Protection efforts have resulted in ~10% of existing fish biomass on coral reefs
The amount of ocean protected from fishing and other human impacts has often been used as a metric of conservation progress. However, protection efforts have highly variable outcomes that depend on local conditions, which makes it difficult to quantify what coral reef protection efforts to date have actually achieved at a global scale. Here, we develop a predictive model of how local conditions influence conservation outcomes on ~2,600 coral reef sites across 44 ecoregions, which we used to quantify how much more fish biomass there is on coral reefs compared to a modeled scenario with no protection. Under the assumptions of our model, our study reveals that without existing protection efforts there would be ~10% less fish biomass on coral reefs. Thus, we estimate that coral reef protection efforts have led to approximately 1 in every 10 kg of existing fish biomass.
Authors
- Remy M. Oddenyo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7265-6522)
- Rucha Karkarey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2017-2075)
- Austin T. Humphries (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6071-6874)
- Nicole L. Crane (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6112-0378)
- Marah J. Hardt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8999-5734)
- Nicholas A. J. Graham (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0304-7467)
- Laurent Vigliola (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4715-7470)
- David A. Feary (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8896-6672)
- Laurent Wantiez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5024-2057)
- Stuart A. Sandin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1714-4492)
- Tim R. McClanahan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5821-3584)
- Shaun K. Wilson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4590-0948)
- Eva Maire (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1032-3394)
- David Mouillot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0402-2605)
- Maria Beger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1363-3571)
- Andrew S. Hoey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4261-5594)
- Bemahafaly Randriamanantsoa
- Sebastian C. A. Ferse (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0930-5356)
- Iain R. Caldwell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8148-8762)
- Mark Tupper (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6157-7714)
- Jacob G. Eurich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1764-7524)
- Jennifer E. Caselle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1364-3123)
- Catherine Jadot
- Joshua E. Cinner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2675-9317)
- Alan M. Friedlander (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4858-006X)
- Alison L. Green
Institutions
- University of New Caledonia (NC)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Environmental Defense Fund (US)
- University of Leeds (GB)
- University of Hawaii System (US)
- Wildlife Conservation Society (US)
- Kenya Wildlife Service (KE)
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US)
- Ifremer (FR)
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- University of Rhode Island (US)
- The University of Western Australia (AU)
- University of Bremen (DE)
- Institut Universitaire de France (FR)
- IPB University (ID)
- Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (DE)
- Society for Conservation Biology (US)
- University of California San Diego (US)
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (NC)
- Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership (MG)
- National Geographic Society (US)
- Marine Biodiversity Exploitation and Conservation (FR)
- Écologie Marine Tropicale des Océans Pacifique et Indien (RE)
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR)
- Lancaster University (GB)
- Nature Conservation Foundation (IN)
- James Cook University (AU)
- University of Cumbria (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2024-10-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2308605121
- Citations
- 10
- Primary Topic
- Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.59
Funders
- Royal Society
- Australian Research Council
- Coral Reef Conservation Program