Climate Change Impacts on Florida’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Sectors and Options for Adaptation

Abstract

Florida supports diverse marine and freshwater fisheries and a significant aquaculture industry with a combined economic impact of approximately 15 billion US$. We begin by describing the characteristics Key Messages• Sea level rise, more frequent severe storms, coastal habitat loss associated with both factors, changes in nutrient dynamics, and ocean acidification are likely to impact the productivity of Florida's marine fisheries. Some of these factors will also affect fisheries access.• Florida's freshwater fisheries will be impacted by increased hydrological variability, increased temperatures, and more frequent severe storms. Shallow lakes may respond by switching from a clear to a turbid, phytoplankton-dominated state that provides poor sport fishing. Greater hydrological variability will also exacerbate fishing access issues.• Among the aquaculture sectors, shellfish aquaculture is particularly sensitive to multiple drivers including sea level rise, coastal habitat loss, increased frequency of harmful algal blooms and ocean acidification. Ornamental fish culture and other forms of intensive aquaculture under controlled conditions will be relatively insensitive to climate change.• Key adaptation options for marine fisheries include switching of species, locations and fishing methods, while adapting catch limits to changes in productivity. In freshwater fisheries, on the other hand, water and habitat management will be key to adaptation. Change in farming methods will be important in aquaculture, along with species and location changes, particularly in the shellfish industry. Aquaculture for fisheries enhancement and ecological restoration can aid adaptation in both marine and freshwater fisheries. Adaptation will benefit from awareness of drivers and impact pathways, monitoring of a broad suite of impact indicators, and adaptive decision-making. 428 • KAI LORENZEN ET AL.

Climate Change Effects on Aquaculture Production: Sustainability Implications, Mitigation, and Adaptations

“…Climate change-related risks to health, food security, livelihood, water supply, human security, and economic development will increase under the projected 1.5 • C global warming, with a further increase expected at 2 • C (IPCC, 2018). In the face of such risks, both the industry and communities will need to mitigate and adapt to the changing climate by taking advantage of new opportunities emerging from altered resources (Lorenzen et al, 2017). Mitigation and adaptation may help prepare the farming communities, ecosystems, and populations, in general, to build resilience and deal with climate change as effectively and efficiently as possible (Zolnikov, 2019).…”

“…It involves making considerations in advance, the expected changes, and taking those changes into account in short-term decision making and long-range planning (Yazdi and Shakouri, 2010). Therefore, it can come in various forms, including technical changes, changes in the behavior of resource users/producers, or changes in the governance system (Lorenzen et al, 2017). Moreover, FAO (2018) provides three target areas upon which successful adaptation interventions may be centered, namely: institutions and management, livelihood adaptation, and resilience and risk reduction.…”

ZooArchNet: Connecting zooarchaeological specimens to the biodiversity and archaeology data networks

“…Florida is exemplary of coastal landscapes worldwide with deep histories of complex climate- and anthropogenic-induced biodiversity changes. Currently across the state, but particularly among coastal habitats, people and animals are contending with rising sea levels and temperatures as well as increasingly variable extreme weather patterns, all of which directly impact terrestrial and aquatic environments and biota, including marine, estuarine, riverine, and freshwater coastlines, surrounding terrestrial landscapes, and associated animal biodiversity [56,57,58,59,60]. Furthermore, there are significant cultural, social, technological, and economic consequences of such environmental changes, particularly for coastal populations and industries tied to environmental and animal biodiversity (e.g., industrial fisheries, recreational fisheries, aquatic farming, ecotourism, property value and development) [61,62,63].…”

Climate change and aquaculture: considering adaptation potential

“…In some circumstances, direct mitigation of the localized environment is possible, and this is achievable with the most common method of global aquaculture production, pond culture. While ponds are exposed to the open environment, a high degree of control over environmental variables through water management, aeration, protective cover, and water treatment is possible (Lorenzen et al 2017). Oxygen tablets and aeration can augment dissolved oxygen, pumping in freshwater can supplement water during the dry season, and along with shading and increased depth (>1 m), this can reduce pond temperatures (Binh et al 2017, Adhikari et al 2018).…”