Webinar: Using Traits-Based Approaches to Facilitate Climate Adaptation in Fisheries Management

Climate change is driving marine species into new habitats, with implications for ocean ecosystem structure and resource management. Predicting the response of commercially valuable ocean predators is especially challenging because their distributions depend on how prey are impacted by climate shifts. Over the last three years, a research team led by Drs. Stephanie Green, Natasha Hardy, and Miram Gleiber (University of Alberta), Dr. Larry Crowder (Stanford University), and scientists from NOAA Southwest and Northwest Fisheries Science Centers have been developing trait-based methods to predict predator-prey interactions in changing ocean systems. The project examines historically variable feeding relationships between albacore tuna and the pelagic species they consume in the California Current systems as a case study. The research reveals that predators like albacore have historically adjusted their diet to select prey with consistent traits (habitat, behavior, morphology, nutrition) across different environmental regimes. The project has produced a large, open-access database of pelagic species traits and is developing new methods that can be used to forecast albacore availability along the Pacific coasts of the United States and Canada.