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Tropical marginal seas: priority regions for managing marine biodiversity and ecosystem function

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 21:33 authored by McKinnon, AD, Williams, A, Young, J, Ceccarelli, D, Dunstan, P, Brewin, RJW, Reginald WatsonReginald Watson, Brinkman, R, Cappo, M, Duggan, S, Kelley, R, Ridgway, K, Lindsay, D, Gledhill, D, Hutton, T, Richardson, AJ
Tropical marginal seas (TMSs) are natural subregions of tropical oceans containing biodiverse ecosystems with conspicuous, valued, and vulnerable biodiversity assets. They are focal points for global marine conservation because they occur in regions where human populations are rapidly expanding. Our review of 11 TMSs focuses on three key ecosystems—coral reefs and emergent atolls, deep benthic systems, and pelagic biomes—and synthesizes, illustrates, and contrasts knowledge of biodiversity, ecosystem function, interaction between adjacent habitats, and anthropogenic pressures. TMSs vary in the extent that they have been subject to human influence—from the nearly pristine Coral Sea to the heavily exploited South China and Caribbean Seas—but we predict that they will all be similarly complex to manage because most span multiple national jurisdictions. We conclude that developing a structured process to identify ecologically and biologically significant areas that uses a set of globally agreed criteria is a tractable first step toward effective multinational and transboundary ecosystem management of TMSs.

History

Publication title

Annual Review of Marine Science

Volume

6

Pagination

415-437

ISSN

1941-1405

Department/School

Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies

Publisher

Annual Reviews

Place of publication

United States

Rights statement

Copyright ?2014 Annual Reviews

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Wild caught fin fish (excl. tuna)

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