Marine Conservation Incentives:Interdisciplinary Dimensions of Climate Change

• Main Authors: Fernandez, Linda, Kaiser, Brooks, Kourantidou , Melina, Sundet, Jan, Vestergaard, Niels
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF 2018
• Subjects: Arctic; climate change; Barents Sea; Climate change; Red king crab; Snow crab
• Online Access: https://portal.findresearcher.sdu.dk/da/publications/76a3b131-b6eb-4e7f-851b-0c239ec7d1fb; https://www.polar2018.org/uploads/2/4/6/0/24605948/polar2018_abstractproceedings.pdf

Arctic marine resources overlap is increasing (in space and time) a s climate change narrows the availability of appropriate habitat ranges for existing species to survive, and new species enter and compete. This challenges the management of both commercial and ecosystem -valued species. Two invasive crab species (snow crab and red king crab) offer a platform to explore adaptive conservation challenges for Arctic countries facing dynamic and spatial changes in new (crab) and existing (benthic and commercial) resource productivity. Shifting supply (US, CAN, NOR, RUS) and incr easing demand (esp. Asia) add economic uncertainty to the ecological changes. Ongoing sovereign and international policy interests matter, as they evolve in ongoing legal cases. The crabs differ in their uncertainty, biology, economic, climatic and political factors. We exploit these differences using quantitative and qualitative data in a bioeconomic framework that spans time and space dimensions. The crab invasions in the Barents Sea region serve as a building block for broader pan Arctic conservation iss ues in the Year of Polar Prediction and beyond. Optimal decision -making regarding commercial species such as crab in ecosystems must incorporate how strategic institutional shifts, occurring in response to the economic incentives, asymmetrically affect local and global stakeholders in addition to standard concerns over ecological and economic damages amidst climate change.