Climate Adaptation Handbook

If you would like to join a network of researchers, decision makers and industry members sharing information on adaptation please email us.

In a follow-up project that worked with State and Territory fisheries agencies around Australia some how to materials were created. These included:

1. Handbook Introduction
2. Risk perceptions
3. Conceptual models
4. Impact pathways
5. Online app and worked example
6. Ecological vulnerability assessment step
7. Look at Fishery and management responses
8. Climate explainer

All of these are available in the pdf that can be downloaded here. The r script for plotting the results of the risk perception (Holt Laury) survey is available here.

The FRDC report to go with this extension work will be made available via the FRDC website and a link here, once it is approved.

The handbook and regional summaries pull together information from many sources. However, one key source was the vulnerability analysis and ecosystem model based projections undertaken in the FRDC funded project on Decadal scale projection of changes in Australian fisheries stocks under climate change. If you would like more information on that work, a short summary of that project and a factsheet for that project are available for download.

Information on observed and expected climate change related shifts on the ecosystems of interest is key information for the handbook’s approach.  Regional summaries have been created for locations around Australia to help everyone understand what the next few decades may hold in terms of physical and ecological ecosystem changes.

Oceans and climate are tightly tied together. This means that as the world’s climate changes some of the biggest signatures of that will be in our oceans, affecting the ecosystems and fisheries there. Understanding what that means for specific locations can be difficult, but we have some idea about what the regions of Australia may look like by 2040.

	Eastern Australia has already seen a lot of change. In the next two decades the environment will see further change of the same magnitude (if not more) than what has already happened.It appears that all the species key to the local fisheries and ecosystems are expected to be moderately to highly sensitive to climate  change.
	Southern Australia is an ocean climate change hotspot. In the next two decades the environment is very likely to see further change.Many species in the local fisheries and ecosystems are moderately to highly sensitive to climate change. Declines in abundance and species moving to new locations are likely to continue.
	The oceans around the Kerguelen Plateau (site of Heard Island and MacDonald Island) are becoming more variable, with stronger winds and warmer waters. Sea ice is expected to decrease in future as waters warm further and conditions become rougher.About half of the species in the region are thought to be at least moderately sensitive to climate change, including species key to the fishery there.
	Western Australia is already warming, with seagrasses, kelp and corals already showing the stress. Change is expected to continue, with conditions seen only in marine heatwaves now expected to extend throughout most of the year.As all the key species targeted by fisheries are expected to be moderately to highly sensitive to climate change, year-to-year variability of fish stocks is likely to increase.
	Northern Australia has not changed as much as southern Australia, but its waters have warmed, wth more warming expected into the future. Marine heatwaves will last longer, as will droughts (impacting species who rely on rivers).Most of the species in the region are expected to be moderately to highly sensitive to climate change, including all of the species targeted by the local fisheries.

This concept note summarises the idea for an national initiative around climate impacts on fisheries to facilitate information sharing – within and across jurisdictions and across backgrounds (science, industry, management, traditional owners, recreational fishers and any others interested in the topic).