Understanding migratory connectivity is important for conserving highly mobile marine species facing escalating threats. Establishing baseline information on migratory connectivity is necessary for identifying species and regions requiring transboundary cooperation for their conservation. Despite efforts to track migratory sharks and rays, information on transboundary movements is limited and often inaccessible to managers and policymakers. To address this gap, we synthesized movement information from published studies for Australian shark and ray species listed under the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and investigated which species require international engagement to support their population recovery. We built connectivity networks from telemetry and mark-recapture studies to provide the first transboundary connectivity baseline for Australian sharks and rays. Of the 29 CMS-listed shark and ray species reviewed, we identified five species linking the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone to other national jurisdictions via migratory connections through the Tasman Sea to New Zealand, through the Tasman and Coral Sea to New Caledonia, and north across the Timor Sea and Torres Strait. White sharks (Carcharhinus carcharias) and whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) were the most data-rich species, whereas 18 species (62%) had no movement data available. Overall, we identified 64 studies for only 12 species, indicating that conservation and management of only a few CMS-listed sharks and rays are informed by understanding their movement, whereas the migratory connectivity of most species remains unknown. These results underscore the need for expanded, multilateral, and species-specific movement studies. Notably, almost two-thirds of endangered or critically endangered migratory sharks and rays had only one or no published studies on their movements. Finally, our results demonstrated the potential for this baseline information to support (or not) the listing of migratory species under CMS. Additionally, this work shows that migratory connectivity baselines can support international reporting, direct international collaboration, and research efforts on critical knowledge gaps.

ABSTRACT Maps and spatial models inform natural resource management and policy decisions. However, the geospatial data needed for these decisions are often scattered across websites and services, and typically require technical skills to download, process and analyze. The R programming language is widely used in environmental science, and while there are some R packages available for obtaining terrestrial geospatial data, those for marine data are limited to specific datasets. To fill this gap, we introduce the oceandatr R package, an interface that provides streamlined access to a suite of global ocean data. It provides functions for acquiring and processing many data sources—including bathymetry, geomorphology, ecological, and human use data—and returns these in several grid‐based formats. The gridded output data can be used directly in modeling, spatial analysis and spatial planning. While oceandatr accesses marine data, the functions for retrieving boundaries and gridding data can also be used in other contexts. We outline uses of oceandatr and present two case studies where we use oceandatr to access and process data for a spatial planning application and a spatial model of fishing effort. Oceandatr simplifies the process of geospatial analysis for marine researchers and spatial planners, reducing technical barriers and supporting evidence‐based decision making.

Aim: Green turtles are a widely distributed and highly migratory species; despite extensive data on their movement, there is no species-specific global synthesis on the subject. Based on three decades of published literature and building on previous global analyses, we developed a global network model of migratory connectivity for green turtles to better understand their spatial biology. Location: Global. Time Period: 1990-2022. Major Taxa Studied: Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas). Methods: We conducted a structured literature review extracting georeferenced information on the movement of green turtles from 1990 to 2022, aggregating this information into a single connectivity model, defining nodes of connectivity. We evaluated connectivity routes from nesting areas to foraging sites for each RMU, identifying trajectories moving outside and across the boundaries of these areas. Results: We found a total of 113 sources informing migratory connectivity globally. We identified 474 sites, representing locations where green turtles were observed (124 being nesting sites). Migratory connections, derived from both long-term (>= 1 year) and short-term (< 12 months) tracking data, ranged from resident turtles that never left their nesting sites to rookeries connected to as many as 20 different locations, some over 5000 km apart. This long-distance connectivity exposes populations to threats across disparate locations. Most connections traversed national jurisdictions, including crossing different Regional Management Units. Main Conclusions: We compiled the largest available dataset describing movement of green turtles worldwide and present the most comprehensive global model of their migratory connectivity. This model provides ecological insights into regional differences in life histories, identifies geographic and demographic gaps in sampling, and provides baseline information on connectivity to support transboundary management of green turtle populations. The study reiterates the need for larger collaborative efforts to aggregate knowledge beyond local jurisdictions, to inform and align effective management measures to protect this historically threatened species.

