FISHGLOB

Fish biodiversity under global change – a worldwide assessment from scientific trawl surveys

© Deng Palomares. School of jacks (Caranx sexfasciatus), Verde Island Passage, 2008

Global change is causing redistribution of marine species worldwide, modifying taxonomic and trait community compositions. These changes may have strong impacts on natural fish biodiversity and related ecosystem services.

However, our capacity to assess and monitor short and long-term changes in species distribution and biodiversity is hampered by the availability and heterogeneity of data.

The project aims at (i) collecting and combining unique data sets of more than 70 scientific trawl surveys across the globe (metadata and species abundance from more than 220,000 haul samples) and species traits of marine fishes, as well as assessing changes in (ii) species life-history strategy composition and (iii) community diversity of fish, across time at complementary spatial scales (local to global), across tropical, temperate and boreal ecosystems.

This project will provide a framework for identifying and predicting biodiversity responses to global changes. In addition, it will permit the identification of areas of concern, and suggesting measures that might contribute, for example, to mitigate fisheries-related responses to global change.

FISHGLOB project members in a virtual meeting in November 2021