12255/1/05%20Vivekanandan%20E.pdf
Vivekanandan, E (2013) Climate change : Challenging the sustainability of marine fisheries and ecosystems. Journal of Aquatic Biology and Fisheries, 1 (1 & 2). pp. 54-67.