Abstract The conservation of migratory marine megavertebrates depends on the protection of different areas during their life cycles. Many populations have recovered following exploitation-driven declines. Green turtles exemplify successful efforts protecting reproductive populations, reducing harvesting, promoting population recoveries globally. Tortuguero, Costa Rica, the second largest rookeries for green turtles worldwide, implemented long-term conservation efforts leading to a population recovery, which is now in decline. This study investigates migratory connectivity of green turtles from Tortuguero across the Caribbean, and the role marine protected areas (MPAs) play in protecting key habitats supporting this population. Over 25 years, we satellite tagged 63 female green turtles to study their internesting and post-nesting foraging movements. Applying a state-space model, we calculated a movement-persistence index, to separate internesting and foraging periods. We calculated turtles’ utilization distribution areas for both periods. To assess the protection coverage at each end of the migration, we calculated time spent within and outside MPAs. Tracked turtles spent a median of 42.3 days (SD=18.8, range=12-80) within 30 km offshore before departing the internesting area, spending just 23.0% of time within nearby MPAs. After nesting, turtles migrated to 14 different foraging areas, Miskitos Cays, Nicaragua hosted the most turtles (n=23). Mean transmission time in foraging areas was 175.6 days (SD=126.0; range=13–544). Generally, turtles foraged 58.0% of the time within MPAs boundaries; however, ∼32% of tracked turtles foraged outside MPAs. Considering all known stressors, we found this population to be insufficiently protected at either end of their migratory cycle, remaining vulnerable to regional threats. Highlights Nesting green turtles at Tortuguero, Costa Rica, spend ∼20% of their internesting time within marine protected areas. We described area-use by green turtles in 11 foraging grounds never defined for this population; and confirm known connectivity between Tortuguero and at least 9 different countries, supporting previous work. Foraging area coverage by MPAs was relatively evenly split in thirds, with one third of foraging areas being entirely within MPAs, one third overlapping MPAs to some degree, and one third existing entirely outside MPAs. Almost half of the foraging grounds identified for green turtles across the Caribbean Sea and the southern Gulf of Mexico are outside MPAs, making turtles in these areas vulnerable to direct and indirect risks.

Climate change and anthropogenic activities threaten biodiversity and ecosystem services. Climate-smart conservation plans address these challenges by ensuring protection of some climate-resilient areas. However, integrating climate change in the design of conservation plans is often deemed too expensive, as it may require larger networks or protecting more costly sites from a conservation perspective. Using mangroves as a case study, we evaluate the efficiency of protecting mangroves in climate-smart versus climate-naïve reserve networks. We find that climate-smart conservation plans could provide sizable benefits (13.3%) for relatively moderate increases in protected area (+7.3%). Moreover, transboundary plans, involving cooperation among countries, require less area and protect more climate-resilient mangroves than nation-by-nation plans. Implementing these strategies would improve the current protected area network for mangroves, which currently has poor climate resilience. Our methodology could potentially be tested on other ecosystems, assuming sufficient information exists regarding their distribution, biodiversity, and resilience to climate change.

Animal movement data have transformed our understanding of ecological systems and shaped conservation practice, but have limited influence on tracking progress towards international biodiversity goals. Existing biodiversity indicators adopted in frameworks such as the Kunming–Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework — the primary multilateral conservation agreement that aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030 — are typically not responsive enough to detect biodiversity change in time to guide action, nor sufficiently biologically informative to explain or predict changes. In this Perspective, we provide seven reasons why movement data can help to tackle these limitations by adding biological realism, mechanistic understanding, and early-warning capacity to current and future indicators. Movement data already inform conservation efforts, from local management to global treaties for migratory species, and are increasingly helpful to uncover sources of environmental change, while enhancing monitoring capability and policy relevance. We recommend that the scientific community ground existing connectivity metrics in empirical movement data, develop new indicators that flag rapid change, and invest in modelling and attribution studies that use movement data to identify drivers of biodiversity loss and recovery. Biodiversity indicators are essential for tracking progress towards international biodiversity goals, but existing indicators have important shortcomings and are not based on animal movement data. This Perspective outlines why incorporating movement data into biodiversity indicators can help to address these shortcomings, improve monitoring and inform effective conservation actions.

