University of Tasmania
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Gravity of human impacts mediates coral reef conservation gains

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-19, 19:35 authored by Cinner, JE, Maire, E, Huchery, C, MacNeil, MA, Graham, NAJ, Mora, C, McClanahan, TR, Barnes, ML, Kittinger, JN, Hicks, CC, D'Agata, S, Hoey, AS, Gurney, GG, Feary, DA, Williams, ID, Kulbicki, M, Vigliola, L, Wantiez, L, Graham EdgarGraham Edgar, Richard Stuart-SmithRichard Stuart-Smith, Sandin, SA, Green, A, Hardt, MJ, Beger, M, Friedlander, AM, Wilson, SK, Brokovich, E, Brooks, AJ, Cruz-Motta, JJ, Booth, DJ, Chabanet, P, Gough, C, Tupper, M, Ferse, SCA, Sumaila, UR, Pardede, S, Mouillot, D
Coral reefs provide ecosystem goods and services for millions of people in the tropics, but reef conditions are declining worldwide. Effective solutions to the crisis facing coral reefs depend in part on understanding the context under which different types of conservation benefits can be maximized. Our global analysis of nearly 1,800 tropical reefs reveals how the intensity of human impacts in the surrounding seascape, measured as a function of human population size and accessibility to reefs (“gravity”), diminishes the effectiveness of marine reserves at sustaining reef fish biomass and the presence of top predators, even where compliance with reserve rules is high. Critically, fish biomass in high-compliance marine reserves located where human impacts were intensive tended to be less than a quarter that of reserves where human impacts were low. Similarly, the probability of encountering top predators on reefs with high human impacts was close to zero, even in high-compliance marine reserves. However, we find that the relative difference between openly fished sites and reserves (what we refer to as conservation gains) are highest for fish biomass (excluding predators) where human impacts are moderate and for top predators where human impacts are low. Our results illustrate critical ecological trade-offs in meeting key conservation objectives: reserves placed where there are moderate-to-high human impacts can provide substantial conservation gains for fish biomass, yet they are unlikely to support key ecosystem functions like higher-order predation, which is more prevalent in reserve locations with low human impacts.

Funding

Australian Research Council

Department of Parks and Wildlife (Western Australia)

Dept of Environment & Natural Resources South Australia

NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water

Parks Victoria

Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service

History

Publication title

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Volume

115

Issue

27

Pagination

E6116-E6125

ISSN

0027-8424

Department/School

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

Publisher

Natl Acad Sciences

Place of publication

2101 Constitution Ave Nw, Washington, USA, Dc, 20418

Rights statement

Copyright 2018 The Authors Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Assessment and management of terrestrial ecosystems