4.3 Giant clam protection and adaptative management
SDMs establish relationships between species occurrence records and environmental factors using species coordinates and environmental data, enabling the prediction of suitable habitats and distribution patterns (Guisan et al., 2017; Hällfors et al., 2016). As field surveys have limited coverage, SDM predictions play a crucial role as supplements in marine biodiversity conservation efforts. In recent years, numerous studies have utilized SDMs to identify distribution characteristics of diverse marine taxonomic groups, providing a vital foundation for the development of scientifically sound conservation plans (Hu et al., 2022; Wang et al., 2023). Notably, there is increasing momentum under the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to raise protection targets to 30% of the ocean by 2030 (Brito-Morales et al., 2022). Our study revealed that the potential distribution area of T. maxima is 1,519,764.73 km2, while only 244,730.58 km2 falls within protected areas, constituting 16.10% of the total (Fig. 8). These findings contradict the Indo-Pacific region’s reputation as the world’s richest in terms of marine species. Although a certain number of marine protected areas have been established here (with a total area of approximately 459,711.65 km2), they inadequately cover the suggested priority conservation areas identified in this study due to their scattered distributions. The existing protected areas are not sufficiently large or well-connected, suggesting that they may not be effective for protecting giant clams. Therefore, management efforts should include establishing a MPA network along the coastlines of West Pacific-Indonesia to match the dispersal capability of giant clams.
It has been demonstrated that under future climate scenarios, global marine species distributions are shifting at rates of tens to hundreds of kilometers per decade (Stuart-Smith et al., 2017). In the present study, the projected future potential distribution area of T. maxima is 1,285,800.49 km2, with 208,080.73 km2 falling within protected areas, accounting for 16.18% (Fig. 8). Considering the impact of climate change on habitats, it is crucial to assess whether existing protected areas can still fulfill their original conservation functions. Additionally, management efforts should address the effects of future climate change on habitats in order to maintain population connectivity and adaptability in separated regions. This requires constructing appropriate models to understand the distribution patterns of numerous threatened species under climate change, identifying species richness hotspots in the Indo-Pacific core region, and evaluating the effectiveness of individual and networked marine protected areas. Such endeavors hold significant importance in formulating adaptive and forward-looking conservation policies.