Marine and fisheries research

Ocean warming, shifting currents, and changing chemistry are altering where fish live, how they grow, and how species interact across entire food webs — with consequences that ripple from microscopic plankton to the billions of people who depend on seafood for protein. Researchers studying climate change and marine fisheries track these disruptions by combining fish population models, ecosystem-level analysis, and fine-grained tools like otolith chemistry, which can reconstruct an individual fish's life history from the rings in its ear bones. A central challenge is understanding trophic cascades — how the loss or explosion of one species can reorganize an ecosystem in ways that are difficult to predict or reverse. Open questions include how to set sustainable catch limits under conditions that no longer resemble the historical baselines fisheries management was built on, and whether coastal and estuarine habitats can retain their role as critical nursery grounds as temperatures and salinity patterns continue to shift.

Works

199,158

Total citations

2,377,405

Keywords

Climate ChangeMarine FisheriesEcosystem ManagementFish Population DynamicsOceanic EcosystemsFisheries Sustainability