Myron A. Peck

NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research | NIOZ · COS (TX) – Coastal Systems

Early life survival is critical to successful replenishment of fish populations, and hypotheses developed under the Growth-Survival Paradigm (GSP) have guided investigations of controlling processes. The GSP postulates that recruitment depends on growth and mortality rates during early life stages, as well as their duration, after which the mortali...

Recruitment success of marine fishes is generally considered to be highly dependent on larval growth and survival. In temperate ecosystems, fish larvae are sensitive to food limitation during the low productivity seasons, particularly if water temperatures and concomitant larval metabolic costs increase due to climate change. We combined 7 years of...

Conflicting results remain on how climate change affects the biological performance of different marine taxa, hindering our capacity to predict the future state of marine ecosystems. Using a novel meta-analytical approach, we tested for directional changes and deviations across biological responses of fish and invertebrates from exposure to warming...

As climate-related impacts threaten marine biodiversity globally, it is important to adjust conservation efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. Translating scientific knowledge into practical management, however, is often complicated due to resource, economic and policy constraints, generating a knowledge-action gap. To develop potentia...

The Mediterranean Sea ranks among the most overexploited and fastest-warming ocean regions. This situation calls for urgent development of global change scenarios and models of marine biodiversity to anticipate changes and support ecosystem-based management strategies across the entire Mediterranean Sea. Using a new end-to-end modelling chain for t...

In a warming world, both the metabolic rates of ectotherm predators and the phenology of their prey organisms is subject to change. Knowledge on how intrinsic and extrinsic factors govern predator–prey interactions is essential in order to understand how the environment regulates the vital rates of consumers. Controlled experiments, however, simult...

Understanding the drivers behind fluctuations in fish populations remains a key objective in fishery science. Our predictive capacity to explain these fluctuations is still relatively low, due to the amalgam of interacting bottom-up and top-down factors, which vary across time and space among and within populations. Gaining a mechanistic understand...

The world is struggling to limit greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the human footprint on nature. We therefore urgently need to think about how to achieve more with actions to address mounting challenges for human health and wellbeing from biodiversity loss, climate change effects, and unsustainable economic and social development. Nature-based S...

To predict the potential impacts of climate change on marine organisms, it is critical to understand how multiple stressors constrain the physiology and distribution of species. We evaluated the effects of seasonal changes in seawater temperature and near-future ocean acidification (OA) on organismal and sub-organismal traits associated with the th...

In marine fishes, the timing of spawning determines the environment offspring will face and, therefore, the chances of early life stage survival. Different waves of Atlantic herring Clupea harengus spawn throughout spring in the western Baltic Sea and the survival of offspring from early in the season has been low in the most recent decade. We asse...

Spawning habitats of cold-water, European small pelagic fishes have shifted poleward in the last three decades coincident with gradual ocean warming. We predicted present-day, season-specific habitat suitability for spawning by European sardine Sardina pichardus in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean and Black Seas, and projected climate-driven ch...

The role of small prey (< 200 µm) in larval marine fish nutrition is largely understudied. Here, we explore the contribution of protozooplankton (PZP 20–200 µm) to larval fish diets, compared to metazoan microzooplankton (MZP 55–200 µm). More specifically, we tested whether the contribution of PZP increased during the low productivity season and de...

The European COST Action “Unifying Approaches to Marine Connectivity for improved Resource Management for the Seas” (SEA-UNICORN, 2020‐2025) is an international research coordination initiative that unites an interdisciplinary community of scientists and policymakers from over 100 organizations across Europe and beyond. It is establishing a globall...

Marine mammals in subtropical coastal habitats are sentinels of the health of the ecosystem and offer important ecosystem services. They rely on prey that pursues feeding opportunities, while both avoid unfavorable conditions. In many cases, these predator-prey dynamics fluctuate seasonally and are regulated by lunar, tidal, and/or diel cycles (hou...

European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) is a large, economically important fish species with a long generation time whose long-term resilience to ocean acidification (OA) and warming (OW) is not clear. We incubated sea bass from Brittany (France) for two generations (>5 years in total) under ambient and predicted OA conditions (PCO2: 650 and 1700...

Phenotypic plasticity may allow ectotherms with complex life histories such as amphibians to cope with climate-driven changes in their environment. Plasticity in thermal tolerance (i.e., shifts of thermal limits via acclimation to higher temperatures) has been proposed as a mechanism to cope with warming and extreme thermal events. However, thermal...

In face of global changes, projecting and mapping biodiversity changes are of critical importance to support management and conservation measures of marine ecosystems. Despite the development of a wide variety of ecosystem models capable of integrating an increasing number of ecological processes, most projections of climate-induced changes in mari...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of ocean acidification (OA) and warming (OW) as well as the transgenerational effect of OA on larval and juvenile growth and metabolism of a large economically important fish species with a long generation time. Therefore we incubated European sea bass from Brittany (France) for two generations (>...

