Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

The Moore Center for Science at Conservation International is one of the world’s premier conservation research institutes, producing and applying groundbreaking and policy-relevant research to help decision-makers protect nature. To date, Conservation International has published more than 1,100 peer-reviewed articles, many in leading journals including Science, Nature and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

On average, each of our scientific papers is cited more than 45 times by other scholars — a rate exceeding that of any other U.S. conservation organization as well as leading universities.

Here is an archive of our most recent research.

Towards climate-smart, three-dimensional protected areas for biodiversity conservation in the high seas

Isaac Brito-Morales, David S. Schoeman, Jason D. Everett, Carissa J. Klein, Daniel C. Dunn, Jorge García Molinos, Michael T. Burrows, Kristine Camille V. Buenafe, Rosa Mar Dominguez, Hugh P. Possingham, Anthony J. Richardson

Nature Climate Change, 12, 402-407

April 04, 2022

Marine species are moving rapidly in response to warming, often in different directions and with variations dependent on location and depth. Given the current impetus to increase the area of protected ocean to 30%, conservation planning must include the 64% of the ocean beyond national jurisdictions, which in turn requires associated design challenges for conventional conservation to be addressed. Here we present a planning approach for the high seas that conserves biodiversity, minimizes exposure to climate change, retains species within reserve boundaries and reduces conflict with fishing. This is developed using data from across four depth domains, considering 12,932 vertebrate, invertebrate and algal species and three climate scenarios. The resultant climate-smart conservation areas cover 6% of the high seas and represent a low-regret option that provides a nucleus for developing a full network of high-seas marine reserves.

CITATION

Brito-Morales, I., Schoeman, D. S., Everett, J. D., Klein, C. J., Dunn, D. C., García Molinos, J., Burrows, M. T., Buenafe, K. C. V., Dominguez, R. M., Possingham, H. P., & Richardson, A. J. (2022). Towards climate-smart, three-dimensional protected areas for biodiversity conservation in the high seas. Nature Climate Change, 12(4), 402–407. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01323-7