William Cheung

• BSc (HKU), MPhil (HKU), PhD (UBC)
• Managing Director at University of British Columbia

Climate change is affecting ocean temperature, acidity, currents, and primary production, causing shifts in species distributions, marine ecosystems, and ultimately fisheries. Earth system models simulate climate change impacts on physical and biogeochemical properties of future oceans under varying emissions scenarios. Coupling these simulations w...

Global warming alters ocean conditions, which can have dramatic consequences for marine species. Yet, the centennial-scale effects and reversibility of habitat viability for marine species, particularly those that are important to fisheries, remain uncertain. Using the Aerobic Growth Index, we quantify the impacts of warming and deoxygenation on th...

Aim The Ocean is the major carrier of energy storage of the earth and is greatly affected by climate change and human activities. The spotted seal (Phoca largha) is a national first‐class protected species in China and is the only pinniped species that breeds in China waters. This study investigated the impacts of climate change on the distribution...

Marine fisheries are crucial to the economy, livelihood, food security and culture of coastal nations and communities, significantly contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. A decade ago, T. J. Pitcher and W. W. L. Cheung highlighted the dichotomy in the perception of fisheries' status, concluding that long‐term sustainabil...

Marine heatwaves (MHWs) are becoming longer, more frequent and more intense in recent decades. MHWs have caused large-scale ecological impacts, such as coral bleaching, mass mortality of seagrass, fishes and invertebrates, and shifts in abundance and distribution of marine species. However, the implications of these MHW-induced impacts on marine sp...

Gender equality has been a key consideration for policymakers and natural resource managers in assessing climate risk and developing effective adaptation strategies. However, the interests and concerns of women in relation to climate-related planning and fisheries policies are often neglected. This underrepresentation of women, particularly from de...

Global warming alters ocean conditions, which can have dramatic consequences for marine species. Yet, the centennial-scale effects and reversibility of habitat viability for marine species, particularly those that are important to fisheries, remain uncertain. Using the Aerobic Growth Index, we quantify the impacts of warming and deoxygenation on th...

Many seafood products marketed as “sustainable” are not. More exacting sustainability standards are needed to respond to a fast-changing world and support United Nations SDGs. Future fisheries must operate on principles that minimise impacts on marine life, adapt to climate change and allow regeneration of depleted biodiversity, while supporting an...

Global pollution has exacerbated accumulation of toxicants like methylmercury (MeHg) in seafood. Human exposure to MeHg has been associated with long-term neurodevelopmental delays and impaired cardiovascular health, while many micronutrients in seafood are beneficial to health. The largest MeHg exposure source for many general populations originat...

Aim We aimed to enhance our understanding of the distribution of mesopelagic mesozooplankton (MM) using species distribution models, assess the performance of various modelling techniques, identify key environmental predictors for MM distribution and compute their habitat suitability indices. Location Our study focused on the mesopelagic zone glob...

Are there limits to our ability to adapt food systems to climate change? This overview paper for the special issue highlights results of research on potential limits and responses by food system actors. Responses are shaped by the critical interactions among the physical, chemical, biological, and social impacts in food systems arising from climate...

Predicting fish prices is essential for economic sustainability and food security. Fluctuations in fish prices because of market demand, overfishing, and climate change can significantly affect access to essential nutrients for low-income populations. This study develops a machine learning model using XGBoost to predict fish prices, utilising maric...

The effects of climate change on marine ecosystems are causing cascading impacts on livelihood, food security, and culture through fisheries. Such impacts interact and exacerbate the effects of overfishing on marine social‐ecological systems, complicating the rebuilding of ecosystems to achieve desirable and sustainable ocean futures. Developing ef...

Ocean warming is driving significant changes in the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems, shifting species' biogeography and phenology, changing body size and biomass and altering the trophodynamics of the system. Particularly, extreme temperature events such as marine heatwaves (MHWs) have been increasing in intensity, duration and frequ...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020 was a reminder of society’s vulnerability in the face of natural upheavals, leading to widespread unemployment and increased poverty. Simultaneously, human activities have precipitated large-scale environmental degradation and catastrophic climate change. Here, we conduct a global-scale, 186-...

While mercury occurs naturally in the environment, human activity has significantly disturbed its biogeochemical cycle. Inorganic mercury entering aquatic systems can be transformed into methylmercury, a strong neurotoxicant that builds up in organisms and affects ecosystem and public health. In the Arctic, top predators such as beluga whales, an e...

Aquaculture has the potential to support a sustainable and equitable food system in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) on food security, climate change, and biodiversity (FCB). Biological diversity amongst aquaculture organisms can drive diverse contributions to such goals. Existing studies have assessed the performanc...