National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans (NBSAPs) are the main instrument for Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity to develop and report on their implementation of the Convention. They promote the synergies between various other multilateral environmental agreements, including the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). Strengthening synergies between different Conventions can enhance collaboration, knowledge sharing, and implementation - ultimately accelerate progress towards global biodiversity goals. Here, we present a systematic review of revised NBSAPs submitted since the 15th CBD Conference of Parties to assess the integration of migratory species and the alignment between the CMS within the NBSAPs. We find an emerging direction towards establishing ecological corridors and integrating spatial planning for migratory species conservation, as well as increased actions towards reducing bycatch for marine migrants. Overall, while we find that explicit attention to migratory species in these documents remains limited, NBSAPs represent a tool for countries to incorporate relevant conservation actions that benefit these species. These findings underscore the need for stronger, cross-target integration of migratory species within NBSAPs to enhance policy coherence and complement CMS commitments.

Green turtles are a widely distributed and highly migratory species, despite extensive data on the movement of green turtles, there is no global synthesis on the subject, limiting a holistic understanding of their movement. Based on three decades of published literature, we present the first global model of migratory connectivity for green turtles. Global. 1990–2022. Green Sea Turtle ( Chelonia mydas ) We conducted a structured literature review extracting georeferenced information on the movement of green turtles from 1990 to 2022, aggregating this information into a single connectivity model, defining sites and “metasites” as nodes of connectivity. We then evaluate the connectivity routes from nesting areas to foraging sites for each RMU, identifying those trajectories moving outside and across the boundaries of these areas. We found an increasing number of studies assessing movement of green turtles, with a total of 113 sources of migratory connectivity information. We identified 474 sites, representing locations where green turtles were observed (124 of these being nesting sites). Migratory connections from nesting sites ranged from resident turtles never leaving the area, to rookeries linked to 13 different sites, some over 5,000 km apart. This long-distance connectivity exposes populations to threats across disparate locations. Most connections traversed national jurisdictions, including crossing different Regional Management Units We compiled the largest available dataset describing movement of green turtles worldwide and present the first global model of their migratory connectivity. This model provides ecological insights into regional differences in life histories, identifies geographic and demographic gaps in sampling, and provides baseline information on connectivity to support transboundary management of green turtle populations. The study highlights the need for larger collaborative efforts to aggregate knowledge beyond local jurisdictions, to inform and align effective management measures to protect this threatened species.

Growing global demands for food, energy, and resources drive competition for space while increasing pressure on natural systems, highlighting the need to balance sustainable resource use with biodiversity conservation. While multiple-use spatial planning provides a pathway to balance this trade-off, there is limited guidance for selecting appropriate optimization approaches and their integration into terrestrial, freshwater, and marine planning processes. Here we explore the current state of multiple-use spatial planning and the challenges that hinder its adoption, including the timing of interventions, economic impacts of planning decisions, capacity building, and alignment with development priorities. We aim to make multiple-use planning more accessible to researchers and practitioners and stimulate its wider uptake to help meet international ecological, economic, and social goals.

Anthropogenic climate change is driving rapid changes in marine ecosystems across the global ocean. The spatiotemporal footprints of other anthropogenic threats, such as infrastructure development, shipping, and fisheries, will also inevitably shift under climate change, but we find that these shifts are not yet accounted for in most projections of climate futures in marine systems. We summarise what is known about threat-shifting in response to climate change, and identify sources of predictability that have implications for ecological forecasting. We recommend that, where possible, the dynamics of anthropogenic threats are accounted for in nowcasts, forecasts, and projections designed for spatial management and conservation planning, and highlight key themes for future research into threat dynamics in a changing ocean.

Animal migrations are extensive, ubiquitous, and in decline. To effectively protect migratory species, it is often crucial to identify the interconnected sets of sites they rely upon. Gaps between primary ecological research and synthesised information that is useful to policymakers has limited effective conservation of long-distance migrants, particularly in the marine realm. By synthesising 1304 references to identify 1787 sites and develop model migratory networks for 109 species, we show the minimum extent of marine megafauna connectivity across the global oceans. Our analyses underscore the importance of transboundary cooperation for migratory species conservation at scales larger than current regional structures afford and provide a free online system that will enable policymakers to efficiently summarise how marine migrants use and connect their jurisdictions.

