Ecosystem Dynamics and Fisheries Management in the Humboldt Current System

The Humboldt Current System (HCS) is one of the world’s most productive eastern boundary upwelling ecosystems, stretching along the coasts of Peru and Chile. Characterised by intense wind‐driven upwelling, nutrient‐rich waters fuel vast phytoplankton blooms that support exceptionally high biomass of small pelagic fish such as anchoveta (Engraulis ringens) and sardine (Sardinops sagax). The physical dynamics of the HCS are dominated by variability at multiple scales, from seasonal coastal upwelling pulses to interannual phenomena such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and longer‐term shifts in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. These drivers interact with biological processes—recruitment, growth and trophic interactions—to shape oscillations in fish stock abundance and distribution. Fisheries management in the HCS has evolved towards adaptive frameworks that balance exploitation with environmental uncertainty. Harvest control rules, informed by population dynamics models and coupled ocean–climate forecasts, seek to maintain stock biomass above sustainable thresholds while allowing for economic viability. The HCS is a global case study in aligning ecosystem understanding with real‐time fishery decision-making, offering transferable lessons for other upwelling and coastal systems under climate change pressure.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent work has demonstrated that physical structures at metre to kilometre scales—internal waves, submesoscale fronts and small-scale turbulence—play a disproportionate role in organising plankton hotspots and shaping predator–prey encounters. High‐resolution acoustic and GPS‐tracking data reveal that zooplankton patches concentrate in narrow filamentous features driven by short internal waves, and that seabirds and small pelagic fish track these fine-scale aggregations. Such findings underscore that traditional mesoscale indices alone do not capture the full complexity of habitat heterogeneity, and that anticipated alterations in stratification and turbulence under global warming may reorganise nutrient fluxes and biological interactions from lower trophic levels up to top predators. Incorporating submesoscale processes into ecosystem models is therefore critical for improving forecasts of productivity and refining management strategies in the HCS.

Ecosystem Dynamics and Fisheries Management in the Humboldt Current System publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in ecosystem dynamics and fisheries management in the humboldt current system across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Upwelling: Wind‐driven rise of deep, nutrient‐rich water to the surface, supporting high primary productivity.

El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO): Interannual climatic cycle causing warming (El Niño) and cooling (La Niña) of equatorial Pacific waters, with profound ecological impacts in the HCS.

Submesoscale: Ocean processes at scales of ~1–20 km, including fronts and filaments, which concentrate nutrients and organisms.

Harvest Control Rule (HCR): Pre-defined algorithm that adjusts fishing pressure based on stock biomass or productivity indices to achieve management objectives.

Management Strategy Evaluation (MSE): Simulation framework testing the performance of candidate HCRs under uncertainty in biology, environment and implementation.

Delay–Differential Model: Mathematical representation that incorporates time lags in population processes, suitable for rapidly turning-over stocks like anchoveta.

References

1. Broad impacts of fine-scale dynamics on seascape structure from zooplankton to seabirds. Nature Communications (2014).
2. A delay‐differential model for representing small pelagic fish stock dynamics and its application for assessing alternative management strategies under environmental uncertainty. Fish and Fisheries (2023).
3. Endogenous, Climate, and Fishing Influences on the Population Dynamics of Small Pelagic Fish in the Southern Humboldt Current Ecosystem. Frontiers in Marine Science (2020).
4. Assessing Granger-Causality in the Southern Humboldt Current Ecosystem Using Cross-Spectral Methods. Entropy (2020).