What fish redistribution in the Mediterranean is telling us about species’ climate resilience |
Over the past twenty years, nearly half of commercially important Mediterranean fish species have shifted their distribution due to climate change, causing marine species to move away from their historical locations. These significant changes in fish habits are expected to have a major impact on biodiversity, ecosystems and fishing opportunities.
On a global scale, species have been observed shifting towards higher latitudes and depths, in search of cooler conditions.
However, at regional scales, the picture is far more complex. Our recent study demonstrates that in the Mediterranean Sea, as a result of climate change, warm water-favouring thermophilic species that prefer moderately warm temperatures, such as the starry skate Raja asterias, are changing their distribution towards the south and west, while cool water-favouring boreal species, such as the black-bellied angler Lophius budegassa, are only changing their distribution in depth.
The broader picture of this ecological process is known as meridionalization through which native warm-water species expand and cold-water species decline.
Temperature-associated habitat selection: the Mediterranean predicament
The Mediterranean is one of the most vulnerable ecosystems in the world due to multiple and cumulative human pressures, including a high level of climate risk that will increase in the future. These combined impacts are already driving major ecological changes in marine species.
The Mediterranean is also a semi-enclosed basin, connected to the global ocean only through the Strait of Gibraltar, which limits........