Abstract
The Earth's oceans are inherently 3-D in nature. Many physical, environmental, and biotic processes vary widely across depths. In recent years, human activities, such as oil drilling, mining, and fishing are rapidly expanding into deeper frontier ocean areas, where much of the biodiversity remains unknown. Most current conservation actions, management decisions and policies of both the pelagic and benthic domains do not explicitly incorporate the 3-D nature of the oceans and are still based on a two-dimensional approach. Here, we review current advances in marine research and conservation, aiming to advance towards incorporating the third dimension in marine systematic conservation planning. We highlight the importance and potential of vertical conservation planning and zoning from the sea surface to the seafloor. We propose that undertaking marine conservation, management and environmental decisions in 3-D has the potential to revolutionize marine conservation research, practice and legislation.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e12408 |
| Journal | Conservation Letters |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 May 2018 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank Simonetta Fraschetti, the University of Salento and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions for hosting and supporting the “3rd International Workshop on Advancing Conservation Planning the Mediterranean Sea” in Lecce (Italy) where we started working on this paper. We thank Ruben Venegas and workshop participants for fruitful discussions. RD thanks the European Union’s Horizon 2020 project MERCES (Marine Ecosystems Restoration under Changing European Seas; grant agreement n. 689518) and IDEM (Implementation of the MSFD to the Deep Mediterranean Sea; grant agreement 110661). SK is supported by the ARC. We thank Tessa Mazor and three anonymous referees for their helpful comments.
Funding Information:
We thank Simonetta Fraschetti, the University of Salento and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions for hosting and supporting the “3rd International Workshop on Advancing Conservation Planning the Mediterranean Sea” in Lecce (Italy) where we started working on this paper. We thank Ruben Venegas and workshop participants for fruitful discussions. RD thanks the European Union's Horizon 2020 project MERCES (Marine Ecosystems Restoration under Changing European Seas; grant agreement n. 689518) and IDEM (Implementation of the MSFD to the Deep Mediterranean Sea; grant agreement 110661). SK is supported by the ARC. We thank Tessa Mazor and three anonymous referees for their helpful comments.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright and Photocopying: © 2017 The Authors. Conservation Letters published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Keywords
- 3-D conservation planning
- biodiversity management
- deep sea ecosystems
- marine conservation
- vertical zoning, marine spatial planning