Climate change impacts have been particularly acute and rapid in the Arctic, raising concerns about the conservation of key ecologically and culturally significant species (e.g. beluga whales, Arctic cod), with consequences for the Indigenous community groups in the region. Here, we build on an Ecopath with Ecosim model for the Canadian Beaufort Se...

Climate change is causing persistent, widespread, and significant impacts on marine ecosystems which are predicted to interact and intensify. Overfishing and associated habitat degradation have put many fish populations and marine ecosystems at risk and is making the ocean more vulnerable to climate change and less capable of buffering against its...

Canada’s marine environments are undergoing largescale changes defi ned by shift s and trends in their mean physical or chemical states over decadal time scales or large spatial scales (ocean basin–wide). Th ese changes aff ect biological communities and human societies through impacts on marine ecosystems, subsistence practices, especially those o...

There is an urgent need for models that can robustly detect past and project future ecosystem changes and risks to the services that they provide to people. The Fisheries and Marine Ecosystem Model Intercomparison Project (FishMIP) was established to develop model ensembles for projecting long-term impacts of climate change on fisheries and marine...

The objective of this study is to examine the potential cardiovascular risk of climate-related declines in seafood consumption among First Nations in British Columbia by assessing the combined effects of reduced omega-3 fatty acids and mercury intake from seafood on the risk of myocardial infarction (MI) in 2050 relative to 2009. The data were deri...

In line with its mandate, the IPBES task force on scenarios and models developed a methodological guidance to accompany the foundations of the Nature Futures Framework, a flexible tool to support the development of scenarios and models of desirable futures for people, nature and Mother Earth, welcomed by the IPBES Plenary in decision IPBES-9/1. The...

Seafood is an important source of bioavailable micronutrients supporting human health, yet it is unclear how micronutrient production has changed in the past or how climate change will influence its availability. Here combining reconstructed fisheries databases and predictive models, we assess nutrient availability from fisheries and mariculture in...

Ocean extreme events, such as marine heatwaves, can have harmful impacts on marine ecosystems. Understanding the risks posed by such extreme events is key to develop strategies to predict and mitigate their effects. However, the underlying ocean conditions driving severe impacts on marine ecosystems are complex and often unknown as risks to marine...

Marine heatwaves have been linked to negative ecological effects in recent decades1,2. If marine heatwaves regularly induce community reorganization and biomass collapses in fishes, the consequences could be catastrophic for ecosystems, fisheries and human communities3,4. However, the extent to which marine heatwaves have negative impacts on fish b...

Climate change is affecting the ocean, altering the biogeography of marine species. Yet marine protected area (MPA) planning still rarely incorporates projected species range shifts. We used the outputs of species distribution models fitted with biological and climate data as inputs to identify trends in occurrence for marine species in British Col...

Ocean temperature and dissolved oxygen shape marine habitats in an interplay with species' physiological characteristics. Therefore, the observed and projected warming and deoxygenation of the world's oceans in the 21st century may strongly affect species' habitats. Here, we implement an extended version of the Aerobic Growth Index (AGI), which qua...

Global aquatic or ‘blue’ foods, essential to over 3.2 billion people, face challenges of maintaining supply in a changing environment while adhering to safety and sustainability standards. Despite the growing concerns over their environmental impacts, limited attention has been paid to how blue food production is influenced by anthropogenic environ...

The Nature Futures Framework (NFF) is a heuristic tool for co-creating positive futures for nature and people. It seeks to open up a diversity of futures through mainly three value perspectives on nature – Nature for Nature, Nature for Society, and Nature as Culture. This paper describes how the NFF can be applied in modelling to support decision-m...

Unlabelled: To halt further destruction of the biosphere, most people and societies around the globe need to transform their relationships with nature. The internationally agreed vision under the Convention of Biological Diversity-Living in harmony with nature-is that "By 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaini...

The research on the biological ecology of the Prydz Bay-Amery Ice Shelf in East Antarctica is inadequate under the increasing threat from climate change, especially for Antarctic fish and krill. The Dynamic Bioclimatic Envelope Model (DBEM) has been widely used in predicting the variation of species distribution and abundance in ocean and land unde...

The world has set ambitious goals to protect marine biodiversity and improve ocean health in the face of anthropogenic threats. Yet, the efficiency of spatial tools such as marine reserves to protect biodiversity is threatened as climate change shifts species distributions globally. Here, we investigate the ability of global marine reserves to prot...

Harmful fisheries subsidies contribute to overfishing leading to environmental and societal impacts. If only fisheries and ecosystems within the subsidising nations' jurisdiction were affected, then unilateral actions might be sufficient to help safeguard our ocean and the people reliant upon it. However, just as fish move between jurisdictions, so...

Background Animal movement data are regularly used to infer foraging behaviour and relationships to environmental characteristics, often to help identify critical habitat. To characterize foraging, movement models make a set of assumptions rooted in theory, for example, time spent foraging in an area increases with higher prey density. Methods We...

