The Nordic seas and the Arctic are among the most important and fascinating oceanic systems regarding industrial activity, marine and maritime business, resources use, and climate change. Collaboration among scientific disciplines, policy-makers, and nations is needed to ensure these areas are sustainably managed in a changing climate regime.
Fishing activities are important in the Nordic seas and partly also in the gateways to the Arctic, while the Arctic areas are still less exploited due to ice cover. Climate change will alter the marine ecosystems and fishing opportunities will change the fishery. Fishing activities may, along with a changing biological regime, increase the vulnerability of utilized species to exploitation. This, in addition to distributional changes of marine organisms, calls for new knowledge on how ecosystems respond to climatic changes. Investigations in these vast areas are challenging, not least because of the rough physical environment. Surveys and monitoring of species are presently mainly driven by national interest and may cover only small parts of an ecosystem. The need for a broader view, considering larger regions, is more evident than ever. To obtain the dual goal of protecting the ecosystems while also utilizing their resources in a sustainable way, it is important that science does not fall behind as the industries are progressing and moving towards new areas in their search of ecosystem goods and services.
This theme session will cover the following topics:
- Long-term changes in Nordic/Arctic at both ecosystem and species level
- Impact of climatic variability on trophic interactions
- Ecosystem robustness/vulnerability in light of climate change
- Management implications of climate change
- Climate change: a challenge or an opportunity in an industrial perspective
