Environmental control on the productivity of a heavily fished ecosystem

Abstract

Sustainable fisheries management requires an understanding of the links between environmental conditions and fish populations, especially in the context of climate change. From this perspective, identifying the phases in which ocean climate fluctuations and changes in ecosystem productivity coincide could provide a powerful tool to help inform fisheries management. Using more than 70 years of climate and fisheries data, we show that cyclical changes in the Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) ecosystems productivity, from primary producers to piscivorous fish, coincide with changes in the regional ocean climate and the atmospheric settings of the northern hemisphere. This broad correspondence between climate and lower and higher trophic levels advances ideas for incorporating environmental knowledge into fisheries management on the NL shelves or in other regions facing similar dynamics.