Altered capelin behaviour because of climate change

Scientists from the Marine and Freshwater Research institute (MFRI), in collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark (DTU Aqua), recently published a paper in Fisheries Oceanography highlighting the climate driven response of capelin distribution in the Iceland-East Greenland-Jan Mayen region.

Pronounced shifts in distribution and migration of capelin, one of Iceland's ecologically and commercially important species, have been observed.

The migration towards the feeding grounds shifted from north of Iceland to the east coast of Greenland in the early 2000s. Additionally, since 2003, a delay has been observed in the arrival of capelin to waters north of Iceland in January. In this study, model predictions indicate that changing environmental conditions have contributed to this altered distribution. This work was conducted as part of the EU’s Horizon 2020 ECOTIP project, which investigated ecological tipping cascades in the Arctic seas.

The paper is available here.