Waters are getting warmer, darker (mainly in lakes) and less saline (in the Baltic Sea). How does this affect fish communities and fisheries? To resolve this, we study how the dynamics and responses of fish communities result from variation in individuals’ direct, physiological, responses and their interactions with other individuals in fish communities and aquatic food-webs.
Species and individuals are affected in different ways by environmental changes resulting from climate change. Warming, for example, directly affects fish metabolism, but how varies between species. It even varies between individuals, often depending on how big they are. But individuals also affect each other, e.g. by feeding on or competing with each other. The net effect of climate change on, for example, how individuals grow therefore depends both on their physiological responses to the environment and on these interactions in food-webs. The fate of fish individuals under climate change, in turn, determines – and is thus also affected by – the responses of the populations and communities they constitute.
We study this by combining unique field-experiments that simulate climate change with mathematical models of environment-dependent physiologically based community- and food-web dynamics, currently in three related projects.
Interested? Welcome to get in touch!
The Biotest, a heated artifical bay where we study effects of warming in the Baltic Sea (access thanks to collaboration with Forsmarks kraftgrupp AB). Photo: Göran Hansson.
1/9
We simulating climate change in the Baltic Sea using mesocosms. Photo: Fredrik Landfors.
2/9
Perch lay their eggs on vegetation, here we gave them Christmas trees! Photo: Fredrik Landfors.
3/9
Collecting perch roe for hatching, for our climate change experiments. Photo: Fredrik Landfors.
4/9
Perch eggs are hatched in aquaria with different water temperatures. Photo: Fredrik Landfors (left), Anna Gårdmark (right).
5/9
See the eyes of perch eggs soon to hatch! Photo: Fredrik Landfors.
6/9
Fixing frames for mesocosms for warming experiments. Photo: Forsmarks Kraftgrupp AB Anna Ek.
7/9
Fill up and soon all set for experiments! Photo: Anna Gårdmark
8/9
Making water brown, to simulate altered water color and warming, both caused by climate change. Photo: Renee Van Dorst
9/9
Anna Gårdmark, Professor
Department of Aquatic Resources, SLU
anna.gardmark@slu.se, +46 10-478 41 25
Magnus Huss, Senior Lecturer, Director of Studies - postgraduate education
Department of Aquatic Resources, Institute of Coastal Research, SLU
magnus.huss@slu.se, +46 10 478 41 27
Read more about our reserach and us!
Visit us on @FishinFoodwebs, Instagram, for news and fun research in our research group!