Top Predators Under Climate Extremes: Assessing Habitat Dynamics in Marginal Seas
A special issue of Fishes (ISSN 2410-3888). This special issue belongs to the section "Environment and Climate Change".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 July 2026 | Viewed by 13
Special Issue Editors
Interests: fishery; fishery resources conservation; fish stock assessment
Interests: aquatic wildlife conservation; aquatic habitats in marginal seas
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue focuses on how climate extremes reshape the habitats of marine top predators in marginal seas. We invite contributions that quantify and explain habitat dynamics of East Asian finless porpoises, tuna, and other top predators in relation to marine heatwaves, cold spells, ocean fronts, and other meso-to-submesoscale processes. Our Special Issue warmly welcomes efforts to integrate fisheries acoustics, passive and active acoustic monitoring, satellite remote sensing, ocean reanalysis data, and in situ observations with eXplainable AI (XAI) and other transparent modelling frameworks. We encourage work that (i) develops or applies interpretable habitat and distribution models, (ii) links physical–biogeochemical variability to predator behaviour, foraging, and exposure to multiple stressors, and (iii) translates these insights into indicators and decision-support tools for ecosystem-based and climate-ready management of marginal-sea fisheries and protected species. Comparative case studies, methodological advances, and synthetic reviews are all suitable, provided they clearly address the role of climate extremes in shaping predator habitats.
The main focus areas include the following：
- Fisheries resources and habitat dynamics on continental shelves of marginal seas.
- Stock status, spatial distribution, recruitment, and productivity under climate variability and change.
- Use of explainable AI with remote sensing, in situ oceanographic observations, AIS, and fisheries acoustics to build habitat models.
- Impacts of marine heatwaves, fronts, eddies, and upwelling on the top predators’ distribution, catchability, and ecosystem resilience.
- Translating model outputs into robust indicators, scenarios, and tools to support ecosystem-based and climate-ready management of marginal-sea fisheries and protected top predators.
Prof. Wenbo Yang
Dr. Xiaomei Wang
Guest Editors
Dr. Peng Lian
Guest Editor Assistant
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- continental shelf fisheries
- habitat modelling
- eXplainable AI (XAI)
- top predators
- marine mammals
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