Documented Effects of Climate Change on Warm-Water Fishes: Workshop Synthesis and Data Gaps

To sustainably manage warm-water fishes, we need to understand how climate change will impact, and is currently impacting, these ecologically, culturally, and economically valuable resources.  Because the multi-faceted effects of climate change on fishes vary by ecoregion and interact with other anthropogenic stressors, synthesis of available information on the impacts of climate change on warm-water fishes can be useful to their conservation and management.

We recently convened an expert workshop to examine the effects of global climate change on inland fish and fisheries in the United States and Canada.  The aim of the workshop was to summarize the current state of knowledge, identify data gaps, and suggest future research directions around four major themes dealing with climate-related impacts on fish and fisheries: individual-level responses (e.g., physiology; growth), population and community level changes (e.g., range shifts; biotic interactions), human dimensions (e.g., ecosystem goods and services; recreational fishing), and management and adaptation to climate change (e.g., riparian planting; improved connectivity).  Although the workshop considered warm-, cool-, and cold-water fishes, the results presented only focus on the workshop outcomes and data gaps for warm-water fishes, fisheries, and habitat.