A 2021 Horizon Scan of Emerging Global Biological Conservation Issues

Sutherland, William J.; Atkinson, Philip W.; Broad, Steven; Brown, Sam P.; Clout, M. N.; Dias, Maria P.; Dicks, Lynn V.; Doran, Helen; Fleishman, Erica; Garratt, Elizabeth L.; Gaston, Kevin J.; Hughes, Alice C.; Roux, Xavier Le; Lickorish, Fiona A.; Maggs, Luke; Palardy, James E.; Peck, Lloyd S.; Pettorelli, Nathalie; Pretty, Jules; Spalding, Mark; Tonneijck, Femke H.; Walpole, Matt; Watson, James; Wentworth, Jonathan; Thornton, Ann

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2020.10.014

Cited by 46 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Such events can cause mass mortality and dramatically impact reef ecosystems and the goods and services they provide to coastal communities 14 . With this growing awareness of the role of deoxygenation in the future of coral reefs, the gaps in our knowledge base of hypoxia impacts on reef corals have become clear and require urgent action 12 , 15 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential susceptibility of reef-building corals to deoxygenation reveals remarkable hypoxia tolerance

Johnson

Swaminathan

Nixon

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Ocean deoxygenation threatens the persistence of coastal ecosystems worldwide. Despite an increasing awareness that coastal deoxygenation impacts tropical habitats, there remains a paucity of empirical data on the effects of oxygen limitation on reef-building corals. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted laboratory experiments with ecologically important Caribbean corals Acropora cervicornis and Orbicella faveolata. We tested the effects of continuous exposure to conditions ranging from extreme deoxygenation to normoxia (~ 1.0 to 6.25 mg L−1 dissolved oxygen) on coral bleaching, photophysiology, and survival. Coral species demonstrated markedly different temporal resistance to deoxygenation, and within a species there were minimal genotype-specific treatment effects. Acropora cervicornis suffered tissue loss and mortality within a day of exposure to severe deoxygenation (~ 1.0 mg L−1), whereas O. faveolata remained unaffected after 11 days of continuous exposure to 1.0 mg L−1. Intermediate deoxygenation treatments (~ 2.25 mg L−1, ~ 4.25 mg L−1) elicited minimal responses in both species, indicating a low oxygen threshold for coral mortality and coral resilience to oxygen concentrations that are lethal for other marine organisms. These findings demonstrate the potential for variability in species-specific hypoxia thresholds, which has important implications for our ability to predict how coral reefs may be affected as ocean deoxygenation intensifies. With deoxygenation emerging as a critical threat to tropical habitats, there is an urgent need to incorporate deoxygenation into coral reef research, management, and action plans to facilitate better stewardship of coral reefs in an era of rapid environmental change.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differential susceptibility of reef-building corals to deoxygenation reveals remarkable hypoxia tolerance

Johnson

Swaminathan

Nixon

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…Oxygen loss in the ocean, known as ocean deoxygenation or hypoxia, is emerging as a pervasive negative threat to marine life across multiple taxonomic groups ( Sampaio et al ., 2021 ; Sutherland et al ., 2021 ). Deoxygenation is likely an increasingly important, but underestimated and underreported, source of mortality on coral reefs ( Altieri et al ., 2017 ; Breitburg et al ., 2018 ).…”

Section: New Conservation Considerations In a Rapidly Changing Worldmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conserving threatened species during rapid environmental change: using biological responses to inform management strategies of giant clams

