Award: OCE-1426700

Rapid climate changes are currently driving substantial reorganizations of marine ecosystems around the world. In this project, we conducted research primarily in continental shelf ecosystems and fishing communities of North America to understand how marine species are responding to warming temperatures and how these changes affect fisheries. Key findings were that marine animals are highly sensitive to warming and are responding quickly to changes in water temperature, and that such changes are often happening faster than similar processes on land. Changes in species distributions and productivity are having substantial impacts on fisheries, including through changing catch compositions and longer distances travelled for fishing trips. Conflicts over access to fisheries have also emerged as species distributions are no longer aligned with regulations or catch allocations. These changes in the coupled natural-human system have reduced the value of ecosystem services from some fisheries and risk doing so even more in the future. Going forward, substantial opportunities for more effective fisheries management and operations, marine conservation, and marine spatial planning are likely possible through greater integration of climate adaptation efforts over time-scales from years to decades. In addition, we developed learning materials to help students understand climate impacts on fisheries. We developed an undergraduate and high school educational module and pilot-tested with educators from Illinois, Colorado, Connecticut, and New Jersey. In a case-study format, the module has been submitted to the NSF-funded National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science. We also conducted outreach and discussions with U.S. Fisheries Management Councils (particularly the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council) to support their climate adaptation efforts. We have engaged with federal scientists at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center concerning the integration of fishing community metrics developed for this project into their "State of the Ecosystem" initiative. Finally, we contributed to the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. Last Modified: 11/03/2019 Submitted by: Eli P Fenichel