Mammals and birds show marine areas that should be protected in the Antarctica

When it comes to climate change, it is essential to identify the areas of the planet that need to be protected. However, this is difficult to do in the oceans, especially in the most remote areas, such as the Southern Ocean. An international study, in which José Xavier - a scientist at the University of Coimbra (UC) - participated, provides, for the first time, a map of the areas of high diversity in Antarctica that need to be preserved.

The identification of these areas was possible thanks to data obtained from monitoring the foraging areas of 17 species of penguins, seals, albatrosses, petrels and whales, according to the scientific article "Tracking of marine predators to protect Southern Ocean ecosystems", recently published in the prestigious journal "Nature" and available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2126-y. Over 4000 animal movements were recorded using various tracking devices (e.g. GPS, satellite).

The areas of greatest ecological importance identified by the 70 authors of the study, from 12 national Antarctic programmes, are located in coastal Antarctica, the Antarctic Peninsula and sub-Antarctic islands in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

Existing marine protected areas (MPAs) for the Antarctic region already include some of these areas. However, "climate model projections for 2100 may not align MPAs with areas of high diversity. This means that MPAs need to be managed dynamically, with regular reviews," explains Jose Xavier, a professor at the Department of Life Sciences at the Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia de Coimbra and a member of the Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre at the University of Coimbra.

This research "addresses the fundamental question of which marine areas in Antarctica need to be protected and how best to do so in the future, which could be an example for other parts of the world," he stresses.

José Xavier also stresses that "given the increasing impact of climate change on our planet, more efforts are needed from the world scientific community, such as this one, to speed up the dissemination of science in political decisions on the management of marine protected areas in the future".

^{Translation by Diana Taborda}