Research Lines

There is growing evidence that current management of marine resource systems may no longer be effective in the future under climate change. This will translate not only into important ecological impacts at local and global scales, but also into increasing livelihood vulnerability and inequalities. We believe these threats pose one of the major challenges humanity faces nowadays.

Our research looks for adaptation solutions in marine systems that allow for sustainable management in the long run, as well as helping achieve equitable resource sharing and livelihood support. We apply a large set of social and natural sciences methodologies to understand climate change impacts and adaptation in marine systems and work on smart solutions for future oceans sustainability.

Our work focuses along 3 main lines of research:

Social-ecological systems

We use the social ecological systems approach to understand how systems react to climate change. We develop adaptation solutions based on the interconnections of ecological, social and institutional components of the system.

Keywords: SES, SSF, artisanal fisheries, commercial fisheries, adaptive capacity, vulnerability, resilience.

Spatial management

Developing solutions for natural resource management under climate change.

Keywords: property rights, equity, MPA networks, TURF networks, bio-economic modelling, quotas, co-management.

Institutional arrangements

Analyzing the consequences of shifts in
species distribution in institutional fisheries arrangements.

Keywords: EEZs, transboundary stocks, cooperation, spatial management, stakeholder analysis.

Our Publications

Journal articles

Expanding ocean food production under climate change. Christopher M. Free, Reniel B. Cabral, Halley E. Froehlich, Willow Battista, Elena Ojea, Erin O’Reilly, James E. Palardy, Jorge García Molinos, Katherine J. Siegel, Ragnar Arnason, Marie Antonette Juinio-Meñez, Katharina Fabricius, Carol Turley, Steven D. Gaines. 2022. . Nature, 27 April 2022.
Food security challenged by declining efficiencies of artisanal fishing fleets: a global country-level analysis. Tidd, Alexander; Rousseau, Yannick; Ojea, Elena; Watson, Reg A.; Blanchard, Julia L.Global Food Security, 32, 100598 (2022)
Conservation-Status Gaps for Marine Top-Fished Commercial Species. Miqueleiz, I., R Miranda, AH Ariño, E Ojea. 2022. Fishes 7 (1), 2.
Assessing countries’ social-ecological resilience to shifting marine commercial species. Ojea, E., Fontán, E., Fuentes-Santos, I. and Bueno-Pardo, Juan. Sci Rep 11, 22926 (2021).
Establishing a governance threshold in small-scale fisheries to achieve sustainability. Aguión, Alba, Elena Ojea, Lucía García-Flórez, Teresa Cruz, Joxe Mikel Garmendia, Dominique Davoult, Henrique Queiroga, Antonella Rivera, José Luis Acuña-Fernández, and Gonzalo Macho. Ambio (2021): 1-14.
A systematic global stocktake of evidence on human adaptation to climate change. Berrang-Ford, L., Siders, A. R., Lesnikowski, A., Fischer, A. P., Callaghan, M. W., Haddaway, N. R., … Ruiz-Diaz, R, … & Abu, T. Z. (2021). Nature Climate Change, 1-12.
Global evidence of constraints and limits to human adaptation. Thomas, A., Theokritoff, E., Lesnikowski, A., Reckien, D., Jagannathan, K., Cremades, R., … & Raquel Ruiz-Diaz, Caitlin Grady, Matthias Garschagen, James Ford, Bowen, K. (2021). Regional Environmental Change, 21(3), 1-15.
Climate change adaptation to extreme heat: A global systematic review of implemented action. Turek-Hankins, Lynée L., Erin Coughlan de Perez, Giulia Scarpa, Raquel Ruiz-Diaz, Patricia Nayna Shwerdtle, Elphin Tom Joe, Eranga K. Galappaththi et al. Oxford Open Climate Change (2021).
Identifying policy approaches to build social–ecological resilience in marine fisheries with differing capacities and contexts. Kristin M Kleisner, Elena Ojea, Willow Battista, Merrick Burden, Erica Cunningham, Rod Fujita, Kendra Karr, Samuel Amorós, Julia Mason, Doug Rader, Nicolas Rovegno, Alice Thomas-Smyth. ICES Journal of Marine Science.
Social connectivity and adaptive capacity strategies in large-scale fisheries. Iratxe Rubio, Jacob Hileman and Elena Ojea. 2021. Ecology and Society 26(2):42.
Skippers’ preferred adaptation and transformation responses to catch declines in a large-scale tuna fishery. Iratxe Rubio, Alistair Hobday and Elena Ojea. 2021. ICES Journal of Marine Science, fsab065.
A better understanding of social-ecological systems is needed for adapting fisheries to climate change. Diego Salgueiro-Otero and Elena Ojea. 2020. Marine Policy, 104123.
Social-ecological vulnerability to climate change in small-scale fisheries managed under spatial property rights systems.Raquel Ruiz-Díaz, Xiaozi Liu, Alba Aguión, Gonzalo Macho, Maite de Castro, Moncho Gómez-Gesteira, Elena Ojea. 2020. Marine Policy, 104192.
The future of food from the sea. Christopher Costello, Ling Cao, Stefan Gelcich, Miguel Á. Cisneros-Mata, Christopher M. Free, Halley E. Froehlich, Christopher D. Golden, Gakushi Ishimura, Jason Maier, Ilan Macadam-Somer, Tracey Mangin, Michael C. Melnychuk, Masanori Miyahara, Carryn L. de Moor, Rosamond Naylor, Linda Nøstbakken, Elena Ojea, Erin O’Reilly, Ana M. Parma, Andrew J. Plantinga, Shakuntala H. Thilsted & Jane Lubchenco. 2020. Nature, 19 August 2020.
Adaptation of Fishing Communities to Climate-Driven Shifts in Target Species. Elena Ojea, Sarah Lester, Diego Salgueiro-Otero, 2020. OneEarth
Realistic fisheries management reforms could mitigate the impacts of climate change in most countries. Christopher M. Free, Tracey Mangin, Jorge García Molinos, Elena Ojea, Merrick Burden, Christopher Costello, Steven D. Gaines, 2020. PLOS ONE, 0224347.
Strategically designed marine reserve networks are robust to climate change driven shifts in population connectivity. A. Rassweiler, E. Ojea, C. Costello. 2020. Environmental Research Letters, 15, 034030.
Southward re‐distribution of tropical tuna fisheries activity can be explained by technological and management change. Iratxe Rubio, Unai Ganzedo, Alistair J. Hobday and Elena Ojea. 2020. Fish and Fisheries, in press.
Sovereign states in the Caribbean have lower social-ecological vulnerability to coral bleaching than overseas territories. K.J. Siegel, R.B. Cabral, J. McHenry, E. Ojea, B. Owashi and S.E. Lester. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 20 February 2019. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.2365.
Impacts and responses to environmental change in coastal livelihoods of south-west Bangladesh. Hossain, M.A.R., M. Ahmed, E. Ojea, J.A. Fernandes. 2018. Science of the Total Environment, 637-638, 954–970.
Benefits From Water Related Ecosystem Services in Africa and Climate Change. Pettinotti, L., A. de Ayala, E. Ojea. 2018. Ecological Economics 149, 294-305.
The role of non-natural capital in the co-production of marine ecosystem services. L. Outeiro, E. Ojea, J. G. Rodrigues, A. Himes-Cornell, A. Belgrano, Y. Liu, E. Cabecinha, C. Pita, G. Macho, S. Villasante. 2017. International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management, 13(3): 35-50.
Fisheries regulatory regimes and resilience to climate change. E. Ojea, I. Pearlman, S.D. Gaines, S.E. Lester, 2017. Ambio, 1-14.
Socioeconomic impacts of marine protected areas in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. M. Pascual, M. Rossetto, E. Ojea, N. Milchakova, S. Giakoumi, S. Kark, 2016. Ocean & Coastal Management 133, 1-10.

