The decline of coral reef ecosystems remains one of the biggest challenges facing marine conservation. Successful restoration of degraded reef ecosystems depends not only on improved habitat quality, but also on the ability for new individuals to reach improved sites. Protecting connectivity between reefs represents a major strategy to conserve both biodiversity and the ecosystem services that reefs provide. However, information on connectivity in coral reef ecosystems is limited, and climate change remains a threat to larval dispersal.
Fontoura, L., D’agata, S., Gamoyo, M., Barneche, D.R., Luiz, O.J., Madin, E.M., Eggertsen, L. and Maina, J.M. 2022. Protecting connectivity promotes successful biodiversity and fisheries conservation. Science 375(6578): 336-340.
A new global assessment of reef ecosystems addresses the impact of larval connectivity on fish communities in combination with human pressure and fisheries management. The analysis of almost 300 reef sites combines connectivity attributes, socioenvironmental factors, and larval dispersal models to evaluate the importance of connectivity for ecosystem service provisioning. Global patterns show that higher fish species richness was associated with highly connected dispersal corridors, particularly of small-bodied species that contribute disproportionately to biodiversity. Fish biomass was twice as high for sink reefs than for source reefs. However, larval sinks showed higher sensitivity to human pressure.
In addition, results show that over 70% of the most important dispersal corridors, larval sources, and sinks remain unprotected, with only about 11% represented within the current spatial arrangement of MPAs. The Indo-Pacific region, which supports a large human population that depends greatly on local fisheries, has less than 10% of key corridors, sinks and sources protected. While conservation efforts continue to protect large, highly connected areas, such as the new Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor (CMAR) initiative, greater effort is needed to fully protect reef ecosystems. This includes linking connectivity attributes with MPA goals to design more effective protected regions. Policies that protect biodiverse marine areas can add conservation value and protect ecosystem services.
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