Aquaculture 2025

March 6 - 10, 2025

New Orleans, Louisiana USA

Add To Calendar 10/03/2025 09:15:0010/03/2025 09:35:00America/ChicagoAquaculture 2025ASSESSING THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON SEA URCHIN PRODUCTIONSalon BThe World Aquaculture Societyjohnc@was.orgfalseDD/MM/YYYYanrl65yqlzh3g1q0dme13067

ASSESSING THE IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON SEA URCHIN PRODUCTION

Coleen C. Suckling*, Brendan Elba, Andrew J. Davies

 

University of Rhode Island,

Kingston, RI 02881 USA

coleensuckling@uri.edu

 



Anthropogenic changes are significantly impacting animal physiology, altering the ways in which we produce seafood—particularly when, where, and how it is done. Despite extensive research efforts, most studies have focused on short-term climate change experiments, leaving critical knowledge gaps about the medium- and long-term effects on production practices. We will overview several ongoing projects that aim to address these gaps, with a particular focus on commercial sea urchin production. As wild fisheries decline, aquaculture has emerged as a promising alternative for sustaining the sector. We will present work on multigenerational breeding and high-frequency field sampling to explore how ocean acidification and warming affect sea urchin physiology and reproduction, key factors influencing production output and the timing of practices. Additionally, we will share the latest findings from a high-resolution species distribution model (SDM), used to map historical species distributions and forecast future shifts under ongoing anthropogenic changes which can inform future aquaculture siting. While this research focusses on sea urchin species produced in the Atlantic, these insights have broad implications for other commercially important species and production practices in both aquaculture and fisheries.