Climate change and anthropogenic activities threaten biodiversity and ecosystem services. Climate-smart conservation plans address these challenges by focusing protection in climate-resilient areas. However, integrating climate change in the design of conservation plans is often deemed too expensive, as it may require larger networks or protecting more costly sites. Using mangroves as a case study, we evaluated the efficiency of protecting mangroves in climate-smart versus climate-naïve reserve networks. We found that climate-smart conservation plans could provide sizable benefits for relatively small increases in protected area. Moreover, transboundary plans, involving cooperation among countries, require less area and protect more climate-resilient mangroves than nation-by-nation plans. Implementing these strategies would improve the current network of protected areas for mangroves, which currently has poor climate resilience. These findings could also be applied in other ecosystems.

The Global Biodiversity Framework’s target of protecting 30% of land, waters and seas by 2030 requires critical discussion of where to establish new protected areas. Spatial prioritization — the process of identifying priority areas — has increasingly recognized that climate change will affect the efficacy of protected areas, as species move to track shifting climate niches. In this Review, we synthesize the current climate-smart approaches: those strategies aimed at designing protected areas that are more resilient to climate change. Such approaches include protecting species’ future habitats, protecting climate refugia, protecting areas that facilitate climate connectivity and protecting areas that promote adaptation potential. To implement these approaches, challenges include uncertainty and gaps in underlying data. We provide actionable guidance for applying these climate-smart approaches in different contexts and highlight promising ways to integrate advances in climate change ecology into conservation planning. A crucial element of conservation planning is spatial prioritization: the identification of areas that are high priority for conservation. This Review synthesizes advances in climate-smart spatial prioritization, which takes into account the effects of climate change on biodiversity.

Understanding the spawning strategies of large pelagic fish could provide insights into their underlying evolutionary drivers, but large-scale information on spawning remains limited. Here we leverage a near-global larval dataset of 15 large pelagic fish taxa to develop habitat suitability models and use these as a proxy for spawning grounds. Our analysis reveals considerable consistency in spawning in time and space, with 10 taxa spawning in spring/summer and 9 taxa spawning off Northwest Australia. Considering the vast ocean expanse available for spawning, these results suggest that the evolutionary benefits of co-locating spawning in terms of advantageous larval conditions outweigh the benefits of segregated spawning in terms of reduced competition and lower larval predation. Further, tropical species spawn over broad areas throughout the year, whereas more subtropical and temperate species spawn in more restricted areas and seasons. These insights into the spawning strategies of large pelagic fish could inform marine management, including through fisheries measures to protect spawners and through the placement of marine protected areas.

Systematic conservation planning (SCP) involves the cost-effective placement and application of management actions to achieve biodiversity conservation objectives. Given the political momentum for greater global nature protection, restoration, and improved management of natural resources articulated in the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework, assessing the state-of-the-art of SCP is timely. Recent advances in SCP include faster and more exact algorithms and software, inclusion of ecosystem services and multiple facets of biodiversity (e.g., genetic diversity, functional diversity), climate-smart approaches, prioritizing multiple actions, and increased SCP accessibility through online tools. To promote the adoption of SCP by decision-makers, we provide recommendations for bridging the gap between SCP science and practice, such as standardizing the communication of planning uncertainty and capacity-building training courses.

Fronts are ephemeral structures in the ocean that mark the boundaries between water masses of different properties, attracting a wide range of marine organisms, from plankton to whales. Despite their fundamental role in marine ecosystem functioning, the association with biodiversity has mainly focused on single species in regions with high data availability. Here, using multidecadal datasets on dynamical and thermal fronts, satellite tracking, and aerial observations, we assess marine megafauna associations with ocean fronts in the ecologically rich yet highly turbulent Mozambique Channel. We find that a diverse array of species associate with various ocean fronts, although the strength and type of affinity vary across taxa. Downscaled climate change simulations predict significant spatial shifts in front-rich areas by the end of the century. As climate change reshapes ocean front dynamics, adaptive management strategies will be essential to balance conservation and resource use in these critical ecosystems. Teaser Ocean fronts attract marine megafauna, but climate change might alter these habitats, requiring adaptive conservation strategies. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. National Science Foundation French National Research Agency (ANR), ANR-20-BFOC-0006-04 European FEDER Fund, 1166-39417 Excellence Initiative of Aix-Marseille University (AMU) - AMIDEX, “Investissements d’Avenir”, N/A European Space Agency, 4000141547/23/IDT OMNCG Federation of the University of Reunion (SPY Program), N/A Waterlust, Aqua-Firma, and the Shark Foundation, N/A Australian Research Council (ARC), DE210100367 Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, R20F0008-CEAZA, FB210021 (COPAS COASTAL) Australian Research Council (ARC), DP210103091

