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This decade represents a critical period to profoundly rethink human–nature interactions in order to address the interwoven climate and biodiversity crises. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) demonstrate promise for increasing ecosystem resilience and reversing habitat and population declines, but outcomes vary considerably from context to context. Partially protected areas offer a compromise between ecological recovery and the social needs of local communities, but their success is contingent on an array of factors. This in-depth review summarizes 15 years of marine conservation research and impact in Lyme Bay (southwest UK), to serve as a model for the future adoption of partially protected MPAs. The findings from the UK's longest integrated socioecological monitoring MPA study are presented and supplemented by an evaluation of the whole-site management approach as a core element of Lyme Bay's achievements. The journey from research to improved monitoring and ambitious policy is illustrated within and interspersed with stories of novel discoveries, ongoing challenges, and method developments. What started as a dedicated group of community members has grown into an immense collaboration between fishers, scientists, NGOs, and regulators, and their combined efforts have sent ripple effects of positive change across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Acoustic Complexity Index higher in fished area vs protected area. • Acoustic Complexity Index does not correlate with simultaneous biodiversity indices. • Acoustic Complexity Index covaries with mobile assemblage composition. The soundscape of the marine environment is a relatively understudied area of ecology that has the potential to provide large amounts of information on biodiversity, reproductive behaviour, habitat selection, spawning and predator–prey interactions. Biodiversity is often visually assessed and used as a proxy for ecosystem health. Visual assessment using divers or remote video methods can be expensive, and limited to times of good weather and water visibility. Previous studies have concluded that acoustic measures, such as the Acoustic Complexity Index (ACI), correlate with visual biodiversity estimates and offer an alternative to assess ecosystem health. Here, the ACI measured over 5 years in a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the UK, Lyme Bay, was analysed alongside another monitoring method, Baited Remote Underwater Video Systems (BRUVs). Two treatments were sampled annually in the summer from 2014 until 2018 with sites inside the MPA, as well as Open Control sites outside of the MPA. Year by year correlations, which have been used elsewhere to test ACI, showed significant correlations with Number of Species and ACI. However, the sign of these correlations changed almost yearly, showing that more in-depth analyses are needed. Multivariate analysis of the benthic assemblage composition (from BRUVs) was carried out by Permutational Multivariate Analysis of Variance (PERMANOVA) using Distance Matrices. Although not consistently correlating with univariate measures, the ACI was significantly interacting with the changing benthic assemblage composition, as it changed over time and protection (Inside vs Outside the MPA). ACI showed potential to allude to shifting benthic communities, yet with no consistency when used alongside univariate measures of diversity. Although it is not without its own disadvantages, and thus should be developed further before implementation, the ACI could potentially reflect more complex changes to the benthos than simply the overall diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offshore ocean aquaculture is expanding globally to meet the growing demand for sustainable food production. At the United Kingdom's largest longline mussel farm, we assessed the potential for the farm to improve the habitat suitability for commercially important crustaceans. Modelled distribution patterns (GAM & GLM) predicted the low complexity seabed beneath the mussel farm was 34-94 % less suitable for European lobster (Homarus gammarus) and brown crab (Cancer pagurus) than nearby rocky reefs. The mussel farm operations, however, contributed large amounts of living mussels and shell material to the seabed. Acoustic telemetry revealed that H.gammarus remained within the farm for between 2 and 283 days using both the farm anchors and areas of seabed dominated by fallen mussels for refuge. In contrast, C. pagurus movements showed no affinity to either the farm infrastructure or benthic habitat under the farm. Stable isotope analysis indicated a high dietary niche overlap in C. pagurus and H. gammarus (67.8 and 84.6 %) between the mussel farm (mixed muddy sediment) and nearby rocky reef. Our mixed-methods suggest that the mussel farm augments structural complexity on the seabed providing refuge and similar feeding opportunities for lobster and crab as their typical habitat on rocky reefs. Longline mussel farms can deliver profound biodiversity-positive effects through biogenic augmentation of degraded habitat for commercial species and potential for co-benefits to local fisheries., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest We confirm there is no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)