Impact of Climate Change on Marine Resources

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change profoundly impacts our oceans and marine life due to warmer mean temperatures and hotter extremes. Its effects are changing the distribution of fish stocks and their food, damaging all marine resources. Therefore, it is essential to balance marine resources' economic and environmental priorities to maintain ocean health and fish for the future. Furthermore, oceans play a significant role in climate dynamics in absorbing the heat of climate change and carbon dioxide (CO₂) released from fossil fuels protecting the earth's warm atmosphere. Therefore, it is essential to manage the oceans sustainably, considering their significant influence on the planet. In addition, changes to the oceans mean fish stocks, as fish is more vital to humans and other living beings.

Climate change reduces biodiversity in the ocean by reducing the populations of live corals, which can threaten fish resilience in coastal areas. Studies show that marine heatwaves have increased by more than 50% in the past 30 years. Globally, ocean temperatures increased by 1-4°C by 2100. These changes are impacting marine life. Sudden rises in temperature and acidification can lead to the loss of marine habitats and other marine species. In addition, shifting ocean currents and warming waters are changing the distribution of fish stocks and altering the structure of ecosystems.

Climate change impacts appear in different regions in different ways. Prediction in tropical areas to decline of seafood catch around 40% by 2050. In contrast, in higher latitude areas of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, increases in the range of some fish species are evident. Recent declines in North Sea Cod populations are partly due to changing climate. Further, Oxygen limitation to fish would be severe when warming up of ocean water happens in the tropical belt because at high temperature, dissolved oxygen content lowers. Therefore it has been predicted that climate change will cause some fish species to shift their distribution by more than 50 kilometers per decade. Tropical regions will be the most affected by this migration, a cause of concern for small-scale fisheries that are critical players in the food security of developing countries.  The catches in mostly needed developing nations will be significantly ostracized.

In addition to that, many other issues such as marine pollution, coastal erosion, and melting ice caps are accelerating due to climate change. This special issue aims to address all those issues on marine resources. Listed below are a few specific areas of climate change issues in marine resources. However, these are some examples only, and this issue considers all related climate change affected marine resources topics.

• Fisheries impact of climate change

• Bio-economic models of climate change and marine resources     
• Coastal areas and climate change impacts
• Mangrove, climate change, and marine resources
• Climate change impacts coral reefs
• Euthrification under climate change

Dr. Premachandra Wattage
Prof. Dr. Upali S. Amarasinghe
Prof. Dr. Alice Newton
Guest Editor

• climate change
• fisheries
• pollution
• food nutrition