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

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:

• Fostering the necessary level of cooperation among Member States (MS) & actors involved in diadromous fish management to enable sound decision-making;
• Improving awareness and knowledge among policy makers and other key stakeholders on the services provided by these species and the need to set common management measures targeting both anthropogenic pressures & climate change;
• Favouring a joint promotion of ecosystem services related to diadromous fish in the AA to the wider public because they influence decision-making;
• Ensuring a sustainable ecosystem services provision by these species, combining exploitation & conservation, in support of AA local economies and quality of life.

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

An interactive web atlas is available, 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 have been produced, in order to foster the commitment for the long-term and large scale management of diadromous fishes and their Ecosystem services.

Finally an awareness educational game is available, to explore alternative management scenarios taking into account ecological, socio-economic aspects, and global impacts on the distribution on amphialine migratory fish.