The IPCC AR6 Synthesis Report is based on the three Working Group contributions to the AR6 as well as on the three Special Reports prepared in this assessment cycle.

Blue foods, sourced in aquatic environments, are important for the economies, livelihoods, nutritional security and cultures of people in many nations. They are often nutrient rich¹, generate lower emissions and impacts on land and water than many terrestrial meats², and contribute to the health³, wellbeing and livelihoods of many rural communities...

Working paper analysing the economic implications of the proposed 30% target for areal protection in the draft post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

Tunas and billfishes are the main large pelagic commercial fish species. Tunas comprised around 5.5 million t and USD 40 billion in 2018. Climate change studies and projections estimate that overall, global fisheries productivity will decrease due to climate change. However, there are seldom projections of the climate-driven productivity of the hig...

Ocean temperature and dissolved oxygen shape marine habitats in interplay with species’ physiological characteristics. Therefore, the observed and projected warming and deoxygenation in the 21st century of the world’s oceans may strongly affect species’ habitats. Here, we implement an extended version of the Aerobic Growth Index (AGI), which quanti...

The ocean has recently taken centre stage in the global geopolitical landscape. Despite rising challenges to the effectiveness of multilateralism, attention to ocean issues appears as an opportunity to co-create pathways to ocean sustainability at multiple levels. The ocean science community, however, is not sufficiently well organised to advance t...

Understanding mechanisms that promote social-ecological resilience can inform future adaptation strategies. Among seafood dependent communities, these can be illuminated by assessing change among fisheries portfolios. Here, in collaboration with a Coast Salish Nation in British Columbia, Canada, we used expert Indigenous knowledge and network analy...

Conservation approaches to social-ecological systems have largely been informed by a framing of preserving nature for its instrumental societal benefits, often ignoring the complex relationship of humans and nature and how climate change might impact these. The Nature Futures Framework (NFF) was developed by the Task Force on scenarios and models o...

Vulnerability of marine species to climate change (including ocean acidification, deoxygenation, and associated changes in food supply) depends on species’ ecological and biological characteristics. Most existing assessments focus on coastal species but systematic analysis of climate vulnerability for the deep sea is lacking. Here, we combine a fuz...

Rebuilding overexploited marine populations is an important step to achieve the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal 14-Life Below Water. Mitigating major human pressures is required to achieve rebuilding goals. Climate change is one such key pressure, impacting fish and invertebrate populations by changing their biomass and biogeography. H...

Global obligations to achieve sustainable oceans by 2030 require countries to commit to solutions that balance ocean use and protection. To do so necessitates baseline understanding of the ocean’s contribution to socio-economic well-being, which we do by measuring the economic activity of ocean-related sectors. Economic assessments tend to be data...

Fishery resources are threatened by environmental changes and anthropogenic pressures, particularly in coastal ecosystems. It is crucial to understand the changes of fish communities and their responses to environmental changes and human disturbances to formulate rational fisheries and ecosystem-based management. The Pearl River Estuary (PRE) is a...

Warming increases the metabolic rates of fishes and drives their oxygen demands above environmental oxygen supply, leading to declines in fish growth and smaller population sizes. Given the wide variability in species' sensitivity to changing temperature and oxygen levels, warming and oxygen limitation may be altering the composition of fish commun...

High levels of methylmercury (MeHg) have been reported in Arctic marine biota, posing health risks to wildlife and human beings. Although MeHg concentrations of some Arctic species have been monitored for decades, the key environmental and ecological factors driving temporal trends of MeHg are largely unclear. We develop an ecosystem-based MeHg bio...

Blue foods play a central role in food and nutrition security for billions of people and are a cornerstone of the livelihoods, economies, and cultures of many coastal and riparian communities. Blue foods are extraordinarily diverse, are often rich in essential micronutrients and fatty acids, and can often be produced in ways that are more environme...

Arctic ecosystems are at risk to climate impacts, challenging existing conservation measures such as protected areas. This study aims to describe the ecological dynamics of the Canadian Beaufort Sea Shelf (BSS) ecosystem and the Tarium Niryutait Marine Protected Area (TNMPA) under historical changes in sea surface temperature and sea ice extent. Us...

Transformative governance is key to addressing the global environmental crisis. We explore how transformative governance of complex biodiversity–climate–society interactions can be achieved, drawing on the first joint report between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and E...

Among ectotherms, rare species are expected to have a narrower thermal niche breadth and reduced acclimation capacity and thus be more vulnerable to global warming than their common relatives. To assess these hypotheses, we experimentally quantified the thermal sensitivity of seven common, uncommon, and rare species of temperate marine annelids of...

