Global climate change: Policy implications for fisheries

Technical Report · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1990

OSTI ID:5548557

Gucinski, H; Lackey, R T; Spence, B C

Several government agencies are evaluating policy options for addressing global climate change. These include planning for anticipated effects and developing mitigation options where feasible if climate does change as predicted. For fisheries resources, policy questions address effects on international, national, and regional scales. Climate change variables expected to affect inland and offshore fisheries include temperature rise, changes in the hydrologic cycle, alterations in nutrient fluxes, and reduction and relocation of spawning and nursery habitat. These variables will affect resources at all levels of biological organization, including the genetic, organism, population, and ecosystem levels. In this context, changes in primary productivity, species composition in the food-web, migration, invasions, synchrony in biological cycles, shifts in utilization of niches, and problems of larvae entrainment in estuaries have been identified. Maintaining ecosystem robustness (i.e., high biodiversity) is another component of the problem. Action requires establishing priorities for information needs, determining appropriate temporal and spatial scales at which to model effects, and accounting for interactive changes in physical and biological cycles. A policy response can be derived when these results are integrated with social needs and human population constraints.

• Research Organization: Environmental Protection Agency, Corvallis, OR (United States). Environmental Research Lab.
• OSTI ID: 5548557
• Report Number(s): PB-91-171611/XAB; EPA--600/J-90/405
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290300 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
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& Safety
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540120* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
AIR POLLUTION
AIR-WATER INTERACTIONS
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
CLIMATES
ECOSYSTEMS
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
FISHERIES
FOOD CHAINS
FRESH WATER
GLOBAL ASPECTS
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
HABITAT
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
PRODUCTIVITY
VARIATIONS
WATER