New Approaches to Marine Conservation Through the Scaling Up of Ecological Data

Abstract

In an era of rapid global change, conservation managers urgently need improved tools to track and counter declining ecosystem conditions. This need is particularly acute in the marine realm, where threats are out of sight, inadequately mapped, cumulative, and often poorly understood, thereby generating impacts that are inefficiently managed. Recent advances in macroecology, statistical analysis, and the compilation of global data will play a central role in improving conservation outcomes, provided that global, regional, and local data streams can be integrated to produce locally relevant and interpretable outputs. Progress will be assisted by (a) expanded rollout of systematic surveys that quantify species patterns, including some carried out with help from citizen scientists; (b) coordinated experimental research networks that utilize large-scale manipulations to identify mechanisms underlying these patterns; (c) improved understanding of consequences of threats through the application of recently developed statistical techniques to analyze global species' distributional data and associated environmental and socioeconomic factors; (d) development of reliable ecological indicators for accurate and comprehensible tracking of threats; and (e) improved data-handling and communication tools.

Methods for the Study of Marine Biodiversity

“…These difficulties include processing times that can exceed the capabilities of extant computers, propagation of undetected errors, unfamiliarity with analytical assumptions (e.g., spatial autocorrelation), and difficulties in visualisation (Edgar et al 2016). Fortunately, big-data techniques applied in other fields, such as high-performance and parallel computing, are helping to solve many of these problems.…”

Assessing National Biodiversity Trends for Rocky and Coral Reefs through the Integration of Citizen Science and Scientific Monitoring Programs

“…Given the limited funding available and the comparatively small size of the scientific community, the future of biodiversity reporting over large scales likely relies on the well-designed application of citizen science in addition to technological advances (Pimm et al 2015, Edgar et al 2016). The RLS model, in which species-level abundance data are collected for multiple phyla, shows that engaging citizens in the collection of marine biodiversity data does not necessarily require simplifying data-collection methods and consequently reducing the capacity to calculate a large range of biodiversity indicators.…”

A False Sense of Protection: Recreational Uses and Illegal Behavior in a Mediterranean Marine Protected Area and Implications for Management

“…In Italy, MPAs are usually underfunded and understaffed (Guidetti et al 2008), whereas resources available for managers to increase monitoring and surveillance programs are usually scarce. Nevertheless, the use of new technology (acousticsensing, satellite imaging, drones, underwater video cameras, and automatic radio-AIS systems [Automatic Identification System]), citizen science programs (Rose et al 2015;Edgar et al 2016), and cooperation with nonprofit organizations can considerably reduce these costs by making these programs economically sustainable in the long term.…”