Significance We present climate risk analyses for 1) 105 ocean-dependent communities and 2) 380 fishing fleets in Europe. Our unique approach provides a perspective over the climate risks in this diverse and populous continent that is unprecedented in both its breadth and detail. We show that countries in southeast Europe as well as the United King...

Climate change often leads to shifts in the distribution of small pelagic fish, likely by changing the match-mismatch dynamics between these sensitive species within their environmental optima. Using present-day habitat suitability, we projected how different scenarios of climate change (IPCC Representative Concentration Pathways 2.6, 4.5 and 8.5)...

Understanding aspects of the biology of early life stages of marine fish is critical if one hopes to reveal the factors and processes that impact the survival and recruitment (year class) strength. The Peruvian anchovy (Engraulis ringens) is a key species in the Humboldt Current System and the present study provides the first description of the emb...

The Humboldt Upwelling System (HUS) supports high levels of primary production and has one of the largest fisheries (anchoveta) worldwide. The upwelling dynamics and productivity of this system are closely connected to climate variability and are hypothesized to undergo crucial climate-driven changes in the future with unknown consequences to produ...

Restoration of habitat-forming species is applied worldwide as a nature-based solution to halt biodiversity loss, combat climate change, and help sustain ecosystem services. European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) beds disappeared from the North Sea at the end of the 19th century and restoration efforts have recently started. Site selection for restor...

Many species living in coastal environments with high fluctuations in pCO2 are robust to ocean acidification (OA) due to local adaptation, while increases in temperature can lead to migration of species to higher latitudes. In nursery areas of the Baltic Sea, sea surface temperatures increase by 0.15 °C/day and pH varies between 9.0 and 7.6 during...

In 1992, the Union of Concerned Scientists shared their ‘World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity’ with governmental leaders worldwide, calling for immediate action to halt the environmental degradation that threatens the systems that support life on Earth. A follow-up ‘Second Warning’ was released in 2017, with over 15 000 scientists as signatories,...

In the realm of marine science, engaging with stakeholders (e.g., industry members, policy-makers, managers, NGOs) is an important method applied in many research projects. The Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted this engagement in two ways. First, social distancing measures forbid most face-to-face participatory activities originally envisione...

Ocean acidification has the potential to negatively affect marine ecosystems by influencing the development and metabolism of key members of food webs. The garfish, Belone belone, is an ecologically important predator in European regional seas and it remains unknown how this species will be impacted by projected changes in climate. We artificially...

Climate change is anticipated to have long-term and widespread direct consequences for the European marine ecosystems and subsequently for the European fishery sector. Additionally, many socioeconomic and political factors linked to climate change scenarios will impact the future development of fishing industries. Robust projection modeling of bioe...

It has proven extremely challenging for researchers to predict with confidence how human societies might develop in the future, yet managers and industries need to make projections in order to test adaptation and mitigation strategies designed to build resilience to long-term shocks. This paper introduces exploratory scenarios with a particular foc...

Small pelagic fish in the new millennium: A bottom-up view of global research effort, Progress in Oceanography (2020), doi: https://doi.

Effective conservation actions require knowledge on the sensitivity of species to pollution and other anthropogenic stressors. Many of these stressors are endocrine disruptors (EDs) that can impair the hypothalamus–pituitary–thyroid axis and thus alter thyroid hormone (TH) levels with physiological consequences to wildlife. Due to their specific ha...

Climate-driven changes in aquatic environments have already started to affect the European aquaculture sector's most commercially important finfish and shellfish species. In addition to changes in water quality and temperature that can directly influence fish production by altering health status, growth performance and/or feed conversion, the aquac...

With the majority of the global human population living in coastal regions, correctly characterising the climate risk that ocean-dependent communities and businesses are exposed to is key to prioritising the finite resources available to support adaptation. We apply a climate risk analysis across the European fisheries sector for the first time to...

Physiological measures can help to identify environmental thresholds that constrain organismal-level performance. Relating these thresholds, in a cause-and-effect manner, to long-term changes in the vital rates (e.g. growth, survival, reproduction) of wild populations has the potential to generate robust science advice needed to support conservatio...

This report distils the main results of the EU H2020 project CERES "Climate Change and European Fisheries and Aquaculture" (grant number 678193) executed between 2016 and 2020. See the report for citation format.

Environmental stress induced by natural and anthropogenic processes including climate change may threaten the productivity of species and persistence of populations. Ectotherms can potentially cope with stressful conditions such as extremes in temperature by exhibiting physiological plasticity. Amphibian larvae experiencing stressful environments d...

When organisms are unable to feed ad libitum they may be more susceptible to negative effects of environmental stressors such as ocean acidification and warming (OAW). We reared sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) at 15 or 20 °C and at ambient or high PCO2 (650 versus 1750 µatm PCO2; pH = 8.1 or 7.6) at ad libitum feeding and observed no discernible ef...