Watson

Neo

2021

Conservation Physiology

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Giant clams are threatened by overexploitation for human consumption, their valuable shells and the aquarium trade. Consequently, these iconic coral reef megafauna are extinct in some former areas of their range and are included in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Now, giant clams are also threatened by rapid environmental change from both a suite of local and regional scale stressors and global change, including climate change, global warming, marine heatwaves and ocean acidification. The interplay between local- to regional-scale and global-scale drivers is likely to cause an array of lethal and sub-lethal effects on giant clams, potentially limiting their depth distribution on coral reefs and decreasing suitable habitat area within natural ranges of species. Global change stressors, pervasive both in unprotected and protected areas, threaten to diminish conservation efforts to date. International efforts urgently need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to avoid lethal and sub-lethal effects of global change on giant clams. Meanwhile, knowledge of giant clam physiological and ecological responses to local–regional and global stressors could play a critical role in conservation strategies of these threatened species through rapid environmental change. Further work on how biological responses translate into habitat requirements as global change progresses, selective breeding for resilience, the capacity for rapid adaptive responses of the giant clam holobiont and valuing tourism potential, including recognizing giant clams as a flagship species for coral reefs, may help improve the prospects of these charismatic megafauna over the coming decades.

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“…Given the gravity of the threats, finite resources available, and a rapidly narrowing window to reverse the dramatic declines (Ceballos et al., 2015), there is a growing recognition of the need for efficient use of conservation expenditure by prioritizing conservation efforts based on the best available evidence (Lynch & Blumstein, 2020; Sutherland et al., 2004; van Eeden et al., 2018). Conservation efforts need to address multifaceted threats that take place in inherently complex socio‐ecological systems, where determining causality and confounding factors is difficult (Mascia et al., 2017; Sutherland et al., 2021). Much of the evidence is not formally documented or readily accessible to policy and other decision makers (Mossaz et al., 2015; but see Conservation Evidence; https://www.conservationevidence.com/).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is the evidence that counter‐wildlife crime interventions are effective for conserving African, Asian and Latin American wildlife directly threatened by exploitation? A systematic map protocol

Rytwinski

Öckerman

Taylor

et al. 2021

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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Human activities are driving a global biodiversity crisis. In response, a broad range of conservation actions have been implemented. With finite resources available, and a rapidly narrowing window, the scientific and policy communities have acknowledged the need to better understand the effectiveness of interventions for conserving threatened species. Given the recent emphasis on the use of counter wildlife crime interventions (i.e. those that directly protect wildlife from illegal harvest, detect and sanction rule‐breakers, and interdict and control illegal wildlife commodities), there is a clear need to summarize the available evidence on biological and threat reduction outcomes of such actions to help make evidence‐informed management and funding decisions. Here, we present a protocol for a systematic map that will collate the existing body of literature addressing the effectiveness of counter‐wildlife crime interventions for protecting targeted species. Our focus will be on select species or species groups directly threatened by exploitation (i.e. illegal harming whether by harvest as a resource or for control/persecution) and native to Africa, Asia and Latin America, which are regions that have experienced significant wildlife populations declines. The systematic map will aim to capture available evidence found in commercially published and grey literature. We will search for the literature using four publication databases, Google Scholar, 36 specialist websites and databases and sources identified through a call for evidence among relevant networks. Eligibility screening will be conducted at two stages: (1) title and abstract and (2) full text. Relevant information from included papers will be extracted and entered into a searchable, coded database (MS‐Excel). Narrative synthesis and descriptive statistics will describe the key characteristics of the relevant evidence base (e.g. geographic location, species, interventions, direct threats, outcomes and study designs). Using visual heat maps, we will identify key knowledge gaps warranting further research and clusters of evidence that could serve as topics for future systematic reviews. The resulting map will guide further exploration on evaluating the effectiveness of counter‐wildlife crime interventions, and aid in building an evidence base that supports both management and funding decisions to ensure efficient use of limited resources and maximal conservation benefits.

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A 2021 Horizon Scan of Emerging Global Biological Conservation Issues

Cited by 46 publications

References 52 publications

Differential susceptibility of reef-building corals to deoxygenation reveals remarkable hypoxia tolerance

Differential susceptibility of reef-building corals to deoxygenation reveals remarkable hypoxia tolerance

Conserving threatened species during rapid environmental change: using biological responses to inform management strategies of giant clams

What is the evidence that counter‐wildlife crime interventions are effective for conserving African, Asian and Latin American wildlife directly threatened by exploitation? A systematic map protocol

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