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Abstract

Climate change is altering marine ecosystems while interacting with existing socioeconomic barriers to shape Indigenous seafood security. Coastal First Nations in British Columbia face climate-driven declines in culturally important species such as salmon, eulachon, herring, and butter clams, along with long-standing challenges including limited disposable income, uneven access to vessels and gear, and restricted local authority over marine resources. In collaboration with the Tla’amin Nation, this research aims to develop a social-ecological, trait-based framework that connects human-nature and decision-support traits, socioeconomic barriers, culturally important species, and community-defined adaptation initiatives (“seeds”). Drawing on literature and Tla’amin-led processes, the framework redefines seafood security as relationships among people, species, and institutions rather than simply harvest volumes. A mixed-methods design is used to operationalize the social-ecological trait-based framework, integrating semi-structured expert interviews, community workshops, and species projections from a Dynamic Bioclimate Envelope Model. A fuzzy-logic algorithm is used to quantify the strength with which each of twelve selected “seeds” supports key traits, overcomes barriers, mobilizes local and resilient species, and contributes to climate resilience, while a climate factor derived from species-level projections captures each “seed’s” sensitivity to future ocean conditions. Results show that a small subset of five “seeds”, including a marine spatial plan, traditional food processing facility, seafood gardens, traditional ecological knowledge and skills workshops, and employing super harvesters, are especially influential in sustaining equitable access to local seafood in Tla’amin. Although climate change is expected to deepen existing inequities by further affecting vulnerable species, emerging species such as albacore tuna and sea cucumbers are predicted to become more available, helping to offset these marine food losses. A social-ecological trait-based framework functions as a transparent, adaptable decision-support tool for the Tla’amin Nation and offers a transferable template for other coastal First Nations seeking to evaluate and prioritize Nation-specific “seeds” that support local seafood sovereignty and climate resilience.