Climate warming and invasive fish species: Will they replace native fish species in waters of temperate zones?

Abstract

AbstractIt is well accepted that climate change will have a significant effect on aquatic environments and together with temperature as one of the most important variables, it will represent a major driver of shift in the ecosystem. The increasing temperature in waters of temperate zones will have stressful effect on coldwater adapted fish species that may lead to the shrink of their area of occurrence or even to their extinction. The fish species able to replace the disappearing native populations would be the ones characterized with high plasticity of phenotypes, and strong biological flexibility, which manifest in quick change of life-history traits. Such species are likely to track the changes in their environment relatively rapidly, whereas the responses of majority native species are slower. The given overview on this topic will try to predict and describe global effect of climate change on ecosystems, impact of invasive species on native fish communities and their possible replacement in the future.