ghana climate change vulnerability and adaptation assessment

(Binet, 1995). Even if the declining zooplankton biomass is adequate for survival of the main fishery stocks(Mensah, 1995), a month’s lag exists between the peaks of sardinella larval abundance and total zooplanktonbiomass, suggesting, not surprisingly, a temporal matching between predators and peak larval food. As such, apotential exists for climate change to cause a mismatch between larval pelagic fish abundance and their food,which could compromise recruitment. Significant decline in zooplankton biomass occurred from the late 1960s tothe early 1990s, a decline attributed to the trend in global warming (Wiafe et al., 2008). Although biological (top–down) control was also important, no long-term trend in the abundance of the predatory fish larvae was detected.The zooplankton time-series analysis at the biomass level combined with the knowledge of the biology anddistribution of the dominant species during the major upwelling (i.e., the copepod, Calanoides carinatus) indicatedthe current trend in warming of the ocean, especially during the major upwelling, could shift zooplanktoncommunity abundance and structure and impact fishery resources (Wiafe et al., 2008).GHANA CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY AND ADAPTATION ASSESSMENT 117