The need for decision-support tools for a changing climate: application to inland fisheries management

October 31, 2012 Author: <ajlynch@usgs.gov>

Journal or Book Title: Journal of Fisheries Management and Ecology

Keywords: climate change; decision support; inland fisheries management

Year Published: 2012

Large-scale environmental impacts, such as those of climate change on fisheries, require policy and management action not only at the local level but at regional, national and international levels. Fisheries biology and ecology, along with social, political and economic considerations, can influence policy design and implementation. Decision-support tools can integrate these sciences to distill often complex, mechanistic and synergistic processes into a format that the public, policy makers and managers can use when designing strategies to ensure fisheries sustainability in the face of large-scale environmental perturbations, such as climate change. Harvest management of lake whitefish, Coregonus clupeaformis (Mitchill), in the Laurentian Great Lakes provides an excellent case study to examine the need, value and utility for a decision-support tool for inland fisheries management when considering the effects of climate change as this fishery is expected to be impacted by future changes in water temperature, ice cover and storm intensity.

DOI: 10.1111/fme.12013

Type of Publication: Journal Article

Editor(s): Ian Cowx

Publisher: Blackwell Publishing


Authors

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