Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-20-2020
Department 1
Environmental Studies
Abstract
Globally, our knowledge on lake fisheries is still limited despite their importance to food security and livelihoods. Here we show that fish catches can respond either positively or negatively to climate and land-use changes, by analyzing time-series data (1970–2014) for 31 lakes across five continents. We find that effects of a climate or land-use driver (e.g., air temperature) on lake environment could be relatively consistent in directions, but consequential changes in a lake-environmental factor (e.g., water temperature) could result in either increases or decreases in fish catch in a given lake. A subsequent correlation analysis indicates that reductions in fish catch was less likely to occur in response to potential climate and land-use changes if a lake is located in a region with greater access to clean water. This finding suggests that adequate investments for water-quality protection and water-use efficiency can provide additional benefits to lake fisheries and food security.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
DOI
10.1038/s41467-020-14624-2
Version
Version of Record
Recommended Citation
Kao, Y., Rogers, M.W., Bunnell, D.B. et al. Effects of climate and land-use changes on fish catches across lakes at a global scale. Nat Commun 11, 2526 (2020).
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This article is also available on the publisher's website.
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