A fast-moving target: achieving marine conservation goals under shifting climate and policies

Gil Rilov (1, 2) , Simonetta Fraschetti (3, 4) , Elena Gissi (5) , Carlo Pipitone (6) , Fabio Badalamenti (7) , Laura Tamburello (4) , Elisabetta Menini , Paul Goriup , Antonios D Mazaris (8) , Joaquim Garrabou (9, 10) , Lisandro Benedetti-Cecchi (11) , Roberto Danovaro (12) , Charles Loiseau (13) , Joachim Claudet (13) , Stelios Katsanevakis (14)

1 University of Haifa [Haifa]
2 IOLR - Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research
3 DiSTeBA - Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche e Ambientali
4 SZN - Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
5 IUAV - Università Iuav di Venezia = Iuav University of Venice
6 Institute of Surveying, Remote Sensing & Land Information (IVFL)
7 CNR-IAMC - Laboratorio di Ecologia
8 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9 DIMAR - Diversité, évolution et écologie fonctionnelle marine
10 AMU - Aix Marseille Université
11 Department of Biology [Pisa]
12 Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell’Ambiente
13 CRIOBE - Centre de recherches insulaires et observatoire de l'environnement
14 HCMR - Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

In the Anthropocene, marine ecosystems are rapidly shifting to new ecological states. Achieving effective conservation of marine biodiversity has become a fast-moving target because of both global climate change and continuous shifts in marine policies. How prepared are we to deal with this crisis? We examined EU Member States Programs of Measures designed for the implementation of EU marine environmental policies, as well as recent Euro-pean Marine Spatial Plans, and discovered that climate change is rarely considered operationally. Further, our analysis revealed that monitoring programs in marine protected areas are often insufficient to clearly distinguish between impacts of local and global stressors. Finally, we suggest that while the novel global Blue Growth approach may jeopardize previous marine conservation efforts, it can also provide new conservation opportunities. Adaptive management is the way forward (e.g., preserving ecosystem functions in climate change hotspots, and identifying and targeting climate refugia areas for protection) using Marine Spatial Planning as a framework for action, especially given the push for Blue Growth.

Mots clés: adaptive management; Blue Growth; climate change; marine protected areas; marine special planning; marine strategy framework directive; Mediterranean Sea; policy

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie

Gil Rilov, Simonetta Fraschetti, Elena Gissi, Carlo Pipitone, Fabio Badalamenti, et al.. A fast-moving target: achieving marine conservation goals under shifting climate and policies. Ecological Applications, 2019, ⟨10.1002/eap.2009⟩. ⟨hal-02376283⟩