Climate change is altering the distribution and composition of marine fish populations globally, which presents substantial risks to the social and economic well-being of humanity. While deriving long-term climatic baselines is an essential step for detecting and attributing the magnitude of climate change and its impacts, these baselines tend to b...

The organisms that inhabit Oxygen Minimum Zones (OMZ) have specialized adaptations that allow them to survive within a very narrow range of environmental conditions. Consequently, even small environmental perturbations can result in local species distribution shifts that alter ecosystem trophodynamics. Here, we examined the effect of changing sea w...

Climate change is causing shifts in biogeography of marine species, towards higher latitude, deeper waters, or following local temperature gradients. Such species distribution changes are affecting global fisheries through increasing the dominance of warmer-water preferred species as ocean temperature increases. Previous modeling analyses projected...

Climate change can affect fish individuals or schools, and consequently the fisheries. Studying future changes of fish distribution and abundance helps the scientific management of fisheries. The dynamic bioclimate envelope model (DBEM) was used to identify the “environmental preference profiles” of the studied species based on outputs from three E...

Climate change is shifting the distribution of shared fish stocks between neighboring countries' Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) and the high seas. The timescale of these transboundary shifts determines how climate change will affect international fisheries governance. Here, we explore this timescale by coupling a large ensemble simulation of an Ea...

The contributions of species to ecosystem functions or services depend not only on their presence but also on their local abundance. Progress in predictive spatial modelling has largely focused on species occurrence rather than abundance. As such, limited guidance exists on the most reliable methods to explain and predict spatial variation in abund...

The sustainability of global seafood supply to meet increasing demand is facing several challenges, including increasing consumption levels due to a growing human population, fisheries resources over-exploitation and climate change. Whilst growth in seafood production from capture fisheries is limited, global mariculture production is expanding. Ho...

Ocean acidification (OA) affects marine organisms through various physiological and biological processes, yet our understanding of how these translate to large-scale population effects remains limited. Here, we integrated laboratory-based experimental results on the life history and physiological responses to OA of the American lobster, Homarus ame...

Globally, wild decapod crustacean fisheries are growing faster than fisheries of any other major group, yet little attention has been given to the benefits, costs, and risks of this shift. We examined more than 60 years of global fisheries landings data to evaluate the socioeconomic and ecological implications of the compositional change in global...

As part of the ongoing Oceans Asia project, commissioned by ADM Capital Foundation in 2014, this report follows the 2015 report Boom or Bust: The Future of Fish in the South China Sea. Research scientists from the University of British Columbia’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries modelled the trajectories of East and South China Sea fisheries...

Projections of climate change impacts on marine ecosystems have revealed long-term declines in global marine animal biomass and unevenly distributed impacts on fisheries. Here we apply an enhanced suite of global marine ecosystem models from the Fisheries and Marine Ecosystem Model Intercomparison Project (Fish-MIP), forced by new-generation Earth...

Ocean net primary production (NPP) results from CO2 fixation by marine phytoplankton, catalysing the transfer of organic matter and energy to marine ecosystems, supporting most marine food webs, and fisheries production as well as stimulating ocean carbon sequestration. Thus, alterations to ocean NPP in response to climate change, as quantified by...

Feedbacks are an essential feature of resilient socio-economic systems, yet the feedbacks between biodiversity, ecosystem services and human wellbeing are not fully accounted for in global policy efforts that consider future scenarios for human activities and their consequences for nature. Failure to integrate feedbacks in our knowledge frameworks...

Extreme temperature events have occurred in all ocean basins in the past two decades with detrimental impacts on marine biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and services. However, global impacts of temperature extremes on fish stocks, fisheries, and dependent people have not been quantified. Using an integrated climate-biodiversity-fisheries-economic...

A first mass balance food web model was developed to parameterize and characterize the structure and functioning of the upwelling ecosystem in the Southern Taiwan Strait (STWS). The model representing the ecosystem state and trophic flows in 2001 includes 50 functional groups from primary producers to marine mammal and 6 fishing fleets. The basic o...

Harmful fisheries subsidies contribute to overfishing leading to environmental and societal impacts1. If only fisheries within the subsidising nations’ jurisdiction were affected, then unilateral actions might be sufficient to help safeguard our ocean and the people reliant upon it. However, just as fish move between jurisdictions2, so too do the s...

Fisheries resources in Hong Kong have been overexploited since the 1970s due to intensive bottom trawling and other fishing activities that have depleted stocks and destroyed marine habitat. To rehabilitate depleted fisheries resources, a permanent ban on trawling in Hong Kong territorial waters came into force on December 31, 2012. In order to det...

Coral reefs worldwide are facing impacts from climate change, overfishing, habitat destruction, and pollution. The cumulative effect of these impacts on global capacity of coral reefs to provide ecosystem services is un- known. Here, we evaluate global changes in extent of coral reef habitat, coral reef fishery catches and effort, Indigenous consum...