The study and implementation of no-take marine reserves have increased rapidly over the past decade, providing ample data on the biological effects of reserve protection for a wide range of geographic locations and organisms. The plethora of new studies affords the opportunity to reevaluate previous findings and address formerly unanswered questions with extensive data syntheses. Our results show, on average, positive effects of reserve protection on the biomass, numerical density, species richness, and size of organisms within their boundaries which are remarkably similar to those of past syntheses despite a near doubling of data. New analyses indicate that (1) these results do not appear to be an artifact of reserves being sited in better locations; (2) results do not appear to be driven by displaced fishing effort outside of reserves; (3) contrary to often-made assertions, reserves have similar if not greater positive effects in temperate settings, at least for reef ecosystems; (4) even small reserves can produce significant biological responses irrespective of latitude, although more data are needed to test whether reserve effects scale with reserve size; and (5) effects of reserves vary for different taxonomic groups and for taxa with various characteristics, and not all species increase in response to reserve protection. There is considerable variation in the responses documented across all the reserves in our data set -variability which cannot be entirely explained by which species were studied. We suggest that reserve characteristics and context, particularly the intensity of fishing outside the reserve and inside the reserve before implementation, play key roles in determining the direction and magnitude of the reserve response. However, despite considerable variability, positive responses are far more common than no differences or negative responses, validating the potential for well designed and enforced reserves to serve as globally important conservation and management tools.

Temperature controls the rate of fundamental biochemical processes and thereby regulates organismal attributes including development rate and survival. The increase in metabolic rate with temperature explains substantial among-species variation in lifehistory traits, population dynamics, and ecosystem processes. Temperature can also cause variability in metabolic rate within species. Here, we compare the effect of temperature on a key component of marine life cycles among a geographically and taxonomically diverse group of marine fish and invertebrates. Although innumerable lab studies document the negative effect of temperature on larval development time, little is known about the generality versus taxon-dependence of this relationship. We present a unified, parameterized model for the temperature dependence of larval development in marine animals. Because the duration of the larval period is known to influence larval dispersal distance and survival, changes in ocean temperature could have a direct and predictable influence on population connectivity, community structure, and regional-to-global scale patterns of biodiversity.metabolic scaling ͉ population connectivity ͉ temperature dependence ͉ larval development ͉ survival T hrough a general effect on metabolic rate, variation in environmental temperature can influence population, species, and community-level processes (1-3). Recently, evidence for a universal temperature dependence has linked individual metabolism to community-wide productivity, which in turn leads to predictable rates of population growth, carbon flux, and patterns of regional diversity (4-7). Although less appreciated in this context, the universal temperature dependence of metabolism implies an inverse relationship between temperature and life-stage duration (8). For marine animals whose offspring develop in the water column, the duration of the larval life stage determines the length of time that larvae are subject to movement by currents and exposed to sources of mortality. Therefore, a general and quantitative influence of temperature on larval duration potentially implies a mechanistic link between ocean temperature and the biogeographic patterns mediated by the ecological processes of larval dispersal and survival.Two aspects of the influence of temperature on larval duration are well documented. First, Thorson's rule describes the latitudinal gradient of a decreasing proportion of marine species with planktonic larval development toward the poles (9, 10). Second, temperature is known to cause among-species variation in larval development and duration (10, 11). Studies in this vein have emphasized between-species comparisons without accounting for within-species relationships between temperature and planktonic larval duration (PLD); therefore, these studies report strong relationships only within narrower taxonomic groupings. Numerous other studies have documented the temperature dependence of the larval development period within species.Typically this relationship has been described ...

The ocean plays a critical role in supporting human well-being, from providing food, livelihoods and recreational opportunities to regulating the global climate. Sustainable management aimed at maintaining the flow of a broad range of benefits from the ocean requires a comprehensive and quantitative method to measure and monitor the health of coupled human–ocean systems. We created an index comprising ten diverse public goals for a healthy coupled human–ocean system and calculated the index for every coastal country. Globally, the overall index score was 60 out of 100 (range 36–86), with developed countries generally performing better than developing countries, but with notable exceptions. Only 5% of countries scored higher than 70, whereas 32% scored lower than 50. The index provides a powerful tool to raise public awareness, direct resource management, improve policy and prioritize scientific research.

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Recent reports suggest that many well-assessed fisheries in developed countries are moving toward sustainability. We examined whether the same conclusion holds for fisheries lacking formal assessment, which comprise >80% of global catch. We developed a method using species' life-history, catch, and fishery development data to estimate the status of thousands of unassessed fisheries worldwide. We found that small unassessed fisheries are in substantially worse condition than assessed fisheries, but that large unassessed fisheries may be performing nearly as well as their assessed counterparts. Both small and large stocks, however, continue to decline; 64% of unassessed stocks could provide increased sustainable harvest if rebuilt. Our results suggest that global fishery recovery would simultaneously create increases in abundance (56%) and fishery yields (8 to 40%).