Continent-wide declines in shallow reef life over a decade of ocean warming.

Human society is dependent on nature, but whether our ecological foundations are at risk remains unknown in the absence of systematic monitoring of species' populations. Knowledge of species fluctuations is particularly inadequate in the marine realm. Here we assess the population trends of 1,057 common shallow reef species from multiple phyla at 1,636 sites around Australia over the past decade.

Abundance modulates the ecosystem functional contributions of two sympatric Caribbean sea cucumbers.

In highly diverse systems such as coral reefs, many species appear to fulfil similar ecological roles, suggesting that they might be ecologically equivalent. However, even if species provide similar functions, the magnitude of those roles could modulate their impact within ecosystems. Here, we compare the functional contributions of two common, co-occurring Caribbean sea cucumber species, and , in terms of ammonium provisioning and sediment processing on Bahamian patch reefs.

Tracking widespread climate-driven change on temperate and tropical reefs.

Warming seas, marine heatwaves, and habitat degradation are increasingly widespread phenomena affecting marine biodiversity, yet our understanding of their broader impacts is largely derived from collective insights from independent localized studies. Insufficient systematic broadscale monitoring limits our understanding of the true extent of these impacts and our capacity to track these at scales relevant to national policies and international agreements. Using an extensive time series of co-located reef fish community structure and habitat data spanning 12 years and the entire Australian continent, we found that reef fish community responses to changing temperatures and habitats are dynamic and widespread but regionally patchy.

Anthropogenic disruptions to longstanding patterns of trophic-size structure in vertebrates.

Diet and body mass are inextricably linked in vertebrates: while herbivores and carnivores have converged on much larger sizes, invertivores and omnivores are, on average, much smaller, leading to a roughly U-shaped relationship between body size and trophic guild. Although this U-shaped trophic-size structure is well documented in extant terrestrial mammals, whether this pattern manifests across diverse vertebrate clades and biomes is unknown. Moreover, emergence of the U-shape over geological time and future persistence are unknown.

Ambitious global targets for mangrove and seagrass recovery.

There is an urgent need to halt and reverse loss of mangroves and seagrass to protect and increase the ecosystem services they provide to coastal communities, such as enhancing coastal resilience and contributing to climate stability. Ambitious targets for their recovery can inspire public and private investment in conservation, but the expected outcomes of different protection and restoration strategies are unclear. We estimated potential recovery of mangroves and seagrass through gains in ecosystem extent to the year 2070 under a range of protection and restoration strategies implemented until the year 2050.

Anthropogenic pressures and life history predict trajectories of seagrass meadow extent at a global scale.

Seagrass meadows are threatened by multiple pressures, jeopardizing the many benefits they provide to humanity and biodiversity, including climate regulation and food provision through fisheries production. Conservation of seagrass requires identification of the main pressures contributing to loss and the regions most at risk of ongoing loss. Here, we model trajectories of seagrass change at the global scale and show they are related to multiple anthropogenic pressures but that trajectories vary widely with seagrass life-history strategies.

Long-term declines and recovery of meadow area across the world's seagrass bioregions.

As human impacts increase in coastal regions, there is concern that critical habitats that provide the foundation of entire ecosystems are in decline. Seagrass meadows face growing threats such as poor water quality and coastal development. To determine the status of seagrass meadows over time, we reconstructed time series of meadow area from 175 studies that surveyed 547 sites around the world.

Shifting headlines? Size trends of newsworthy fishes.

The shifting baseline syndrome describes a gradual lowering of human cognitive baselines, as each generation accepts a lower standard of resource abundance or size as the new norm. There is strong empirical evidence of declining trends of abundance and body sizes of marine fish species reported from docks and markets. We asked whether these widespread trends in shrinking marine fish are detectable in popular English-language media, or whether news writers, like many marine stakeholders, are captive to shifting baselines.

Size structuring and allometric scaling relationships in coral reef fishes.

Temperate marine fish communities are often size-structured, with predators consuming increasingly larger prey and feeding at higher trophic levels as they grow. Gape limitation and ontogenetic diet shifts are key mechanisms by which size structuring arises in these communities. Little is known, however, about size structuring in coral reef fishes.