The present study investigates the impacts of climate change on fisheries by analyzing patterns and trends across existing literature. The key areas of focus include thematic evolution, trends in word usage over time, temporal trends in author productivity, geographic distribution of corresponding authors, growth of publication sources, and insights derived from three-field plots. The findings are systematically presented in subsequent sections to provide a comprehensive understanding of the observed patterns and trends.
Thematic evolution
Research themes constantly evolve, with newer papers showing different focuses than older ones. Fig 1 illustrates this evolution, with “Climate change in fisheries” as the central theme. From 2008 to 2013, six major themes emerged, with “climate” being the most prominent, followed by “information” and “future.”
From 2014 to 2019, many research themes evolved as extensions of earlier ones. Themes like “fishing” emerged from previous themes such as “climate,” “information,” “future,” “impacts,” “management,” and “global.” During this period, “fishing” became the most frequently used theme, followed by “climate.” While from 2020 to 2022, six key themes emerged, all extensions of earlier themes. Notably, “approach” and “temperature” evolved from prior themes, indicated by vibrant connections to earlier topics.
Word growth
The study tracks the yearly evolution of frequently used terms in climate change and fisheries research. Since 2008, these terms have grown steadily. As shown in Fig 2, “Animals” saw the highest increase, with its occurrence exceeding 25 in 2021. “Fisheries” followed, exceeding 20 by 2020, while “Climate change” ranked third, nearing 20 but growing more slowly.
Top author’s production over time
Fig 3 illustrates author productivity from 2008 to 2022. A red line connects the first and last years an author published, with circles along the line representing the number of publications each year.
The study shows that some authors, like Cheung WWL (since 2012) and Barange M (2010–2018), have been writing on climate change in fisheries for years. Others, like Fernandes JA, began more recently in 2020. Notable contributors include Hobday AJ, Pecl GT, Sumaila UR and Lam VWY, all publishing from 2013 to 2021.
Corresponding author’s country
Fig 4 shows the author’s correspondence by country and the level of collaboration, highlighting SCP (single country collaboration) versus MCP (multiple country collaboration) in each article.
The top 7 countries for author correspondence on climate change in fisheries show China as leading, with at least three publications annually. Canada and Norway each have two papers, while others publish at least one. There is a need for more publications from African and Southeast Asian countries.
Source growth
The study examines the growth of journals publishing on climate change in fisheries. Fig 5 shows the cumulative increase or decline in journal occurrences from 2008 to 2022, highlighting trends in publishing papers on this theme.
Several journals focused more on climate change in fisheries after 2010, with notable growth. The ICES Journal of Marine Science saw significant increases since 2008, surpassing an occurrence value of 10. Fisheries Oceanography peaked at 12 by 2022, overtaking ICES Journal. Fish and Fisheries, Fisheries Research, Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries and Scientific Reports also showed steady growth, exceeding seven by 2021.
Three fields plot
The three fields plot (Fig 6) shows the relationships between journals, authors and themes in climate change and fisheries research. It lists 13 journals, with “Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries” being the top publisher, linked to authors like Cheung WWL, Hobday AJ and Pecl GT. The middle section lists the top 20 authors, with Cheung WWL having the most publications. Authors also rely upon frequently used themes in their papers. The size of each rectangle reflects the number of documents associated with each journal, author and theme.
The third component of the Three Fields Plot highlights the most frequent keyword topics in the research, with 20 listed. “Temperature” is the most common, shown by a large green rectangle, followed by “climate” and “change.” Nearly all authors use these keywords. Other frequently used terms include “fisheries,” “marine,” “fish,” “adaptation,” and “impacts,” reflecting the study’s focus on climate change’s impact on fisheries.
The study’s findings highlight the increasing volume of research on climate change in fisheries, analysed using R Biblioshiny on journal articles with DOIs. Since the late 21
st century, this topic has gained momentum, with fisheries institutions contributing to its growth. Thematic evolution reveals key terms like “climate,” “impacts,” and “management” have been prevalent from 2008 to 2022, showing the development of research on this theme. The recent emergence of the term “approach” reflects growing awareness of climate change impacts in fisheries sectors. However, research primarily concentrates on marine and coastal realms, indicating a need for broader studies in areas like inland fisheries, society and economy.
Author productivity has increased recently, with China leading in climate change in fisheries research, followed by Canada. Collaboration among authors from productive countries drives this trend. Journals such as the ICES Journal of Marine Science and Fisheries Oceanography are the most productive in publishing climate change and fisheries-related papers. However, there is no dedicated journal on this intersection, presenting an opportunity for fisheries-focused journals to explore more climate-related topics.
The “Dimension.ai” database offers limited data access, so this study systematically analyses available literature on climate change in fisheries. Many articles are available in subscription databases like Web of Science and Scopus and developed nations often receive more support for open-access publications, leading to potential bias. Publish or Perish provides open-source access via Google Scholar. Despite data limitations regarding co-authors and affiliations, the Dimension database helps address these issues. Most scientometric studies on climate change focus on popular keywords such as adaptation, resilience, disaster, vulnerability and risk assessment
(Wang et al., 2014; Wei et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2018). The main focus of climate change research in fisheries is on its impacts on species growth, production, marine biodiversity and socioeconomic issues related to adaptation and resilience
(Velumani et al., 2019; Huang et al., 2021; Azra et al., 2022a, 2022b). Developing nations face higher adaptation costs than developed ones to minimise climate change impacts on fisheries (
Sumaila and Cheung, 2010), attracting more research on the topic. Climate change risks to global food production and aquaculture vary by region, economy and species
(Maulu et al., 2021). Studies focus not only on impacts but also on resilience and management, helping to understand and mitigate climate change effects
(Sharma et al., 2024; Suryawanshi et al., 2024). The bibliometric study gathered extensive data to provide targeted management approaches for addressing these challenges.
Future research should focus on specialised topics like the effects of global warming on forestry, agriculture, fisheries and viniculture
(Haunschild et al., 2016). Adaptation to climate change requires building strong political, legal, financial and social infrastructures, not just raising awareness (
Lindegren and Brander, 2018). Integrated strategies that include social, institutional and infrastructural dimensions are crucial to resilience (
Rawlani and Sovacool, 2011;
Xu and Marinova, 2013). A shift to strategic environmental assessment (SEA) will enhance climate change research (
Li and Zhao, 2015). Understanding how climate change affects fisheries’ economic factors, such as revenues and employment, is crucial
(Sumaila et al., 2011). This study, unlike others, highlights the value of open-source platforms for comprehensive research.