Spatial diversification as a mechanism to adapt to environmental changes in small-scale fisheries

A social-ecological network model (panels a and b) allowed to map the diversification strategies of small-scale fisheries actors consisting on switching their target species within one region or between landing regions (i.e., spatial diversification, requiring the spatial displacement or mobility of fisheries actors). We analyzed changes in diversification strategies from 2008 to 2016 in Baja California Sur, Mexico, which included a moderate La Niña event characterized by colder sea surface temperatures (2011) and a strong El Niño characterized by warmer sea surface temperatures (2015). We found that even if species diversification within one region is more prevalent than spatial diversification, inter-anual changes in spatial diversification are, correlated with oceanographic changes. However, the diversification patterns differ between landing regions (e.g., panels c and d) and between species targeted. We investigate these differences in light of the characteristics of species groups and existing literature, and provide hypotheses regarding the environmental and institutional factors that may influence the observed diversification patterns. Overall, our novel social-ecological network model proved useful to understand multi-species diversification patterns across time and space. We shed light into the dynamics and structures of small-scale fisheries’ diversification patterns that are increasingly important in the current era of global change.