Malin Pinsky’s commentary on recent work in PNAS by Payne et al. (read full article here) highlights the paper’s contributions on the less visible vulnerabilities embedded within European fisheries. These fisheries have been overlooked from a climate risk perspective because they are less critical to the regional economy and food supply chain than fisheries of other world regions. Conducting fine-scale climate risk assessments (below the national level), Payne et al. use qualitative approaches to index exposure, hazard, and vulnerability. Their work documents that certain communities and certain fleets have greater exposure to risk than course-scale national data would suggest. The analysis reveals highly uneven geographic patterns of vulnerability apparently driven both by ecological and human social factors. A key recommendation from Payne et al. , according to Pinsky, is that climate risk can be reduced for many fisheries through greater diversification across a wider variety of target species.
