A trait‐based framework for assessing the vulnerability of marine species to human impacts

Nathalie Butt; Benjamin S Halpern; Casey C O'Hara; A. Louise Allcock; Beth Polidoro; Samantha Sherman; Maria Byrne; Charles Birkeland; Ross G Dwyer; Melanie Frazier; Bradley K Woodworth; Claudia P Arango; Michael J Kingsford; Vinay Udyawer; Pat Hutchings; Elliot Scanes; Emily Jane McClaren; Sara M Maxwell; Guillermo Diaz‐Pulido; Emma Dugan; Blake Alexander Simmons; Amelia S Wenger; Christi Linardich; Carissa J Klein

doi:10.1002/ecs2.3919

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A trait‐based framework for assessing the vulnerability of marine species to human impacts

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

A trait‐based framework for assessing the vulnerability of marine species to human impacts

Nathalie Butt, Benjamin S Halpern, Casey C O'Hara, A. Louise Allcock, Beth Polidoro, Samantha Sherman, Maria Byrne, Charles Birkeland, Ross G Dwyer, Melanie Frazier, …

Ecosphere, Vol.13(2), pp.1-17

2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3919

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Abstract

anthropogenic stressors

anthropogenic threats

climate change

conservation decision‐making

fishing

marine conservation planning

ocean

pollution

trait‐based vulnerability

Marine species and ecosystems are widely affected by anthropogenic stressors, ranging from pollution and fishing to climate change. Comprehensive assessments of how species and ecosystems are impacted by anthropogenic stressors are critical for guiding conservation and management investments. Previous global risk or vulnerability assessments have focused on marine habitats, or on limited taxa or specific regions. However, information about the susceptibility of marine species across a range of taxa to different stressors everywhere is required to predict how marine biodiversity will respond to human pressures. We present a novel framework that uses life‐history traits to assess species' vulnerability to a stressor, which we compare across more than 44,000 species from 12 taxonomic groups (classes). Using expert elicitation and literature review, we assessed every combination of each of 42 traits and 22 anthropogenic stressors to calculate each species' or representative species group's sensitivity and adaptive capacity to stressors, and then used these assessments to derive their overall relative vulnerability. The stressors with the greatest potential impact were related to biomass removal (e.g., fisheries), pollution, and climate change. The taxa with the highest vulnerabilities across the range of stressors were mollusks, corals, and echinoderms, while elasmobranchs had the highest vulnerability to fishing‐related stressors. Traits likely to confer vulnerability to climate change stressors were related to the presence of calcium carbonate structures, and whether a species exists across the interface of marine, terrestrial, and atmospheric realms. Traits likely to confer vulnerability to pollution stressors were related to planktonic state, organism size, and respiration. Such a replicable, broadly applicable method is useful for informing ocean conservation and management decisions at a range of scales, and the framework is amenable to further testing and improvement. Our framework for assessing the vulnerability of marine species is the first critical step toward generating cumulative human impact maps based on comprehensive assessments of species, rather than habitats.

Details

Title: A trait‐based framework for assessing the vulnerability of marine species to human impacts
Authors: Nathalie Butt (Author) - The University of Queensland
Benjamin S Halpern (Author) - University of California, Santa Barbara
Casey C O'Hara (Author) - University of California, Santa Barbara
A. Louise Allcock (Author) - Ollscoil na Gaillimhe – University of Galway
Beth Polidoro (Author) - Arizona State University
Samantha Sherman (Author) - Department of Biological Sciences
Maria Byrne (Author) - The University of Sydney
Charles Birkeland (Author) - University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Ross G Dwyer (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Melanie Frazier (Author) - University of California, Santa Barbara
Bradley K Woodworth (Author) - The University of Queensland
Claudia P Arango (Author) - Griffith University
Michael J Kingsford (Author) - James Cook University
Vinay Udyawer (Author) - Australian Institute of Marine Science
Pat Hutchings (Author) - Macquarie University
Elliot Scanes (Author) - University of Technology Sydney
Emily Jane McClaren (Author) - The University of Sydney
Sara M Maxwell (Author) - University of Washington
Guillermo Diaz‐Pulido (Author) - Griffith University
Emma Dugan (Author) - University of California, Santa Barbara
Blake Alexander Simmons (Author) - Boston University
Amelia S Wenger (Author) - The University of Queensland
Christi Linardich (Author) - Old Dominion University
Carissa J Klein (Author) - The University of Queensland
Publication details: Ecosphere, Vol.13(2), pp.1-17
Publisher: Ecological Society of America
Date published: 2022
DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.3919
ISSN: 2150-8925; 2150-8925
Copyright note: © 2022 The Author(s). Ecosphere published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Ecological Society of America. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99620508902621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Ecology

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