Although studies and research have provided projections of the effects of climate change on fish species and their habitats, there has been limited synthesis on the response by humans to those changes, and how management agencies should be prepared to cope with those changes. A special session at the 81^st North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference entitled Effects of Climate Change on Inland Fish and Fisheries: Looking Back and Moving Forward, will provide insights on how fisheries management agencies can adapt to an uncertain and changing future. Slated for Wednesday, March 16^th at the Wyndham Grand hotel in Pittsburgh, this special session is one of four concurrent sessions that will immediately follow the conference plenary on Wednesday morning.

Attendees of this session will be presented with the findings of a workshop that convened 30 experts from around North America to examine the effects of global climate change on inland fish and fisheries in the United States and Canada. Speakers will summarize the current state of knowledge, identify data gaps, and suggest future research directions around four major themes dealing with climate-related impacts on fish and fisheries:

• Individual-level responses (e.g., physiology; growth),
• Population and community level changes (e.g., range shifts; biotic interactions),
• Human dimensions (e.g., recreational fishing), and
• Management and adaptation to climate change (e.g., what agencies can do to adapt).


 

Information presented at this session will be extremely useful for biologists, researchers, and administrators in their efforts to make better informed decisions that will conserve and enhance fisheries and adapt their management to a changing climate.

In addition to being published in the conference transactions, the manuscripts of the four presentations included in this session are slated for a special climate change issue of Fisheries that will likely be published in June 2016. All attendees of the 81^st North American Conference will also be mailed a copy of this publication in summer 2016 thanks to a generous contribution by the American Fisheries Society.

Co-Chairs for this special session are Abigail Lynch, USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center and Craig Paukert, USGS Missouri Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.