Migratory marine species: their status, threats and conservation management needs

Lascelles, Ben; Sciara, Giuseppe Notarbartolo di; Agardy, Tundi; Cuttelod, Annabelle; Eckert, Sara E.; Glowka, Lyle; Hoyt, Erich; Llewellyn, Fiona; Louzao, Maité; Ridoux, Vincent; Tetley, Mike J.

doi:10.1002/aqc.2512

Cited by 176 publications

(158 citation statements)

References 104 publications

(116 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

150

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Seabirds and anadromous fish are two important animal groups for the transport of nutrients from sea to land. Both groups are also facing pressure, and 27% of all seabirds are classified as threatened (critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable), and the largest of all seabirds, the albatross, is the most endangered, with up to 75% of albatross species considered threatened or endangered (22)(23)(24)]. Likewise, populations of anadromous fish have declined to less than 10% of their historical numbers in the Pacific Northwest (25) and both the northeastern and northwestern Atlantic (26,27).…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Global nutrient transport in a world of giants

Doughty

Roman

Faurby

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

361

333

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The past was a world of giants, with abundant whales in the sea and large animals roaming the land. However, that world came to an end following massive late-Quaternary megafauna extinctions on land and widespread population reductions in great whale populations over the past few centuries. These losses are likely to have had important consequences for broad-scale nutrient cycling, because recent literature suggests that large animals disproportionately drive nutrient movement. We estimate that the capacity of animals to move nutrients away from concentration patches has decreased to about 8% of the preextinction value on land and about 5% of historic values in oceans. For phosphorus (P), a key nutrient, upward movement in the ocean by marine mammals is about 23% of its former capacity (previously about 340 million kg of P per year). Movements by seabirds and anadromous fish provide important transfer of nutrients from the sea to land, totalling ∼150 million kg of P per year globally in the past, a transfer that has declined to less than 4% of this value as a result of the decimation of seabird colonies and anadromous fish populations. We propose that in the past, marine mammals, seabirds, anadromous fish, and terrestrial animals likely formed an interlinked system recycling nutrients from the ocean depths to the continental interiors, with marine mammals moving nutrients from the deep sea to surface waters, seabirds and anadromous fish moving nutrients from the ocean to land, and large animals moving nutrients away from hotspots into the continental interior. There were giants in the world in those days.Genesis 6:4, King James version T he past was a world of giants, with abundant whales in the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems teeming with large animals. However, most ecosystems lost their large animals, with around 150 mammal megafaunal (here, defined as ≥44 kg of body mass) species going extinct in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene (1, 2). These extinctions and range declines continued up through historical times and, in many cases, into the present (3). No global extinctions are known for any marine whales, but whale densities might have declined between 66% and 99% (4-6). Some of the largest species have experienced severe declines; for example, in the Southern Hemisphere, blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) have been reduced to 1% of their historical numbers as a result of commercial whaling (4). Much effort has been devoted to determining the cause of the extinctions and declines, with less effort focusing on the ecological impacts of the extinctions. Here, we focus on the ecological impacts, with a specific focus on how nutrient dynamics may have changed on land following the lateQuaternary megafauna extinctions, and in the sea and air following historical hunting pressures.Most biogeochemists studying nutrient cycling focus on in situ production, such as weathering or biological nitrogen (N) fixation, largely ignoring lateral fluxes by animals because they are considered of secondary importance (...

show abstract

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

Global nutrient transport in a world of giants

Doughty

Roman

Faurby

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

361

333

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Mobile link species can play a wide array of ecological roles in both terrestrial and aquatic habitats, from spreading seeds and pollinating (Couvreur et al, 2004) to increasing the resilience of coral reefs (Nyström and Folke, 2001). Due to the high mobility of many species that function as mobile links these species are often subject to numerous management regimes including state, federal, and international policies (Lascelles et al, 2014). There are varying degrees of management success within and across these regimes, for example, protected area closures are thought to work for many species, but these areas are often too small to provide adequate protection at a population level (Lascelles et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to the high mobility of many species that function as mobile links these species are often subject to numerous management regimes including state, federal, and international policies (Lascelles et al, 2014). There are varying degrees of management success within and across these regimes, for example, protected area closures are thought to work for many species, but these areas are often too small to provide adequate protection at a population level (Lascelles et al, 2014). As such, the conservation and management of mobile species is important within an ecosystem context as well as at the population level (Russell et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation challenges of sharks with continental scale migrations

