TEMPE, Ariz. -- Watching the ebb and flow of populations of fisheries around the world can provide some insight into understanding the effects of global warming on our planet, according to a group of researchers writing in the summer 2007 issue of Natural Resource Modeling. The fact that fisheries are closely tied to human health and species health across the globe adds to their significance.
"Fisheries are a globally important economic activity, not the least from the perspective of human nutrition and underdeveloped societies," writes Rognvaldur Hannesson, of the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, in the issues introduction. "Fisheries, due to their primitive nature, are among the human activities most exposed to climate changes."
The output of fisheries, as well as their costs and benefits, are "directly and strongly affected by variations in natural conditions," Hannesson adds. "Habitat conditions, which are the main determinants of the productivity and location of fish stocks, are strongly affected by ocean and atmospheric temperatures. The current prospect of substantial global warming, therefore, leads to concern about what this is likely to mean for the worlds fisheries."
The summer 2007 issue of Natural Resource Modeling (http://rmmc.asu.edu/nrm/nrm.html) is devoted to fisheries and global climate change. Its six articles discuss various aspects of global warmings effect on fisheries and its consequences. Natural Resource Modeling is an international journal devoted to mathematical modeling of natural resource systems. It is produced by the Rocky Mountain Mathematics Consortium.
"This issue of Natural Resource Modeling is particularly timely as it calls attention to important future changes in global food supplies from marine fish," says Thomas Sherman, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Mathematics Consortium and a mathematics professor
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Contact: Skip Derra
skip.derra@asu.edu
480-965-4823
Arizona State University
16-May-2007