Climate Change and Its Impact on the Marine Ecosystems in Tropical Fisheries

Coastal communities mainly depend on fisheries for their food security, livelihood and economic development.

- Monikandon Sukumaran and Kesavan Devarayan

Fish is the major nutritional food for the urban and coastal communities. Majority of population depends on the fish for micronutrients, such as zinc, iron and omega-3 fatty acids. This also helps the people to avert the malnutrition due to lack of micronutrient. In global fish catch, tropical marine fisheries make a significant contribution of approximately 50% to a worth of US$96 billion. In tropical region, fisheries provide employment opportunities for coastal communities through harvesting and postharvest plants and operations. Tropical fisheries are threatened by several factors such as overfishing, habitat degradation, pollution, sedimentation, invasive species besides various physical and biogeochemical changes related to climate change, global warming, sea level rise, deoxygenation, acidification and altered concentration of nutrients. Carbon dioxide driven changes are expected and may increase in the forecoming decades and that can affect the physiology, behaviour and interactions of coastal and oceanic tropical marine fish species, leading to its spatial distribution and abundance.

Impacts of climate change on tropical fisheries