Climate change and northward distribution shifts in Icelandic groundfish species

• Main Author: Ragnhildur Birna Stefánsdóttir 1990-
• Other Authors: Háskóli Íslands
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Líffræði; Sjávarhiti; Loftslagsbreytingar; Fiskistofnar; Fiskgengd; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/33353

Elevated ocean temperatures, due to climate change, have been predicted to result in a northward latitudinal shift in the distribution of many fish species. Species that are near the limits of their distribution around Iceland have been reported to have extended farther north and rare species and vagrants have been observed more frequently in Icelandic waters. The weighted mean latitude of groundfish species, using autumn survey data from 1996-2018, against year of collection was analyzed to determine whether they have shifted towards north in response to change in ocean temperature. Here it is reported that the distributions of both exploited and nonexploited species have responded markedly to recent increases in sea temperature, with one-third of the species analyzed shifting in mean latitude towards north over a 23 year period. These results were in correlation to a temperature increase that was observed for both bottom and surface temperature around Iceland over the survey period. There were also examples of southward shifts for some species, with them being markedly fewer than the species that showed northward shifts.