New research to make fisheries more sustainable
Sustainable fishing is one way the Nordic countries can combat climate change and protect biodiversity. NordForsk has funded a collaborative project on sustainable fishing to combat climate change and develop concrete measures for protecting marine biodiversity. This initiative will also support the Nordic countries in their green transition.
Fishing affects biodiversity
In the project, Anna Kuparinen, a professor of aquatic environmental sciences at the Ģֱ, is focusing on understanding the multispecies dynamics of food webs in food chains. She uses tools such as network theory and computational models.
“Solving the climate crisis and biodiversity loss depends to a large part on our success in making the transition to a more sustainable food system,” says Kuparinen. “We need more detailed research on how this could happen in practice.”
The project analyzes the impacts of fisheries, including their direct effects on biodiversity and the food web structure. It also examines indirect effects, such as long-term biodiversity changes due to habitat degradation, disruptions to recruitment from larval drift, and food depletion from physical disturbance and food web alteration.
“This interdisciplinary project adopts an ecosystem perspective on fishery impacts, focusing on the entire ecosystems of the two Nordic seas, the Kattegat and the Skagerrak,” says Kuparinen. “These sea areas are also among the most well-monitored in the world, with long and coherent data series covering all trophic levels.”
Research data is collected from a variety of sources
The project is highly multidisciplinary. It gathers and compiles fisheries data from the satellite-based vessel monitoring systems and matches them with corresponding biodiversity and monitoring data to establish the direct relationship between variables describing fishing pressure and the state of the ecosystem. The project will model and analyze the mitigation of the most significant impacts of fisheries across different scenarios. It also emphasizes the use of closed areas and alternative gear types.
“This project brings together the best of Nordic expertise,” says Kuparinen. “It is large and complex and demands multidisciplinary cooperation that draws on the best research methods and experts in the field.”
The project also includes close cooperation with Danish (Aarhus University) and Norwegian (Institute of Marine Research) research teams.
