Operationalizing climate risk in a global warming hotspot

Climate change is a looming threat to marine life, creating an urgent need to develop climate-informedconservation strategies. The Climate Risk Index for Biodiversity was designed to assess the climaterisk for marine species in a manner that supports decision-making. Yet, its regional applicationremains to be explored. Here, we use it to evaluate climate risk for ~2000 species in the northwestAtlantic Ocean, a marine warming hotspot, to explore its capacity to inform climate-consideredfisheries management. Under high emissions, harvested species, especially those with the highesteconomic value, have a disproportionate risk of projected exposure to hazardous climate conditionsbut benefit the most from emission mitigation. By mapping critical risk areas for 90 fish stocks, wepinpoint locations likely to require additional intervention, such as in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrencefor Atlantic cod. Finally, we demonstrate how evaluating climate risk geographically andunderstanding how it arises can support short- and long-term fisheries management and conservationobjectives under climate change.