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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
The ecologically and socio-economically important marine ecosystems of Europe are facing severe
threats from a variety of human impacts. To mitigate and potentially reverse some of these impacts, the
European Union (EU) has mandated the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive
(MSFD) in order to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) in EU waters by 2020. The primary
initiative for achieving GES is the implementation of coherent networks of marine protected areas
(MPAs). Marine reserves are an important type of MPA in which no extraction is allowed, but their
usefulness depends upon a number of ecological, management, and political factors. This paper
provides a synthesis of the ecological effects of existing European marine reserves and the factors
(social and ecological) underlying their effectiveness. Results show that existing European marine
reserves foster significant positive increases in key biological variables (density, biomass, body size, and
species richness) compared with areas receiving less protection, a pattern mirrored by marine reserves
around the globe. For marine reserves to achieve their ecological and social goals, however, they must
be designed, managed, and enforced properly. In addition, identifying whether protected areas are
ecologically connected as a network, as well as where new MPAs should be established according to the
MSFD, requires information on the connectivity of populations across large areas. The adoption of the
MSFD demonstrates willingness to achieve the long-term protection of Europe’s marine ecosystems,
but whether the political will (local, regional, and continent wide) is strong enough to see its mandates
through remains to be seen. Although the MSFD does not explicitly require marine reserves, an
important step towards the protection of Europe’s marine ecosystems is the establishment of marine
reserves within wider-use MPAs as connected networks across large spatial scales.
Description
Keywords
Marine protected areas Marine reserves Marine Strategy Framework Directive Conservation Spillover Europe
Citation
Marine Policy, 36, 1012-1021