Profound changes expected in the Humboldt Current

At the GlobalTip final conference in early July, Dr Renato Salvatteci from the Center for Ocean and Society (CeOS) at Kiel University reported on the research conducted to date as part of the BioTip and GlobalTip project Humboldt Tipping. The Humboldt Tipping project at CeOS was launched in 2019 with funding from the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space under the programme ‘Tipping Points, Dynamics and Interactions of Social and Ecological Systems’. Researchers from Germany and Peru are investigating the upwelling area of the Humboldt Current off the Pacific coast of South America and the consequences of climatic and ecological changes for fishing communities, as well as local and global markets. The transdisciplinary work not only involves various scientific disciplines, but also representatives from governmental institutions and both industrial and artisanal fisheries.

"GlobalTip has played a key role in bringing together researchers and fisheries stakeholders to jointly develop future scenarios and adaptation strategies for the vulnerable Humboldt upwelling system in response to socioeconomic and climatic changes," Salvatteci said about the funding programme GlobalTip. These changes will have a major impact on the marine ecosystem and the fishing sector, especially small-scale fisheries, which are particularly vulnerable in high-emission scenarios. The findings underscore the urgency of taking early action, strengthening adaptive capacity and improving governance systems to address the social and environmental challenges ahead.