Impacts of climate change on aquaculture

• Main Authors: Collins, C., Bresnan, E., Brown, L., Falconer, L., Guilder, J., Jones, L., Kennerley, A., Malham, S., Murray, A., Stanley, M.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership 2020
• Subjects: Ecology and Environment; Economics; Atlantic salmon; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527054/; https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527054/1/N527054BC.pdf; https://doi.org/10.14465/2020.arc21.aqu

• Aquaculture is a significant industry in UK coastal waters, with annual turnover valued at more than £1.8bn. It particularly important in western and northern Scotland. • Aquaculture is sensitive to the marine environment and changes therein. • The dominant contribution of a single species (Atlantic salmon) to production tonnage and value potentially increases vulnerability to climate change. • Temperature increase is expected to increase growth rates for most species farmed. • Increased problems associated with some diseases and parasites, notably sea lice and gill disease (which has emerged as a serious problem), are likely to increase in the short term and to get worse in the longer term. Impacts may be synergistic. • Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) and jellyfish swarms/invasions may also get worse, however complex ecosystem interactions make responses uncertain. • The situation for shellfish is similar to finfish, although they are additionally at risk of accumulation of toxins from HABs, and recruitment failure, and, in the longer term, to sea-level rises and ocean acidification. • Technical and management changes in the rapidly evolving aquaculture industry make long-term impacts of climate change difficult to forecast.