title: New Approaches to Marine Conservation Through the Scaling Up of Ecological Data.
abstract: In an era of rapid global change, conservation managers urgently need improved tools to track and counter declining ecosystem conditions. This need is particularly acute in the marine realm, where threats are out of sight, inadequately mapped, cumulative, and often poorly understood, thereby generating impacts that are inefficiently managed. Recent advances in macroecology, statistical analysis, and the compilation of global data will play a central role in improving conservation outcomes, provided that global, regional, and local data streams can be integrated to produce locally relevant and interpretable outputs. Progress will be assisted by (a) expanded rollout of systematic surveys that quantify species patterns, including some carried out with help from citizen scientists; (b) coordinated experimental research networks that utilize large-scale manipulations to identify mechanisms underlying these patterns;
authors.affiliation: Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart 7004, Tasmania, Australia; email: g.edgar@utas.edu.au , rick.stuartsmith@utas.edu.au.
authors.forename: Graham J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Edgar
authors.affiliation: National Oceanography Centre Southampton, University of Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, United Kingdom; email: a.e.bates@soton.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Amanda E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Bates
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom; email: tomasbird@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Tomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Bird
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, United Kingdom; email: ahjones1@sheffield.ac.uk , t.j.webb@sheffield.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Alun H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden; email: stuart@kininmonth.com.au.
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kininmonth
authors.affiliation: Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart 7004, Tasmania, Australia; email: g.edgar@utas.edu.au , rick.stuartsmith@utas.edu.au.
authors.forename: Rick D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Stuart-Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, United Kingdom; email: ahjones1@sheffield.ac.uk , t.j.webb@sheffield.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Webb
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D004463:Ecology / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D008386:Marine Biology; D009792:Oceans and Seas
keywords: biological diversity; citizen science; ecological monitoring; ecosystem management; macroecology; underwater visual census