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Reply to: Global effects of marine protected areas on food security are unknown

Nature volume 621, pages E37–E40 (2023)Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 20 September 2023

replying to D. Ovando et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06493-8 (2023)

The main goal of our study was to develop a flexible conservation-planning framework to prioritize marine protected areas (MPAs) in places that would result in multiple benefits today and in the future1. Every model has assumptions that will affect its results to varying degrees. In the accompanying Comment, Ovando et al.2 challenge two important assumptions of our food provision model: (1) the scale of spatial connectivity of unassessed stocks and (2) the nature of the density dependence. Here, we isolate and test for the effect of reducing the scale of spatial connectivity and provide arguments for why assuming a global density dependence is justified.

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Fig. 1: Maximum food-provisioning benefits generated from global versus local models under two fishing effort redistribution assumptions.
Fig. 2: Global food benefit accumulation curves.
Fig. 3: Differences in global conservation priorities between the global and the EEZ-constrained models.

Data availability

The underlying data used in this study are available from the sources listed in the supplementary information of the original paper1.

Code availability

The code supporting the findings of this additional analysis is available at GitHub (https://github.com/emlab-ucsb/ocean-conservation-priorities).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pristine Seas, National Geographic Society, Washington, DC, USA

    Enric Sala, Juan Mayorga, Alan M. Friedlander & Whitney Goodell

  2. Environmental Markets Lab, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Juan Mayorga, Darcy Bradley, Reniel B. Cabral, Christopher Costello & Steven D. Gaines

  3. Department of Watershed Sciences and Ecology Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

    Trisha B. Atwood & Audra Hinson

  4. IFREMER, Unité Halieutique de Manche et Mer du Nord, Boulogne-sur-Mer, France

    Arnaud Auber

  5. Changing Ocean Research Unit, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    William Cheung & Juliano Palacios-Abrantes

  6. Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA

    Francesco Ferretti

  7. Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology, Kaneohe, HI, USA

    Alan M. Friedlander & Whitney Goodell

  8. GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Cristina Garilao & Kristin Kaschner

  9. The WorldFish Center, Philippine Office, Los Baños, The Philippines

    Benjamin S. Halpern & Kathleen Kesner-Reyes

  10. MARBEC, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Fabien Leprieur & David Mouillot

  11. Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Jane Lubchenco

  12. The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, VA, USA

    Jennifer McGowan

  13. Marine Conservation Institute, Seattle, WA, USA

    Lance E. Morgan

  14. Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science CBCS, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Hugh P. Possingham

  15. Dynamic Planet, Washington, DC, USA

    Kristin D. Rechberger

  16. Ocean Frontier Institute, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Boris Worm

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  1. Enric Sala
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  21. Lance E. Morgan
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  23. Juliano Palacios-Abrantes
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  24. Hugh P. Possingham
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Contributions

E.S., J. Mayorga D.B., R.B.C., C.C., S.D.G. and B.W. led the writing of the first draft. The other authors contributed to the ideas and writing of the Reply.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Enric Sala.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Sala, E., Mayorga, J., Bradley, D. et al. Reply to: Global effects of marine protected areas on food security are unknown. Nature 621, E37–E40 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06494-7

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