On November 3, 2020 at 14:00h, Dr. Nikos Papandroulakis presented an EAStalk webinar on "Climate Change Impacts on Mediterranean Finfish Production: A Case Study in Greece."

Since 2012. Dr. Papandroulakis is Research Director at the Institute of Marine Biology Biotechnology and Aquaculture, of HCMR. He is Member of the Sectorial Scientific Council of the General Secretariat for Research and Technology for Agricultural Production, Food, Food, Agro-biotechnology and Aquaculture (since 2014). He is deputy Member of the National Aquaculture Council of the Ministry of Rural Development and Food (since 2015).

His research focuses on the improvement of the rearing methodologies and technologies of the Mediterranean aquaculture and the application of research results in the industry. He has worked on the specific diversification of the industry with emphasis on fast growers. He was involved in the development of offshore aquaculture concepts for multipurpose oceanic platforms. Recently he is interested in developing tools for new, monitoring, operation and decision making schemes, towards precision farming. He has been involved as coordinator or partner in 39 National and EU projects (https://aquatech.hcmr.gr/).

Overview of the webinar:

Finfish aquaculture in the Mediterranean faced increasing challenges due to climate change, and potential adaptation required an assessment of the arising threats and opportunities. We presented an approach developed within the framework of Climefish to investigate the effects of climate change on the Greek sector, which is representative of the Mediterranean.
Simulations suggested that fish would grow faster, with production time shortened by several months by 2050. The effect was region-specific and heavily dependent on managerial drivers (site selection: inshore/offshore, market size, stocking month). Extreme events (storms and heatwaves) could negatively affect production by disrupting feeding and/or increasing mortality rates.
With the involvement of stakeholders, risks and opportunities were identified. Climate drivers, such as increased temperatures, could promote fish growth and increase production capacity at the farm level. However, growth irregularities and an increased presence of pathogens, among other factors, were identified as risks with substantial consequences for the industry.
An adaptation strategy was proposed with 37 adaptation measures identified at the industry, policy, and research levels. A Decision Support Software (DSS) was developed to support decision-making for Greek aquaculture stakeholders by simulating and visualizing climate impacts on biological and farm economic indicators. Based on a bio-economic approach, the DSS incorporated key biological, husbandry, and economic variables that captured some of the complexities of the industry.

 Download the presentation here.