REsolving CLimAtic IMpacts on fish stocks (RECLAIM)

Description:

Climate change will impact fisheries resources and challenge managers to develop sustainable exploitation strategies. Knowledge on the impacts of climate on fisheries resources is still fragmentary. RECLAIM aimed to summarize current knowledge, test process understanding, improve predictive capacity and formulate future research hypotheses by examining trophic processes, geographical distributions and essential habitat requirements for marine and shellfish in the NE-Atlantic.

A conceptual framework was developed to distinguish between processes acting on individual (physiology, behaviour), population (predation, competition) and ecosystem (physical habitat qualities, biological productivity, trophic coupling) levels. The framework structured a literature review to detect gaps in knowledge and, where possible, distinguishes between climate and anthropogenic influences.

RECLAIM scientists investigated trophic processes, geographical distributions and habitat requirements of fish and shellfish in a strategic fishing zone, the northeast Atlantic.

RECLAIM researchers focused on the two key oceanic components – physical and ecological. Changes in salinity, acidity and temperature of the water were modelled using the general circulation model (GCM). Reclaim further refined data modelling to improve future simulation accuracy. Furthermore, study of species' eco-physiology as well as life history changes and effects of climate and fish population created important data for future planning.

Project information

Lead

WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITEIT (NL) Prof. Adriaan Rijnsdorp

Partners

IMARES, Institute for Marine Resources, IJmuiden (NL) FRS – Marine Scotland (UK) Cefas - Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (UK) Ifremer - Institut Francais de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la mer (FR) University of Hamburg (DE) Technical University of Denmark (DK) Danish Meteorological Institute (DK) National Environmental Research Institue (NO) Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NL)

Source of funding

FP 6