Solutions for ecosystem‐level protection of ocean systems under climate change |
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| Authors: | Ana M. Queirós Klaus B. Huebert Friedemann Keyl Jose A. Fernandes Willem Stolte Marie Maar Susan Kay Miranda C. Jones Katell G. Hamon Gerrit Hendriksen Youen Vermard Paul Marchal Lorna R. Teal Paul J. Somerfield Melanie C. Austen Manuel Barange Anne F. Sell Icarus Allen Myron A. Peck |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK;2. University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany;3. Horn Point Laboratory, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Cambridge, MD, USA;4. Thünen Institute of Sea Fisheries, Hamburg, Germany;5. Deltares, Delft, The Netherlands;6. Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark;7. Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK;8. LEI ‐ Wageningen UR, The Hague, The Netherlands;9. Département Ressources Biologiques et Environnement, Institut Fran?ais de Recherche Pour L'Exploitation de la Mer, Boulogne‐sur‐Mer, France;10. IMARES, Ijmuiden, The Netherlands;11. Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy and Resources Division, Food and Agricultural Organization, Rome, Italy |
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| Abstract: | The Paris Conference of Parties (COP21) agreement renewed momentum for action against climate change, creating the space for solutions for conservation of the ocean addressing two of its largest threats: climate change and ocean acidification (CCOA). Recent arguments that ocean policies disregard a mature conservation research field and that protected areas cannot address climate change may be oversimplistic at this time when dynamic solutions for the management of changing oceans are needed. We propose a novel approach, based on spatial meta‐analysis of climate impact models, to improve the positioning of marine protected areas to limit CCOA impacts. We do this by estimating the vulnerability of ocean ecosystems to CCOA in a spatially explicit manner and then co‐mapping human activities such as the placement of renewable energy developments and the distribution of marine protected areas. We test this approach in the NE Atlantic considering also how CCOA impacts the base of the food web which supports protected species, an aspect often neglected in conservation studies. We found that, in this case, current regional conservation plans protect areas with low ecosystem‐level vulnerability to CCOA, but disregard how species may redistribute to new, suitable and productive habitats. Under current plans, these areas remain open to commercial extraction and other uses. Here, and worldwide, ocean conservation strategies under CCOA must recognize the long‐term importance of these habitat refuges, and studies such as this one are needed to identify them. Protecting these areas creates adaptive, climate‐ready and ecosystem‐level policy options for conservation, suitable for changing oceans. |
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| Keywords: | climate change conservation COP21 ecosystem model habitat marine spatial planning ocean ocean acidification species distribution warming |
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