Spiecker Barbara, Carr Mark H, Malone Daniel P, Parsons-Field Avrey, Koehn Kathryn, Pondella Daniel J, Caselle Jennifer E
Marine Science Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, USA.
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California, USA.
Ecol Appl. 2025 Jul;35(5):e70074. doi: 10.1002/eap.70074.
We evaluated the performance of California's coastal marine protected area (MPA) network, the largest scientifically designed network of its kind, using SCUBA survey data from a large-scale, long-term kelp forest monitoring program. To comprehensively evaluate MPA performance, we employed multiple metrics across various scales of taxonomic and spatial aggregation and four key results emerged. First, population responses to MPAs varied greatly across the large network, whether evaluated as combined taxa or individual focal species or at single MPA or regional scales. Second, while responses varied widely, effect size analysis revealed differences in magnitude of MPA performance over time, with targeted species increasing or declining less within MPAs compared to non-targeted species in all regions except the North Coast. Third, average response ratios further supported these findings by providing a cumulative perspective on MPA performance. Specifically, 80% of MPAs showed positive response ratios for targeted species, with 12 of these cases being significant, indicating generally higher biomass inside MPAs. Finally, using our most conservative performance framework of divergence between MPA and non-MPA (Ref) sites and between targeted and non-targeted species, only the South Coast and Northern Channel Islands regions exhibited a significantly positive trend in biomass ratios (MPA/Ref) over time for targeted species. While biomass ratios increased significantly over time within MPAs for targeted species, divergence between targeted and non-targeted species' trends was largely absent, except in the Northern Channel Islands where a marginally non-significant effect was noted. Taken together, these results demonstrate that MPA performance is variable across regions and taxa, and different aspects of performance were revealed depending on the metric used. This underscores the need for comprehensive evaluation approaches when assessing the effectiveness of large, networked MPAs.
我们利用一个大规模、长期海带森林监测项目的水肺潜水调查数据，评估了加利福尼亚沿海海洋保护区（MPA）网络的性能，该网络是同类中规模最大的科学设计网络。为了全面评估MPA的性能，我们在分类和空间聚集的不同尺度上采用了多个指标，得出了四个关键结果。第一，无论是将其评估为组合分类群还是单个重点物种，亦或是在单个MPA或区域尺度上，MPA对种群的影响在整个大型网络中差异很大。第二，虽然影响差异很大，但效应大小分析揭示了MPA性能随时间的大小差异，除北海岸外，所有地区的MPA内目标物种的增加或减少幅度均小于非目标物种。第三，平均响应率通过提供关于MPA性能的累积视角进一步支持了这些发现。具体而言，80%的MPA对目标物种显示出正响应率，其中12个案例具有显著性，表明MPA内生物量总体较高。最后，使用我们最保守的MPA与非MPA（参考）站点之间以及目标物种与非目标物种之间差异的性能框架，只有南海岸和北海峡群岛地区的目标物种生物量比率（MPA/参考）随时间呈现出显著的正趋势。虽然MPA内目标物种的生物量比率随时间显著增加，但目标物种与非目标物种趋势之间的差异在很大程度上并不存在，除了北海峡群岛地区，该地区有一个略微不显著的效应。综上所述，这些结果表明，MPA的性能在不同地区和分类群之间存在差异，并且根据所使用的指标揭示了性能的不同方面。这凸显了在评估大型网络化MPA的有效性时采用综合评估方法的必要性。
