Attempts to identify the impacts to fishes in the
temperate (spanning subtropical to subpolar) regions
are complicated, due to the diversity of life
history patterns, trophic relationships, and variations
in local habitats. Therefore depending on the
environmental change, a broad range of fish responses
can be expected (Table 1). Because many
lucrative commercial fisheries are situated in the
temperate regions, global climate change-related
effects could have dramatic economic impacts.
Consequently, comparatively more research has
been conducted on potential effects of global climate
change on temperate region species. However,
because continual exploitation affects fish
stock abundance and recruitment, detecting global
climate change-related effects is difficult. Before
examining temperature and other climate-related
effects on populations, it is useful to understand
global climate change effects on individual fishes