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1. Climate change threatens the world’s marine protected areas

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0149-2  

   Bruno, John F.; Bates, Amanda E.; Cacciapaglia, Chris; Pike, Elizabeth P.; Amstrup, Steven C.; van Hooidonk, Ruben; Henson, Stephanie A.; Aronson, Richard B. (June 2018, Nature Climate Change)
2. Southern California marine protected areas promote bolder fish populations

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1270603  

   Himes, Lucian; La Valle, Florybeth Flores (October 2023, Frontiers in Marine Science)

   Marine protected areas (MPAs) aim to protect habitats and ecosystems to promote the diversity and health of marine populations. To evaluate the health of fish populations within and outside of MPAs in Southern California, we used flight initiation distance (FID). FID is the distance at which an individual will flee from a perceived predator and is a direct measure of boldness. Lower FIDs are indicative of bolder populations. Lower FID values indicate that fish will have the opportunity to dedicate less energy to fleeing from predators which could then be used for increased foraging. Data was collected from eight locations along the Southern California coast, four in protected areas and four in non-protected areas. FIDs were measured with a sonar-based range finder. All fish species that recreational fishermen could catch were targeted, with a focus on six core species spearfishermen catch commonly. Results showed that all fish sampled in MPAs have significantly lower FIDs than those in non-protected areas. An ANOVA showed no significant difference between different locations of the same protected status. The six core species had lower average FIDs in protected areas, three species had significant differences between protected and non-protected populations, and there was no significant difference in FIDs between species. These results show that Southern California MPAs are promoting healthier fish communities with respect to boldness behavior. This data and methods can be implemented in future projects to expand the range of metrics measured to inform management tools for California’s MPAs and MPAs at large. 

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3. Sustainable-use marine protected areas to improve human nutrition

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49830-9  

   Viana, Daniel F; Gill, David; Zvoleff, Alex; Krueck, Nils C; Zamborain-Mason, Jessica; Free, Christopher M; Shepon, Alon; Grieco, Dana; Schmidhuber, Josef; Mascia, Michael B; et al (September 2024, Nature Communications)

   Abstract Coral reef fisheries are a vital source of nutrients for thousands of nutritionally vulnerable coastal communities around the world. Marine protected areas are regions of the ocean designed to preserve or rehabilitate marine ecosystems and thereby increase reef fish biomass. Here, we evaluate the potential effects of expanding a subset of marine protected areas that allow some level of fishing within their borders (sustainable-use MPAs) to improve the nutrition of coastal communities. We estimate that, depending on site characteristics, expanding sustainable-use MPAs could increase catch by up to 20%, which could help prevent 0.3-2.85 million cases of inadequate micronutrient intake in coral reef nations. Our study highlights the potential add-on nutritional benefits of expanding sustainable-use MPAs in coral reef regions and pinpoints locations with the greatest potential to reduce inadequate micronutrient intake level. These findings provide critical knowledge given international momentum to cover 30% of the ocean with MPAs by 2030 and eradicate malnutrition in all its forms. 

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4. Plastic rain in protected areas of the United States

   https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaz5819  

   Brahney, Janice; Hallerud, Margaret; Heim, Eric; Hahnenberger, Maura; Sukumaran, Suja (June 2020, Science)

   Eleven billion metric tons of plastic are projected to accumulate in the environment by 2025. Because plastics are persistent, they fragment into pieces that are susceptible to wind entrainment. Using high-resolution spatial and temporal data, we tested whether plastics deposited in wet versus dry conditions have distinct atmospheric life histories. Further, we report on the rates and sources of deposition to remote U.S. conservation areas. We show that urban centers and resuspension from soils or water are principal sources for wet-deposited plastics. By contrast, plastics deposited under dry conditions were smaller in size, and the rates of deposition were related to indices that suggest longer-range or global transport. Deposition rates averaged 132 plastics per square meter per day, which amounts to >1000 metric tons of plastic deposition to western U.S. protected lands annually. 

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5. Editorial Essay: COVID-19 and protected and conserved areas

   https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.ch.2020.parks-26-1mh.en  

   Hockings, Marc; Dudley, Nigel; Elliott, Wendy (June 2020, PARKS)