Habitat protection actions for coastal delphinids in a disturbed environment with explicit information gaps

Bridging information gaps in an animal's habitat configuration is an explicit challenge in planning habitat protection actions (HPAs) for marine megafauna species near sites of intense anthropogenic activity. This challenge is further complicated by inadequate field survey designs and data manipulation that likely bias habitat configuration baselines. In this study, the likely habitat configuration of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, Sousa chinensis, in the Chinese provinces of Fujian and Guangdong was projected using species distribution modeling (SDM). The influence of inadequate survey design and data manipulation of the baseline presentation was explored by comparing the SDM results from different datasets with current knowledge of humpback dolphin distributions in Chinese waters. Only the SDM based on data from systematically designed surveys projected a habitat configuration matching the current humpback dolphin distribution in China. The likely habitat configuration of humpback dolphins was characterized by high primary productivity and a shallow water depth. This study showed that ecosystem service losses, indexed by CO2 absorption, due to coastal alteration activities need to be factored into environmental impact assessments. Sound HPA practices include sharing information between research teams, mitigating the adverse impacts of anthropogenic activities, associating protected area networking with regional maritime spatial planning, monitoring coastal landscapes and seascape baselines, reducing land-based pollution, restoring degraded habitats for aquatic biota, and recovering land-to-sea connectivity. These measures require comprehensive coordination and collaboration between scientific research teams, policy representatives, NGOs/NPOs and stakeholder groups.