Scientific Posters

Socioeconomic implications of the observed climate change distributional impacts in commercial marine species. Aguión, A., Salgueiro-Otero, D., Rubio, I., Ojea, E. 2017. Conference poster, ICES ASC Florida 2017
Management solutions for shifting transboundary fish stocks under fixed catch shares. Xiaozi Liu, Elena Ojea and Mikko Heino, ECCWO 2018, Wshington DC.
The socio-ecological vulnerability of artisanal fisheries to climate impact. Ruíz-Díaz, R., Liu, X., Ojea,E. IMBRSea 2018, Ostend
Ecological, Socioeconomic and Institutional Resilience to shifting fish stocks. Ojea, E. and Fontán E. ICES ASC Hamburg 2018

Reports & book chapters

Working Group on Resilience and Marine Ecosystem Services (WGRMES; outputs from 2020 meeting). ICES Scientific Reports. 3:93. 43 pp. ICES. 2021.
The expected impacts of climate change on the ocean economy. S. Gaines, R. Cabral, C.M. Free, Y. Golbuu, R. Arnason, W. Battista, D. Bradley, W. Cheung, K. Fabricius, O. Hoegh-Guldberg, M.A. Juinio-Meñez, J. García Molinos, E. Ojea, E. O’Reilly and C. Turley. Blue Paper for the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy.
The future of food from the sea. C. Costello, L. Cao and S. Gelcich, M.A. Cisneros, C.M. Free, H.E. Froehlich, E. Galarza, C.D. Golden, G. Ishimura, J. Maier, I. Macadam-Somer, T. Mangin, M.C. Melnychuk, M. Miyahara, C. de Moor, R. Naylor, L. Nøstbakken, E. Ojea, E. O’Reilly, G.C. Osio, A.M. Parma, F. Pina Amargos, A.J. Plantinga, A. Tacon, and S.H. Thilsted. Blue Paper for the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy.
Socioeconomic Impacts of Networks of Marine Protected Areas. E. Ojea, M Pascual, D March, I Bitetto, P Melià, M Breil, J Claudet, 2017. Management of Marine Protected Areas: A Network Perspective, 103.
Operationalizing the ecosystem approach to resolve mismatches in ocean governance. Garmendia, M., A. Markandya, E. Ojea, M. Pascual, 2016. In: Handbook on the economics and management of sustainable oceans. Edited by P.A.L.D. Nunes, L.E. Svenssonand and A. Markandya. Edward Elgar Publishing.