In recent decades the cod stock in the Barents Sea has gone up and down with the ocean temperature. Future development depends on more than the water.

The researchers found a statistical correlation between sea temperature, zooplankton and cod during the last decades.

They then used this relationship to estimate how the cod population may be expected to develop with different degrees of CO2 emissions and temperature rise in this century. The scenarios for the future climate were taken from climate models.

The researchers made predictions and projections for the biomass of cod in the Barents Sea, both for the coming decades and by the end of the century.

Read the article: The cod has followed the thermometer