Editor’s note: If the tuna that Pacific Island communities have reliably fished for generations suddenly change their behavior — teeming in totally new areas of the ocean or in smaller numbers, for example — this behavioral shift doesn’t affect only the tuna. Caused by warming waters due to climate change, this shift affects everything and everyone, from other species in the marine food chain to the livelihoods of fishers all over the Pacific.

A groundbreaking conference in Australia last year raised awareness about the full picture of mass species migration in response to climate change — and what it means for human well-being. The conference’s key findings were recently published in a global review in Science .…