Physiological Basis of Climate Change Impacts on North American Inland Fishes

Global climate change is altering freshwater ecosystems and affecting fish populations and communities. Underpinning changes in fish distribution and assemblage-level responses to climate change are individual-level physiological constraints. In this review, we synthesize the mechanistic effects of climate change on neuroendocrine, cardiorespiratory, immune, osmoregulatory, and reproductive systems of freshwater and diadromous fishes. Observed climate change effects on physiological systems are varied and numerous, including exceedance of critical thermal tolerances, decreased cardiorespiratory performance, compromised immune function, and altered patterns of individual reproductive investment. However, effects vary widely among and within species because of species, population, and even sex-specific differences in sensitivity and resilience and because of habitat-specific variation in the magnitude of climate-related environmental change. Research on the interactive effects of climate change with other environmental stressors across a broader range of fish diversity is needed to further our understanding of climate change effects on fish physiology

Inland fisheries – Invisible but integral to the UN Sustainable Development Agenda for ending poverty by 2030

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd The United Nations’ (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development defines the formidable challenge of integrating historically separate economic, social, and environmental goals into a unified ‘plan of action for people, planet, and prosperity.’ We highlight the substantial contribution inland fisheries can make towards preventing increased poverty and, in some cases, alleviating poverty (i.e. addressing Sustainable Development Goal [SDG] 1: No Poverty) as an opportunity to inform the next set of development agendas and their associated budgets and priorities. Overlooking the contribution of inland fisheries to poverty prevention and alleviation may undermine the capacity to successfully meet the development goals, especially in rural communities in Low-Income Food-Deficit countries. Inland fisheries are essential for food and economic security as the vast majority are small-scale operations or subsistence, predominantly used by poorer groups. Protecting inland fisheries from diverse threats from other water users and associated sectors requires robust, multi-sectoral, and multinational policies that can be brought about by global initiatives like the SDGs. Without such protection, their vital contribution towards sustainable livelihoods and poverty issues becomes uncertain. Further, integrating inland fisheries into sustainable development frameworks strengthens the likelihood of achieving the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development. In this perspective article, we posit that including inland fisheries in national policy statements and programs can prove beneficial to promoting economic and social growth for the poor, preventing further poverty, and achieving SDG 1 and other SDG targets, especially those related to food security