Climate Change Impacts on Romanian Aquaculture and Aquatic Biodiversity: Vulnerabilities, Risks and Adaptive Responses

Abstract

Climate change is increasingly reshaping freshwater, wetland, riverine, deltaic, and coastal ecosystems in Romania, with direct consequences for aquaculture productivity, aquatic biodiversity, food security, and rural livelihoods. Romanian aquaculture remains predominantly freshwater and pond-based, with production systems relying heavily on carp polyculture, trout farming, and limited sturgeon-related activities. These systems are highly exposed to rising water temperatures, droughts, altered precipitation regimes, oxygen depletion, eutrophication, disease emergence, floods.

This paper synthesizes recent scientific and policy evidence regarding climate change impacts on Romanian aquaculture and aquatic biodiversity, focusing on vulnerabilities, risks, and adaptive responses. Using a structured review and a qualitative risk-assessment framework, the paper identifies five major climate-risk clusters: thermal stress, hydrological scarcity, extreme floods, water-quality deterioration, and biodiversity displacement. The Danube Delta is treated as a strategic case study because it functions simultaneously as a biodiversity hotspot, fish nursery, wetland buffer, cultural landscape, and climate-risk frontier.

Results indicate that extensive pond aquaculture is vulnerable to evaporation, low dissolved oxygen, and water scarcity, while cold-water trout farms face increasing risks from stream warming and reduced summer flows. Native aquatic biodiversity is threatened by habitat fragmentation, altered spawning conditions, invasive alien species, salinity shifts, and cumulative pollution pressures. According to the paper, adaptation must integrate farm-level technology with basin-scale restoration, water governance, climate-smart farming, monitoring systems, and an optimized national strategy. Building resilient aquatic food systems fundamentally requires targeted investments in water retention, wetland recovery, biosecurity, species diversification, eco-friendly recirculating aquaculture, and ecosystem-based management.