Using Cumulative Impact Mapping to Prioritize Marine Conservation Efforts in Equatorial Guinea

Trew, Brittany T.; Grantham, Hedley S.; Barrientos, Christian; Collins, Tim; Doherty, Philip D.; Formia, Angela; Godley, Brendan J.; Maxwell, Sara M.; Parnell, Richard J.; Pikesley, Stephen K.; Tilley, Dominic; Witt, Matthew J.; Metcalfe, Kristian

doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00717

Cited by 15 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 77 publications

(112 reference statements)

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“…Female turtles’ core occupancy areas are highly concentrated on the south-east of Bioko Island, and their home ranges rarely reach beyond EEZ boundaries into neighbouring countries. These results largely agree with the species distribution models previously created for leatherback turtles in the country [ 43 ]. However, these predictive models underestimate the importance of near-shore habitats in proximity of Bioko Island, thereby reinforcing the need to collect locally relevant data to underpin more effective conservation strategies.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Spatial ecology and conservation of leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) nesting in Bioko, Equatorial Guinea

Garzon,

Barrientos,

Anvene

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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Bioko Island (Equatorial Guinea) hosts important nesting habitat for leatherback sea turtles, with the main nesting beaches found on the island’s southern end. Nest monitoring and protection have been ongoing for more than two decades, although distribution and habitat range at sea remains to be determined. This study uses satellite telemetry to describe the movements of female leatherback turtles (n = 10) during and following the breeding season, tracking them to presumed offshore foraging habitats in the south Atlantic Ocean. Leatherback turtles spent 100% of their time during the breeding period within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Equatorial Guinea, with a core distribution focused on the south of Bioko Island extending up to 10 km from the coast. During this period, turtles spent less than 10% of time within the existing protected area. Extending the border of this area by 3 km offshore would lead to a greater than threefold increase in coverage of turtle distribution (29.8 ± 19.0% of time), while an expansion to 15 km offshore would provide spatial coverage for more than 50% of tracking time. Post-nesting movements traversed the territorial waters of Sao Tome and Principe (6.4%of tracking time), Brazil (0.85%), Ascension (1.8%), and Saint Helena (0.75%). The majority (70%) of tracking time was spent in areas beyond national jurisdiction (i.e. the High Seas). This study reveals that conservation benefits could be achieved by expanding existing protected areas stretching from the Bioko coastal zone, and suggests shared migratory routes and foraging space between the Bioko population and other leatherback turtle rookeries in this region.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Spatial ecology and conservation of leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) nesting in Bioko, Equatorial Guinea

Garzon,

Barrientos,

Anvene

et al. 2023

PLoS ONE

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“…Ferreira et al 10.3389/fevo.2023.1229803 Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution frontiersin.org the resources industry. These high threat values in coastal areas are consistent with the concentration of highest threat and impact levels within coastal zones seen in Australia (Ostwald et al, 2021) and elsewhere globally (Halpern et al, 2009;Maxwell et al, 2013;Trew et al, 2019), as threats resulting from human activities both on land and in the marine environment co-occur in coastal regions (Halpern et al, 2008). In our study area, some offshore areas (>200 m depth) also showed high cumulative pressure and number of pressures for whales and whale sharks.…”

Section: Threat Mappingsupporting

confidence: 64%

Exposure of marine megafauna to cumulative anthropogenic threats in north-west Australia

Ferreira,

Thums,

Whiting

et al. 2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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As the use of coastal and offshore environments expands, there is a need to better understand the exposure of marine megafauna to anthropogenic activities that potentially threaten their populations. Individual satellite telemetry studies are often hampered by small sample sizes, providing limited information on spatiotemporal distributions of migratory animals and their relationships to anthropogenic threats. We addressed this issue by synthesising satellite tracking data from 484 individuals of three taxonomic groups and six species; three marine turtle, two whale and one shark. The spatial overlap between taxa distributions and multiple anthropogenic activities was assessed as a proxy for the cumulative exposure of these taxa to anthropogenic threats (coastal modification, vessel strike, underwater noise, oil spill, bycatch, entanglement, and artificial light) across an area totalling 2,205,740 km2 off north-western Australia. Core exposure areas (top 50% of the distribution) encompassed ecologically important sites for all taxa, such as the Ningaloo and Pilbara regions, migratory routes for whales and sharks in offshore waters beyond Ningaloo Reef, and marine turtle nesting beaches at Barrow Island and Cape Lambert. Although areas of high exposure represented <14% of taxa distributions, we showed that no taxa occurred in the absence of threats and that even areas with existing spatial protections are experiencing high levels of exposure. Importantly, we developed a robust approach for documenting the potential exposure of marine species to a range of human activities at appropriate spatial scales to inform conservation management.

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“…The implications of coarse habitat‐level data include poor location‐specific management actions to mitigate certain stressors that cause uneven and varied pressures within an ecosystem. While protected area design based on ecosystem vulnerability (Jones et al, 2020; Klein et al, 2010; Trew et al, 2019) can offer broad habitat protection, using trait‐based species assessments can allow for much more precise targeting of protection, thus avoiding potential conflicts over where to locate conservation areas while still balancing human dependence on marine resources that are sustainable.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A trait‐based framework for assessing the vulnerability of marine species to human impacts

et al. 2022

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Marine species and ecosystems are widely affected by anthropogenic stressors, ranging from pollution and fishing to climate change. Comprehensive assessments of how species and ecosystems are impacted by anthropogenic stressors are critical for guiding conservation and management investments. Previous global risk or vulnerability assessments have focused on marine habitats, or on limited taxa or specific regions. However, information about the susceptibility of marine species across a range of taxa to different stressors everywhere is required to predict how marine biodiversity will respond to human pressures.We present a novel framework that uses life-history traits to assess species' vulnerability to a stressor, which we compare across more than 44,000 species from 12 taxonomic groups (classes). Using expert elicitation and literature review, we assessed every combination of each of 42 traits and 22 anthropogenic stressors to calculate each species' or representative species group's sensitivity and adaptive capacity to stressors, and then used these assessments to derive their overall relative vulnerability. The stressors with the greatest potential impact were related to biomass removal (e.g., fisheries), pollution, and climate change. The taxa with the highest vulnerabilities across the range of stressors were mollusks, corals, and echinoderms, while elasmobranchs had the highest vulnerability to fishing-related stressors. Traits likely to confer vulnerability to climate change stressors were related to the presence of calcium carbonate structures, and whether a species exists across the interface of marine, terrestrial, and atmospheric realms. Traits likely to confer vulnerability to pollution stressors were related to planktonic state, organism size, and respiration. Such a replicable, broadly applicable method is useful for informing ocean conservation and management decisions at a range of scales, and the framework is amenable to further testing and improvement. Our framework for assessing the vulnerability of marine species is the first critical step toward generating cumulative human impact maps based on comprehensive assessments of species, rather than habitats.

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Using Cumulative Impact Mapping to Prioritize Marine Conservation Efforts in Equatorial Guinea

Cited by 15 publications

References 77 publications

Spatial ecology and conservation of leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) nesting in Bioko, Equatorial Guinea

Spatial ecology and conservation of leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) nesting in Bioko, Equatorial Guinea

Exposure of marine megafauna to cumulative anthropogenic threats in north-west Australia

A trait‐based framework for assessing the vulnerability of marine species to human impacts

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