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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 820989 (project COMFORT, Our common future ocean in the Earth system – quantifying coupled cycles of carbon, oxygen, and nutrients for determining and achieving safe operating spaces with respect to tipping points). The work reflects only the author’s/authors’ view; the European Commission and their executive agency are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information the work contains.

Evolutionary responses to present and future temperature conditions in 40+ commercially exploited fisheries of the North Atlantic using an elasticity-analysis approach

Anna Shchiptsova1

with Ulf Dieckmann1,2,3, Mikko Heino1,4,5 and Jaideep Joshi1,6

1 Exploratory Modeling of Human-natural Systems Research Group, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg, Austria

2Complexity Science and Evolution Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Japan

3Department of Evolutionary Studies of Biosystems, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (Sokendai), Hayama, Japan

4Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway

5Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen, Norway

6Geographisches Institut, University of Bern, Switzerland

Comfort General Assembly 11 May 2023, Bergen, Norway

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Motivation

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Can the direction of selection acting on life-history traits be reversed by ocean warming in the North Atlantic?

Horizontal lines indicate whether fisheries-induced evolution (FIE) is implicated and the time periods of data, with thin lines indicating gaps (from Heino et al. 2015)

Fisheries-induced selection acting on life-history traits of a fish stock

The tested temperature-size rule model is shown with solid lines, where dashed lines represent possible growth and longevity past the limit of the experiment (from Wootton et al. 2022)

Temperature-induced effects on

life-history processes of a fish stock

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Selection gradient (SG)

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Methodology

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Bioenergetic model

Age-, size-, and stage-specific

41 North Atlantic fisheries

ICES WGEVO data

Temperature-induced effects

Life-history parameter response

to temperature change

Literature-based estimates

Spatial temperature trend

Historical and model projections

IPCC WGI Interactive Atlas

Evolutionary response to ocean warming

Elasticity analysis

Present SG

Future SG

Further details can be found in WP4 D4.3 “Report on ecological and evolutionary dimensions of tipping points” and WP3 D3.4 “Report on past and future vulnerabilities of selected fish stocks to tipping points”

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Spatial temperature trend

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Sea surface temperature (SST) change 2041-2060

Color indicates values (℃) relative to the baseline of equilibrium freezing point of seawater (-1.96℃)

  • Spatial data from IPCC WGI Interactive Atlas (Iturbide et al. 2021; Gutiérrez et al. 2021)
  • Ensemble means of CMIP6 historical and model projections for the annual SST on the corresponding spatial grid for the North Atlantic
  • Historical projection corresponds to years 1995-2014 (AR6 20-year baseline)
  • Future projections correspond to years 2041-2060 (medium period)
  • Fish stock’s SST is estimated as a mean of corresponding spatial grid values

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Temperature-induced effects

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Life-history process

Negative scenario:

Warming reduces population growth

Positive scenario:

Warming enhances population growth

Source

Growth

Slower growth

Slimmer body shape

Faster earlier growth

Fatter body shape

Cheung et al. 2013

van Rijn et al. 2017

Atkinson 1994

Pörtner et al. 2001

Martin 1949

Árnason et al. 2009

Todd et al. 2008

Thorson 2015

Maturation

Earlier maturation

Earlier maturation

Tobin & Wright 2011

Wright et al. 2011

Reproduction

Lower reproductive output

Higher reproductive output

Yoneda & Wright 2005

Wootton et al. 2022

Planque & Frédou 1999

Mortality

Higher natural mortality (0.5)

Higher natural mortality (0.2)

Cheung et al. 2013

van Rijn et al. 2017

Pauly 1980

Then et al. 2015

Gislason et al. 2010

  • Two diametrical scenarios of temperature-induced effects on life-history processes
  • The range of likely outcomes for SST-elasticities of life-history parameters
  • Based on literature review

Scenarios of SST-induced effects on life-history parameters of a fish stock

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Results

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Fish stocks with temperature-induced reversal of selection pressures

  • Selection gradients are estimated for 1640 combinations of 41 fish stocks, 5 life-history traits, 4 SSP-RCP scenarios and 2 scenarios of SST-induced effects on life-history parameters
  • Temperature-induced reversal of selection pressures occurs at least once for 12 out of 41 fish stocks (29%)

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Results: life-history traits

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Temperature-induced reversal of selection pressures mostly occurs for maturation-related traits

Temperature-induced reversal of selection pressures mostly occurs for a single trait in a fish stock

occurs for at least one pair of SST-induced effect scenario and SSP-RCP scenario

occurs for at least one pair of SST-induced effect scenario and SSP-RCP scenario

  • For Southeastern North Sea sandeel, temperature-induced reversal of selection pressures occurs for all studied life-history traits but not in one combination of scenarios

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Results: scenarios

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Temperature-induced reversal changes non-linearly across scenarios of SST-induced effects on life-history parameters

More than half of temperature-induced reversals already occurs in low GHG emissions scenario

occurs for at least one life-history trait and in at least one SST-induced effect scenario

occurs in at least one SSP-RCP scenario

  • For Southeastern North Sea sandeel, temperature-induced reversal of selection acting on growth capacity and GSI occurs only in the “Negative” scenario for SST-induced effects on life-history parameters, while temperature-induced reversal of selection on maturation occurs only in the “Positive” scenario

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Summary

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 820989 (project COMFORT, Our common future ocean in the Earth system – quantifying coupled cycles of carbon, oxygen, and nutrients for determining and achieving safe operating spaces with respect to tipping points). The work reflects only the author’s/authors’ view; the European Commission and their executive agency are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information the work contains.

Insights

  • Temperature-induced reversal of selection pressures occurs in 29% of North Atlantic fish stocks
  • Reversal of selection mostly occurs for maturation-related traits (notably for PMRN width) commonly starting from the low GHG emissions scenario

Methodology

  • Bioenergetically driven age-, size-, and stage-specific model allows to assess the evolutionary response to present and future temperature conditions mediated through life-history parameters
  • 41 exploited marine fish stocks are studied in four SSP-RCP scenarios and two scenarios of SST-induced effects