Project: Conserving the Southern Ocean: Informing the design, implementation and value of protecting the waters around Antarctica

This interdisciplinary research proposal seeks to inform the design and implementation of Southern Ocean marine protected areas (MPAs), while also providing new tools to highlight the global value of MPAs. The research proposed falls broadly across two themes: connectivity and ecosystem services.

Major data gaps remain in our understanding of the life history of Antarctic toothfish (Dissostichus mawsoni) and Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba), including around life history connectivity (Hanchet et al. 2015; Conroy et al. 2020). Connectivity refers to the movement of species across space and time, including migration pathways, foraging regions, and dispersal corridors. In the context of MPAs, understanding how a species moves through its life history can inform designing MPAs that ensures protection of the species (Balbar and Metaxas 2019) and can also reveal spillover effects, e.g., if fish protected in the boundaries of the MPA are the source for outside areas open to fishing (Roberts et al. 2001). Connectivity of krill and toothfish remains largely unknown and yet is critically important to ensure proper protection and efficacy of an MPA.

This project is supported by Pew Charitable Trusts Grant (35806) to the University of Colorado