Identification of candidate pelagic marine protected areas through a seabird seasonal-, multispecific- and extinction risk-based approach

With increasing pressure on the oceans from environmental change, there has been a global call for improved protection of marine ecosystems through the implementation of marine protected areas (MPAs). Here, we used species distribution modelling (SDM) of tracking data from 14 seabird species to identify key marine areas in the southwest Atlantic Ocean, valuing areas based on seabird species occurrence, seasonality and extinction risk. We also compared overlaps between the outputs generated by the SDM and layers representing important human threats (fishing intensity, ship density, plastic and oil pollution, ocean acidification), and calculated loss in conservation value using fishing and ship density as cost layers. The key marine areas were located on the southern Patagonian Shelf, overlapping extensively with areas of high fishing activity, and did not change seasonally, while seasonal areas were located off south and southeast Brazil and overlapped with areas of high plastic pollution and ocean acidification. Non-seasonal key areas were located off northeast Brazil on an area of high biodiversity, and with relatively low human impacts. We found support for the use of seasonal areas depending on the seabird assemblage used, because there was a loss in conservation value for the seasonal compared to the non-seasonal approach when using ‘cost’ layers. Our approach, accounting for seasonal changes in seabird assemblages and their risk of extinction, identified additional candidate areas for incorporation in the network of pelagic MPAs.

L.K. acknowledges the Brazilian National Council of Technological and Scientific Development CNPq for his PhD scholarship (Programa Ciencia sem Fronteiras processo245540/2012-1). T.M. and V.H.P. acknowledge the doctoraland post-doctoral grants (respectively) given by‘Fundacß~aopara a Ci^encia e Tecnologia’(SFRH/BD/47467/2008 andSFRH/BPD/85024/2012) and the Biodiversity Research Insti-tute (IRBio). J.C.X. was supported by the Investigator FCTProgram (IF/00616/2013). J.M.R.-G. was supported by For-macion de Profesorado Universitario PhD grants programme(FPU; AP2009-2163). J.N. was supported by the Andalucía Talent Hub Program launched by the Andalusian KnowledgeAgency, co-funded by the European Union’s Seventh Frame-work Program, Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions and the Ministry of Economy, Innovation, Science and Employmentof the Junta de Andalucía, Spain. The project received funding from the National Institute of Science and Technology Antarctic Environmental Research (INCT-APA) that receives scientific and financial support from the National Council for Research and Development (CNPq process: n°574018/2008-5) and Carlos Chagas Research Support Foundation of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ n°E-16/170.023/2008). The authors also acknowledge the support of the Brazilian Ministries of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), of Environment (MMA) and Inter-Ministry Commission for Sea Resources (CIRM). This study benefited from the strategic programme ofMARE,financed by FCT (MARE - UID/MAR/04292/2013).