Assessing and enhancing ecosystem services provided by diadromous fish in a climate change context (DiadES)

Description:

Diadromous fish (shads, lampreys, eel, salmon, trout and mullet) are migratory, moving between fresh and marine waters. Through their journey, they provide ecosystem services (e.g. income, food, recreation) to local communities but few quantitative estimations exist. These services could be threatened by climate change due to spatial reallocation of fish and related benefits.

DiadES aims to assess and enhance ecosystem services provided by diadromous fish in the Atlantic Area, and in parallel, the conservation status of these species, by explicitly considering in their management expected impacts of climate change on their distributions.

DiadES aims to positively impact diadromous fish management in the face of global climate change by:

• improving awareness and knowledge on the services provided by these species and the need to set common management measures targeting both anthropogenic pressures and climate change;
• favouring a joint promotion of ecosystem services related to diadromous fish in the Atlantic Area to the wider public;
• ensuring a sustainable ecosystem services provision by these species, combining exploitation and conservation, in support of Atlantic Area local economies and quality of life.

The project includes 9 cases studies located along the Atlantic coast.

An interactive web atlas is expected among the project outputs, to showcase maps of diadromous fish distributions, ecosystem trajectories and economic valuation results in case studies, presenting changes in distributions and trends in relevant ecosystem services under climate change.

Policy guidelines are expected as part of a Declaration to be signed by regional, national, and European authorities as a commitment for the long-term and large scale management of diadromous fishes and their Ecosystem services.

Project information

Lead

National Research Institute on science and technology for the environment and agriculture, France

Partners

University of Plymouth, UK

Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, UK

Municipality of Vila Nova de Cerveira / Aquamuseu do Rio Minho, Portugal

Fundacion AZT, Portugal

University of Santiago de Compostela /Hydrobiological station, Portugal

Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal

University of Évora

Inland Fisheries Ireland

National Museum of Natural History, France

Source of funding

2014 - 2020 INTERREG VB Atlantic Area