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding movement and connectivity of populations is increasingly important as human and climate change pressures become more pervasive, but can be problematic in difficult to observe species such as large marine predators. We examined the movements of bull sharks, Carcharhinus leucas, using acoustic telemetry arrays along the east coast of Australia. Approximately half of 75 individuals released in temperate waters moved into tropical reef regions, with both sexes undertaking long-range movements and multiple individuals making return trips. Only 3% of 39 individuals released in tropical reef habitats moved south to temperate waters, but approximately 25% moved to southern reef or subtropical coastal areas. These results reveal complex linkages along the east coast of Australia which suggest a tropical reef based population comprised of individuals that migrate to multiple regions. Connectivity between locations along the east coast of Australia creates important conservation challenges for resource managers in multiple jurisdictions.

show abstract

“…These migrations are driven by biological (e.g., the need to mate) or ecological (e.g., low resources or optimal/suboptimal climate) factors (Gilmore et al, 2007;Robinson et al, 2009;Lascelles et al, 2014) and have important roles in habitat connectivity (Unsworth et al, 2015;Tol et al, 2017). For example, in the Coral Sea, off the northeast coast of Australia, nesting green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) tagged in Australia migrate to international feeding grounds in New Caledonia and back to their nesting grounds in Australia, crossing state, national, and international boundaries as they migrate (Read et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Migratory species can be subjected to multiple anthropogenic threats and varying levels of protection as they move between protected and non-protected areas (Lascelles et al, 2014;Pendoley et al, 2014). Conservation policies, such as protected area legislation, are often constrained by political boundaries (De Klemm, 1994;Gärdenfors, 2001;Martin et al, 2007), whereas highly migratory species are unrestricted by jurisdictional boundaries (Boersma and Parrish, 1999;Hooker and Gerber, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protecting Migratory Species in the Australian Marine Environment: A Cross-Jurisdictional Analysis of Policy and Management Plans

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Marine migratory species are difficult to manage because animal movements can span large areas and are unconstrained by jurisdictional boundaries. We reviewed policy and management plans associated with four case studies protected under the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act 1999) in order to identify the coherence of policy and management plans for managing marine migratory species in Australia. Environmental policies (n = 23) and management plans (n = 115) relevant to marine turtles, dugongs, humpback whales, and migratory shorebirds were reviewed. Few of the reviewed policies (n = 7) listed protected species and even fewer (n = 4) listed protected marine migratory species. Marine turtles were most represented in the reviewed policies (n = 7), while migratory shorebirds were most represented in management plans (n = 59). Policies and management plans were much more likely to identify relationships to other policies or plans within the same jurisdiction than to different jurisdictions. The EPBC Act 1999 served as the central link between reviewed policies and plans, but the requirements of that Act were weakly integrated into the other documents. This weak integration and the biases toward specific migratory species in environmental policies and management plans are detrimental to the conservation of these Matters of National Environmental Significance in Australia. Any changes to the EPBC Act 1999 will affect all environmental policy and management plans in Australia and highlights a need for cooperative, multi-level governance of migratory species. Our findings may have relevance to the conservation of marine migratory species in a broader international context.

show abstract

Migratory marine species: their status, threats and conservation management needs

Cited by 176 publications

References 104 publications

Global nutrient transport in a world of giants

Global nutrient transport in a world of giants

Conservation challenges of sharks with continental scale migrations

Protecting Migratory Species in the Australian Marine Environment: A Cross-Jurisdictional Analysis of Policy and Management Plans

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About