Climate Change, Coral Reef Ecosystems, and Management Options for Marine Protected Areas

Authors

Brian D. Keller, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Daniel F. Gleason, Georgia Southern University
Elizabeth McLeod, The Nature Conservancy
Christa M. Woodley, University of California - Davis
Satie Airame, University of California - Santa Barbara
Billy D. Causey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Alan M. Friedlander, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; University of Hawaii at Manoa
Rikki Grober-Dunsmore, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; University of the South Pacific - Suva, Fiji Islands
Johanna E. Johnson, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority - Townsville, Australia; C2O Consulting - Townsville, Australia
Steven Miller, University of North Carolina - WilmingtonFollow
Robert S. Steneck, University of Maine

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Environmental Management

ISSN

0364-152X

Publication Date

12-2009

Keywords

Marine protected areas, Management options, Climate change, Coral reef ecosystems

Abstract

Marine protected areas (MPAs) provide place-based management of marine ecosystems through various degrees and types of protective actions. Habitats such as coral reefs are especially susceptible to degradation resulting from climate change, as evidenced by mass bleaching events over the past two decades. Marine ecosystems are being altered by direct effects of climate change including ocean warming, ocean acidification, rising sea level, changing circulation patterns, increasing severity of storms, and changing freshwater influxes. As impacts of climate change strengthen they may exacerbate effects of existing stressors and require new or modified management approaches; MPA networks are generally accepted as an improvement over individual MPAs to address multiple threats to the marine environment. While MPA networks are considered a potentially effective management approach for conserving marine biodiversity, they should be established in conjunction with other management strategies, such as fisheries regulations and reductions of nutrients and other forms of land-based pollution. Information about interactions between climate change and more “traditional” stressors is limited. MPA managers are faced with high levels of uncertainty about likely outcomes of management actions because climate change impacts have strong interactions with existing stressors, such as land-based sources of pollution, overfishing and destructive fishing practices, invasive species, and diseases. Management options include ameliorating existing stressors, protecting potentially resilient areas, developing networks of MPAs, and integrating climate change into MPA planning, management, and evaluation.

DOI

10.1007/s00267-009-9346-0

Volume

44

Issue

6

First Page

1069

Last Page

1088

Comments

©The Author(s) 2009. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited

NSUWorks Citation

Brian D. Keller, Daniel F. Gleason, Elizabeth McLeod, Christa M. Woodley, Satie Airame, Billy D. Causey, Alan M. Friedlander, Rikki Grober-Dunsmore, Johanna E. Johnson, Steven Miller, and Robert S. Steneck. 2009. Climate Change, Coral Reef Ecosystems, and Management Options for Marine Protected Areas .Environmental Management , (6) : 1069 -1088. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/889.