Electronic tagging and tracking aquatic animals to understand a world increasingly shaped by a changing climate and extreme weather events

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    Accepted author manuscript, 2.25 MB, PDF document

  • Robert J. Lennox
  • Pedro Afonso
  • Kim Birnie-Gauvin
  • Lotte S. Dahlmo
  • Cecilie I. Nilsen
  • Robert Arlinghaus
  • Steven J. Cooke
  • Allan T. Souza
  • Ivan Jarić
  • Marie Prchalová
  • Milan Říha
  • Samuel Westrelin
  • William Twardek
  • Eneko Aspillaga
  • Sebastian Kraft
  • Marek Šmejkal
  • Henrik Baktoft
  • Tomas Brodin
  • Gustav Hellström
  • David Villegas-Ríos
  • Knut Wiik Vollset
  • Lene K. Sortland
  • Michael G. Bertram
  • Marcelo Crossa
  • Emma F. Vogel
  • Natasha Gillies
  • Jan Reubens

Despite great promise for understanding the impacts and extent of climate change and extreme weather events on aquatic animals, their species, and ecological communities, it is surprising that electronic tagging and tracking tools, like biotelemetry and biologging, have not been extensively used to understand climate change or develop and evaluate potential interventions that may help adapt to its impacts. In this review, we provide an overview of methodologies and study designs that leverage available electronic tracking tools to investigate aspects of climate change and extreme weather events in aquatic ecosystems. Key interventions to protect aquatic life from the impacts of climate change, including habitat restoration, protected areas, conservation translocations, mitigations against interactive effects of climate change, and simulation of future scenarios, can all be greatly facilitated by using electronic tagging and tracking. We anticipate that adopting animal tracking to identify phenotypes, species, or ecosystems that are vulnerable or resilient to climate change will help in applying management interventions such as fisheries management, habitat restoration, invasive species control, or enhancement measures that prevent extinction and strengthen the resilience of communities against the most damaging effects of climate change. Given the scal-ability and increasing accessibility of animal tracking tools for researchers, tracking individual organisms will hopefully also facilitate research into effective solutions and interventions against the most extreme and acute impacts on species, popula-tions, and ecosystems.

Original languageEnglish
JournalCanadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
Volume81
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)326-339
ISSN0706-652X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Copyright remains with the author(s) or their insti-.

    Research areas

  • acoustic telemetry, applied ecology, electronic tagging, global warming, PSAT

ID: 385704834