Researchers at UC Santa Barbara and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sought to determine how well MPAs protect fish from changes caused by marine heatwaves.

According to the researchers’ findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports (lead author Ryan Freedman, a former doctoral student in the lab of Jennifer Caselle, a researcher at UCSB’s Marine Science Institute) MPAs do little to mediate some effects of marine heatwaves, including, in this case, changes to fish community structure. Resource managers will have to employ other strategies if they want to mitigate this challenge, the research shows.