Recovery of marine animal populations and ecosystems

Many marine populations and ecosystems have experienced strong historical depletions, yet reports of recoveries are increasing. Here, we review the growing research on marine recoveries to reveal how common recovery is, its magnitude, timescale and major drivers. Overall, 10-50% of depleted populations and ecosystems show some recovery, but rarely to former levels of abundance. In addition, recovery can take many decades for long-lived species and complex ecosystems. Major drivers of recovery include the reduction of human impacts, especially exploitation, habitat loss and pollution, combined with favorable life-history and environmental conditions. Awareness, legal protection and enforcement of management plans are also crucial. Learning from historical recovery successes and failures is essential for implementing realistic conservation goals and promising management strategies

Recovery of marine animal populations and ecosystems

11 pages, 3 figures, 2 tablesMany marine populations and ecosystems have experienced strong historical depletions, yet reports of recoveries are increasing. Here, we review the growing research on marine recoveries to reveal how common recovery is, its magnitude, timescale and major drivers. Overall, 10–50% of depleted populations and ecosystems show some recovery, but rarely to former levels of abundance. In addition, recovery can take many decades for long-lived species and complex ecosystems. Major drivers of recovery include the reduction of human impacts, especially exploitation, habitat loss and pollution, combined with favorable life-history and environmental conditions. Awareness, legal protection and enforcement of management plans are also crucial. Learning from historical recovery successes and failures is essential for implementing realistic conservation goals and promising management strategiesFinancial support was provided by the Sloan Foundation’s Census of Marine Life FMAP Program, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and Dalhousie University. MC was funded by the European Community Marie-Curie Post-doctoral Fellowship through the International Outgoing Fellowships (IOF; Call: FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-1-IOF) to ECOFUN and LA by the European Commission through FP7.2009-1, Contract 244104–THESEUSPeer reviewe