Interdisciplinary research paper on socioecological perspective on wild and farmed arctic charr in an era of climate change.

Hólar University staff and colleagues at the University of South-Eastern Norway and the University in Tromsø have published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, a review on climate change, artic ecosystems and value chains with Arctic Charr (Salvelinus alpinus) in aquaculture and the service and experience industry of tourism, as a case.

The paper is a result of an interdisciplinary project supported by the Arctic Research and Studies Fund for research collaboration between Iceland and Norway. Researchers from Hólar University, the University of South-Eastern Norway and the Arctic University of Norway pooled their knowledge on climate change, fresh water ecology, fish physiology, aquaculture and tourism. The aim was to utilize new research findings from these fields as foundation for evidence based socioecological future scenarios for an increase in temperatures in the Arctic.

Arctic Charr is an interesting case as it is part of the food heritage in the Arctic and has as such been promoted as local food in the image making for Arctis as a tourism destination. Furthermore it plasticity and resilience renders the species quite interesting from an evolutionary biology perspective.
While overtourism, pollution and trampling are prominent in tourism research, less attention has been paid to how climate change affects ecosystems and their biodiversity. This paper adresses this knowledge gap by tracing the impacts through the value chain both ecological and economical, of Arctic Charr.

The conclusions are that warmer climate negatively affects the species in natural habitats, and thereby fisheries based on the species. However, most of the Arctic Charr on the menu is and will be farmed under conditions that can mitigate the warming climate. The Arctic Charr will remain an important cultural and natural heritage and may even serve as a case for educational tourism to a greater extent than today.

The paper is accessible on this link: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2021.654117/full?&utm_source=Email_to_authors_&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=T1_11.5e1_author&utm_campaign=Email_publication&field=&journalName=Frontiers_in_Sustainable_Food_Systems&id=654117