Mediterranean fishing species change their spatial distribution due to climate change, study alerts

The Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC) has published a study that analyses the spatial distribution change of 102 demersal species in the Mediterranean over the past 25 years due to climate variations.

To sum up, the Ecological Indicators study shows that 42 species, many of them of commercial interest, changed their spatial distribution from areas where warming is very rapid to areas where warming is slower.

Therefore, the study's conclusions will help the fishing sector to establish management measures to adapt to climate change and global warming.

The warming rate versus the average temperature

In more detail, some of these species are the blackbelly rosefish, the picarel or Axillary seabream, and the small-spotted catshark which have shifted southwestward, toward warmer waters, despite their preference for colder waters.

This can be explained due to the high rate at which climate change is occurring as Marina Sanz-Martín, researcher at the Oceanographic Center of the Balearic Islands and the first author of the study, indicated: "The climate velocity in this study indicates at what rate and in which direction the temperature isotherms are shifting and where species are expected to move to maintain their temperature preferences."

In addition, Lucía López, a researcher at the Oceanographic Center of Santander and co-author of the study, clarified why fish are more influenced by the warming rate instead of the average temperature: "Areas with very rapid warming become a barrier for movement northward; however, towards the south, warming is not as rapid, which would explain these displacements."

Ecological Indicators study has been carried out within the framework of three projects:

• VADAPES, funded with the support of the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.

• CLISSARTES, funded by the AXA Research Fund for the call 'More Resilient Coastal Livelihoods' within the framework of the Ocean Decade, which is coordinated by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO.

• COCOCHA (PID2019-110282RA-I00) is funded by the Spanish Agency for Research.