We evaluated the effects of projected, near future ocean acidification (OA) and extreme events of temperature (warming or cooling) on the thermal tolerance of Concholepas concholepas, a coastal benthic keystone species. Three separate trials of an experiment were conducted by exposing juvenile C. concholepas for 1 month to one of two contrasting pC...

Engagement with stakeholders is a key tool for improving our understanding of the role of humans within ecosystems. Drawing on knowledge and experiences of local practitioners enables us to craft research relevant to the users of its results and to focus our efforts on real-life issues. In fisheries science, central stakeholder groups are fishers,...

Ocean acidification and ocean warming (OAW) are simultaneously occurring and could pose ecological challenges to marine life, particularly early life stages of fish that, although they are internal calcifiers, may have poorly developed acid-base regulation. This study assessed the effect of projected OAW on key fitness traits (growth, development a...

Infographic designed by @McCorkStudios for publication: Kelly, R., Mackay, M., Nash, K.L., Cvitanovic, C., Allison, E.H., Armitage, D., Bonn, A., Cooke, S.J., Frusher, S., Fulton, E.A., Halpern, B.S., Lopes, P.F.M., Milner-Gulland, E.J., Peck, M.A., Pecl, G.T., Stephenson, R.L. & Werner, F. (2019) Ten tips for developing interdisciplinary socio-ec...

To make robust projectios of the impacts of climate change, it is critical to understand how abiotic factors may interact to constrain the distribution and productivity of marine flora and fauna. We evaluated the effects of projected end of the century ocean acidification (OA) and warming (OW) on the thermal tolerance of an important living marine...

Predation is one of the principle factors regulating the survival of early-life stages and recruitment success of marine fishes. Although challenging, it is important to understand how predation mortality varies in space and how this spatial variability affects the temporal dynamics of fish recruitment. We investigated the spatiotemporal variabilit...

Interdisciplinary research and collaborations are essential to disentangle complex and wicked global socio-ecological challenges. However, institutional structures and practices to support interdisciplinary research are still developing and a shared understanding on how best to develop effective interdisciplinary researchers (particularly at early...

Populations of small pelagic fish (SPF) such as sardine, anchovy, herring, capelin and mackerel provide ~25% of the global annual yield of capture fisheries, and the well-being of many human coastal communities around the world, particularly in developing countries, critically depends on these SPF resources. These fishes display large ‘boom and bus...

Environmental change exposes wildlife to a wide array of environmental stressors that arise from both anthropogenic and natural sources. Many environmental stressors with the ability to alter endocrine function are known as endocrine disruptors, which may impair the hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid axis resulting in physiological consequences to wild...

An amalgam of empirical data from laboratory and field studies is needed to build robust, theoretical models of climate impacts that can provide science-based advice for sustainable management of fish and shellfish resources. Using a semi-systematic literature review, Gap Analysis and multilevel meta-analysis, we assessed the status of empirical kn...

• For many countries bordering the North Atlantic, fisheries contribute very little to national gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita seafood consumption is low, hence, fisheries are not primarily concerned with maintaining food security. In Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands however, fishing remains a nationally important activity. • T...

Environmental variation induced by natural and anthropogenic processes including climate change may threaten species by causing environmental stress. Anuran larvae experiencing environmental stress may display altered thyroid hormone (TH) status with potential implications for physiological traits. Therefore, any capacity to adapt to environmental...

Protozooplankton (PZP) (here size range: 12–200 μm) are rarely sampled over a broad scale, especially in ecosystem monitoring programs, despite their trophodynamic importance as grazers in the microbial loop and as prey for larger zooplankton and early life stages of fish. In this study we sampled PZP from Dutch, French, German and Norwegian resear...

The sea-surface microlayer (SML) at the air-sea interface is a distinct, under-studied habitat compared to the subsurface and copepods, important components of ocean food webs, have developed key adaptations to exploit this niche. By using automated SML sampling, high-throughput sequencing and unmanned aerial vehicles, we report on the distribution...

We introduce a new, coupled modeling approach for simulating ecosystem-wide patterns in larval fish foraging and growth. An application of the method reveals how interplay between temperature and plankton dynamics during 1970−2009 impacted a cold-water species (Atlantic cod Gadus morhua) and a warm-water species (European anchovy Engraulis encrasic...

Chemical, physical and biological environmental stressors may affect the endocrine system, such as the thyroid hormone (TH) axis in larval amphibians with consequences for energy partitioning among development, growth and metabolism. We studied the effects of two TH level affecting compounds, exogenous l‐thyroxine (T4) and sodium perchlorate (SP),...

The present study describes the responses of summer phytoplankton biomass to changes in top-down forcing (expressed as zooplankton mortality) in three ecosystems (the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Nordic Seas) across different 3D ecosystem models. In each of the model set-ups, we applied the same changes in the magnitude of mortality (±20%) of...

We review and compare four broad categories of spatially-explicit modelling approaches currently used to understand and project changes in the distribution and productivity of living marine resources including: 1) statistical species distribution models, 2) physiology-based, biophysical models of single life stages or the whole life cycle of specie...