To meet global conservation targets, there is a growing effort to establish oceanic (waters >200 m depth) marine protected areas (oMPAs). However, despite substantial evidence for benefits of coastal MPAs to fish and fisheries, the effectiveness of oMPAs has been challenging to assess robustly. This is mainly because targeted data collection is expensive, so research often relies on catch data restricted to areas outside oMPA boundaries. Here we explore the use of drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs) as a novel method to assess the effectiveness of oMPAs. We used acoustic data from 902 dFADs deployed by the fishing industry that drifted across the US Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument around Palmyra Atoll - providing data both inside and outside the oMPA - to study spatial variation in tuna biomass density. Using a generalised additive mixed model with a suite of environmental covariates, we found the relationship between tuna biomass density and many environmental covariates made intuitive ecological sense with respect to known tuna behaviour, providing confidence in the model. We found no measurable increase in tuna biomass density inside the oMPA. This finding could have been influenced by the low fishing pressure around this particular oMPA, and regions with greater contrast in fishing pressure might show different results. This research highlights the utility of dFADs as a cost-effective tool for future studies to assess tuna biomass, especially in regions difficult or costly to sample as oMPAs.

Anthropogenic pressures threaten biodiversity, necessitating conservation actions founded on robust ecological models. However, prevailing models inadequately capture the spatiotemporal variation in environmental pressures faced by species with high mobility or complex life histories, as data are often aggregated across species’ life histories or spatial distributions. We highlight the limitations of static models for dynamic species and incorporate life history variation and spatial distributions for species and stressors into a trait-based vulnerability and impact model. We use green sea turtles in the Greater Caribbean Region to demonstrate how vulnerability and anthropogenic impact for a dynamic species change across four life stages. By incorporating life stages into a trait-based vulnerability model, we observed life stage-specific vulnerabilities that were otherwise unnoticed when using an aggregated trait value set. Early life stages were more vulnerable to some stressors, such as inorganic pollution or marine heat waves, and less vulnerable to others, such as bycatch. Incorporating spatial distributions of stressors and life stages revealed impacts differ for each life stage across spatial areas, emphasizing the importance of stage-specific conservation measures. Our approach showcases the importance of incorporating dynamic processes into ecological models and will enable better and more targeted conservation actions for species with complex life histories and high mobility.

Knowing the distribution of fish larvae can inform fisheries science and resource management in several ways, by: 1) providing information on spawning areas; 2) identifying key areas to manage and conserve; and 3) helping to understand how fish populations are affected by anthropogenic pressures, such as overfishing and climate change. With the expansion of industrial fishing activity after 1945, there was increased sampling of fish larvae to help better understand variation in fish stocks. However, large-scale larval records are rare and often unavailable. Here we digitize data from Nishikawa et al. (1985), which were collected from 1956–1981 and are near-global (50°N–50°S), seasonal distribution maps of fish larvae of 18 mainly commercial pelagic taxa of the families Scombridae, Xiphiidae, Istiophoridae, Scombrolabracidae, and Scomberesocidae. Data were collected from the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. We present four seasonal 1° × 1° resolution maps per taxa representing larval abundance per grid cell and highlight some of the main patterns. Data are made available as delimited text, raster, and vector files.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) underscores the role of ecological connectivity in delivering societal goals, but the proposed indicators for connectivity originate in terrestrial systems and have not been tested in the ocean. We assess the applicability of the indicators to marine systems and present existing approaches of measuring marine and migratory connectivity. We advocate for a more deliberate inclusion of the marine realm in global frameworks.