Browsing by Author "Stuart-Smith, Rick D."
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- A framework for optimising opportunistic collaborative syntheses to propel ecological conservationPublication . Sequeira, Ana M.M.; Bates, Amanda E.; Hays, Graeme; Sims, David W.; Andrzejaczek, Samantha; Audzijonyte, Asta; Baum, Julia K.; Beal, Martin; Block, Barbara; Cinner, Joshua; Cowley, Kaitlyn; Gilman, Eric; Gleason, Arthur; Harrison, Autumn-Lynn; Hudson, Charlotte; Ishimura, Gakushi; Jabado, Rima W.; Landrum, Jason P.; Mangubhai, Sangeeta; McClenachan, Loren; Meagher, Laura; Riginos, Cynthia; Serrao, Ester A.; Sherley, Richard B.; Stuart-Smith, Rick D.; Wambiji, Nina; Marley, Sarah A.Ecological data are being opportunistically synthesised at unprecedented scales in response to the global biodiversity and climate crises. Such syntheses are often only possible through large-scale, international, multidisciplinary collaborations and provide important pathways for addressing urgent conservation questions. Although large collaborative data syntheses can lead to high-impact successes, they can also be plagued with difficulties. Challenges include the standardisation of data originally collected for different purposes, integration and interpretation of knowledge sourced across different disciplines and spatio-temporal scales, and management of differing perspectives from contributors with distinct academic and cultural backgrounds. Here, we use the collective expertise of a global team of conservation ecologists and practitioners to highlight common benefits and hurdles that arise with the development of opportunistic collaborative syntheses. We outline a framework of "best practice" for developing such collaborations, encompassing the design, implementation, and deliverable phases. Our framework addresses common challenges, highlighting key actions for successful collaboration and emphasizing the support requirements. We identify funding as a major constraint to sustaining the large, international, multidisciplinary teams required to advance collaborative syntheses in a just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive way. We further advocate for thinking strategically from the outset and highlight the need for reshaping funding agendas to prioritize the structures required to propel global scientific networks. Our framework will advance the science needed for ecological conservation and the sustainable use of global natural resources by supporting proto-groups initiating new syntheses, leaders and participants of ongoing projects, and funders who want to facilitate such collaborations in the future.
- Marine protected areas promote stability of reef fish communities under climate warmingPublication . Benedetti-Cecchi, Lisandro; Bates, Amanda E.; Strona, Giovanni; Bulleri, Fabio; Horta E Costa, Barbara; Edgar, Graham J.; Hereu, Bernat; Reed, Dan C.; Stuart-Smith, Rick D.; Barrett, Neville S.; Kushner, David J.; Emslie, Michael J.; García-Charton, Jose Antonio; Gonçalves, Emanuel J.; Aspillaga, EnekoProtection 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. Protected areas are meant to defend species from direct exploitation and habitat loss, but they might also reduce climate change impacts. Here, the authors show that marine protected areas mitigate the impacts of marine heatwaves on reef fish communities.