Marine Protected Areas That Preserve Trophic Cascades Promote Resilience of Kelp Forests to Marine Heatwaves

Joy A Kumagai; Maurice C Goodman; Juan Carlos Villaseñor-Derbez; David S Schoeman; Kyle C Cavanuagh; Tom W Bell; Fiorenza Micheli; Giulio De Leo; Nur Arafeh-Dalmau

doi:10.1111/gcb.17620

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Marine Protected Areas That Preserve Trophic Cascades Promote Resilience of Kelp Forests to Marine Heatwaves

Journal article

Open access

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Marine Protected Areas That Preserve Trophic Cascades Promote Resilience of Kelp Forests to Marine Heatwaves

Joy A Kumagai, Maurice C Goodman, Juan Carlos Villaseñor-Derbez, David S Schoeman, Kyle C Cavanuagh, Tom W Bell, Fiorenza Micheli, Giulio De Leo and Nur Arafeh-Dalmau

Global Change Biology, Vol.30(12), pp.1-17

2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17620

PMCID: PMC11635138

PMID: 39663647

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Abstract

climate change

climate-smart conservatin

ecological resilience

Macrocystis pyrifera

marine ecology

Nereocystis luetkeana

permutation anslysis

trophic interactions

Under accelerating threats from climate-change impacts, marine protected areas (MPAs) have been proposed as climate-adaptation tools to enhance the resilience of marine ecosystems. Yet, debate persists as to whether and how MPAs may promote resilience to climate shocks. Here, we use 38 years of satellite-derived kelp cover to empirically test whether a network of 58 temperate coastal MPAs in Central and Southern California enhances the resistance of kelp forest ecosystems to, and their recovery from, the unprecedented 2014-2016 marine heatwave regime that occurred in the region. We also leverage a 22-year time series of subtidal community surveys to mechanistically understand whether trophic cascades explain emergent patterns in kelp forest resilience within MPAs. We find that fully protected MPAs significantly enhance kelp forests' resistance to and recovery from marine heatwaves in Southern California, but not in Central California. Differences in regional responses to the heatwaves are partly explained by three-level trophic interactions comprising kelp, urchins, and predators of urchins. Urchin densities in Southern California MPAs are lower within fully protected MPAs during and after the heatwave, while the abundances of their main predators-lobster and sheephead-are higher. In Central California, a region without lobster or sheephead, there is no significant difference in urchin or kelp densities within MPAs as the current urchin predator, the sea otter, is protected statewide. Our analyses show that fully protected MPAs can be effective climate-adaptation tools, but their ability to enhance resilience to extreme climate events depends upon region-specific environmental and trophic interactions. As nations progress to protect 30% of the oceans by 2030, scientists and managers should consider whether protection will increase resilience to climate-change impacts given their local ecological contexts, and what additional measures may be needed.

Details

Title: Marine Protected Areas That Preserve Trophic Cascades Promote Resilience of Kelp Forests to Marine Heatwaves
Authors: Joy A Kumagai (Corresponding Author) - Stanford University
Maurice C Goodman - Stanford University
Juan Carlos Villaseñor-Derbez - Stanford University
David S Schoeman - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Kyle C Cavanuagh - University of California, Los Angeles
Tom W Bell - Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Fiorenza Micheli - Stanford University
Giulio De Leo - Stanford University
Nur Arafeh-Dalmau - Stanford University
Publication details: Global Change Biology, Vol.30(12), pp.1-17
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Date published: 2024
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.17620
ISSN: 1365-2486; 1354-1013
PMID: 39663647; PMC11635138
Copyright note: Global Change Biology © 2024 The Author(s). Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
Data Availability: The data and code that support the findings of this study are openly available in Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14188853
Grant note: National Science Foundation. Grant Number: Award #2108566 - DISES: Pathways constraints
Organisation Unit: School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991087241202621
Output Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Biodiversity Conservation; Ecology; Environmental Sciences

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