Skip Navigation

Climate Change and Human Health Literature Portal Global fish production and climate change

Climate Change and Human Health Literature Portal

Brander KM
2007
Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America. 104 (50): 19709-19714

Current global fisheries production of approximately 160 million tons is rising as a result of increases in aquaculture production. A number of climate-related threats to both capture fisheries and aquaculture are identified, but we have low confidence in predictions of future fisheries production because of uncertainty over future global aquatic net primary production and the transfer of this production through the food chain to human consumption. Recent changes in the distribution and productivity of a number of fish species can be ascribed with high confidence to regional climate variability, such as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation. Future production may increase in some high-latitude regions because of warming and decreased ice cover, but the dynamics in low-latitude regions are governed by different processes, and production may decline as a result of reduced vertical mixing of the water column and, hence, reduced recycling of nutrients. There are strong interactions between the effects of fishing and the effects of climate because fishing reduces the age, size, and geographic diversity of populations and the biodiversity of marine ecosystems, making both more sensitive to additional stresses such as climate change. Inland fisheries are additionally threatened by changes in precipitation and water management. The frequency and intensity of extreme climate events is likely to have a major impact on future fisheries production in both inland and marine systems. Reducing fishing mortality in the majority of fisheries, which are currently fully exploited or overexploited, is the principal feasible means of reducing the impacts of climate change.

Expand Abstract

Resource Description

    Ecosystem Change, Food Security
    • Ecosystem Change, Food Security: Marine/Freshwater Food Security
    Freshwater, Ocean/Coastal
    Global or Unspecified Location
    General Health Impact
    Review Article
    Adaptation, Communication
    • Adaptation, Communication: Adaptation Co-Benefit/Co-Harm, Resilience, Vulnerability Assessment
    • Adaptation, Communication: Policymaker
Back
to Top