WCS 3-Sentence Science

Climate Change Means Ups and Downs for Boreal Stream Fishes

December 26, 2019

CREDIT: ALYSSA MURDOCH

Each year, Wildlife Conservation Society scientists publish more than 300 peer-reviewed studies and papers. “WCS 3-Sentence Science” is a regular tip-sheet — in bite sized helpings — of some of this published work.

Here we present work by WCS Canada’s Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle on the relationship between land use and species richness in the context of climate change.

1. Researchers looked at boreal stream fishes from over 300 catchments across a broad 250,000 square kilometer area in Canada and found that sensitive fish species — including highly valued salmonids — declined owing to a combination of land use and warming, including potential drought conditions in small streams.
2. Land use disturbances may provide benefits to certain species in cooler regions, but overall species richness and productivity were generally unaffected by land use.
3. However, future warming may exacerbate the negative effects of co-occurring stressors.

Study and Journal: “The interactive effects of climate change and land use on boreal stream fish communities” from Science of the Total Environment
WCS Co-Author(s): Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle, WCS Canada

For more information, contact: Stephen Sautner, 718–220–3682, ssautner@wcs.org.