Marine protected areas promote stability of reef fish communities under climate warming

Lisandro Benedetti-Cecchi (), Amanda E. Bates, Giovanni Strona, Fabio Bulleri, Barbara Horta e Costa, Graham J. Edgar, Bernat Hereu, Dan C. Reed, Rick D. Stuart-Smith, Neville S. Barrett, David J. Kushner, Michael J. Emslie, Jose Antonio García-Charton, Emanuel J. Gonçalves and Eneko Aspillaga
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Lisandro Benedetti-Cecchi: University of Pisa, URL CoNISMa
Amanda E. Bates: University of Victoria
Giovanni Strona: European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Fabio Bulleri: University of Pisa, URL CoNISMa
Barbara Horta e Costa: University of Algarve
Graham J. Edgar: University of Tasmania
Bernat Hereu: Universitat de Barcelona
Dan C. Reed: University of California Santa Barbara
Rick D. Stuart-Smith: University of Tasmania
Neville S. Barrett: University of Tasmania
David J. Kushner: Channel Islands National Park
Michael J. Emslie: Australian Institute of Marine Science
Jose Antonio García-Charton: Universidad de Murcia, Campus Espinardo
Emanuel J. Gonçalves: MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, ISPA – Instituto Universitário
Eneko Aspillaga: Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios Avanzados (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB)

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Abstract Protection from direct human impacts can safeguard marine life, yet ocean warming crosses marine protected area boundaries. Here, we test whether protection offers resilience to marine heatwaves from local to network scales. We examine 71,269 timeseries of population abundances for 2269 reef fish species surveyed in 357 protected versus 747 open sites worldwide. We quantify the stability of reef fish abundance from populations to metacommunities, considering responses of species and functional diversity including thermal affinity of different trophic groups. Overall, protection mitigates adverse effects of marine heatwaves on fish abundance, community stability, asynchronous fluctuations and functional richness. We find that local stability is positively related to distance from centers of high human density only in protected areas. We provide evidence that networks of protected areas have persistent reef fish communities in warming oceans by maintaining large populations and promoting stability at different levels of biological organization.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-44976-y

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