Canada: Open gates in warming Arctic are expanding salmon range

Published 2024년 6월 5일

Tridge summary

A study conducted by Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the University of Alaska Fairbanks has discovered that warming ocean temperatures are contributing to an increase in Pacific salmon populations in the Canadian Arctic. This finding indicates that climate change is creating new routes for fish to expand their range. The research, published in the journal Global Change Biology, suggests that ice-free conditions in the Arctic Ocean have allowed salmon to migrate from the Chukchi Sea to Canada via the Beaufort Sea. Indigenous communities in the Canadian Arctic have been tracking these unusual catches as part of the Arctic Salmon Program. The study's findings suggest that salmon sightings in the region are likely to become more common as ocean conditions favorable for salmon migration are expected to become more frequent starting in the 2040s.

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Original content

New research has connected warming ocean temperatures to higher Pacific salmon abundance in the Canadian Arctic, an indicator that climate change is creating new corridors for the fish to expand their range.Salmon haven't historically been seen in large numbers in the Arctic Ocean and its watersheds, but in recent years incidental catches by subsistence fishermen have occasionally surged. Researchers at Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, working together with communities in the western Canadian Arctic, have connected those salmon booms with a sequence of warm, ice-free conditions in the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska.The study, published in the journal Global Change Biology, determined that a two-part mechanism was tied to the presence of salmon in the Canadian Arctic. Warm late-spring conditions in the Chukchi Sea, northwest of Alaska, drew salmon into the Arctic. When those warm conditions persisted in the summertime Beaufort Sea, northeast of ...

Source: Phys