Tracking aquatic animals to understand a world increasingly shaped by a changing climate and extreme weather events

Abstract

Despite great promise for understanding the impacts and extent of climate change on aquatic animals, their species, and ecological communities, it is surprising that tracking tools, like biotelemetry and biologging devices, have not been extensively used to understand climate change or develop and evaluate potential interventions that may forestall or mitigate its effects. In this review, we provide an overview of methodologies and study designs that leverage available tracking tools to investigate aspects of climate change on aquatic ecosystems. Key interventions to protect aquatic life from the impacts of climate change, including habitat restoration, protected areas, conservation translocations, mitigations against interactive effects of climate change, and simulation of future scenarios can all be greatly facilitated by using electronic tagging and tracking. We anticipate that adapting study designs (e.g. use of replicated ponds, randomized control trials, physiologging) to effectively use tracking will greatly enhance our understanding of climate change and its impacts on aquatic ecosystems, hopefully also facilitating research into effective solutions and interventions against the most extreme and acute impacts.