Fish habitat ecology in a changing climate

Abstract

Understanding the factors driving fish behavior, physiology, and survival is increasingly important during this period of unprecedented global change, given their implications for fisheries stability and ecosystem health. Habitat quality and quantity shape fish population dynamics and eco-evolutionary trajectories. Quantifying the habitat needs of fish across all life stages (and of their predators and prey) is challenging, however, and relies on diverse approaches such as field observations, laboratory experiments, genomics, chemical tracers, telemetry, and modeling. Successful integration of these data into management and policy requires open and constructive knowledge exchange between natural and social scientists, stakeholders, managers, and policymakers, and new tools to analyse and visualize these complex datasets. Building this social-ecological connectivity is particularly important in dynamic boundary systems (e.g., estuaries) and for protecting species characterized by trans-boundary movements (e.g., between rivers and seas, or across jurisdictional borders) if we are to maximize the benefits for nature and humans alike.Here, we present a collection of papers that deal with these topics in a Special Issue born from the Fisheries Society of the British Isles (FSBI) 2023 Symposium, "Fish Habitat Ecology in a Changing Climate" (see Figure 1), held at the University of Essex and co-convened