Climate change is reshaping the distributions of marine species and disrupting functional connectivity among protected areas, yet few studies have quantified how these shifts alter the performance of marine protected area (MPA) networks. This study assessed climate-driven changes in functional connectivity for eight economically important fish species across 193 coastal MPAs in China under current conditions and two end-of-cen...

Understanding how climate change and anthropogenic stressors jointly affect threatened marine species is critical for conservation planning, yet integrated assessments remain scarce in China’s coastal waters. Using an ensemble species distribution modelling framework (Biomod2) with six algorithms, we projected habitat suitability for ten threatened marine species under climate-only and global-change scenarios for 2040–2050 und...

Accelerating climate change and chronic anthropogenic pressures demand connectivity-based design of marine protected area networks (MPANs). Yet integrating dynamic species responses and cumulative human pressures into spatial planning remains a key challenge, particularly in marginal seas at the land–ocean interface. As a biodiversity hotspot under intensive development, the Yellow and Bohai Seas (YBS) exemplify this complexit...

Estuarine fronts, which arise from the convergence of distinct water masses, exhibit considerable spatial and temporal variability and play a crucial role in shaping ecological dynamics within estuarine ecosystems. Despite their importance, due to limited data, there’s inefficiency understanding on how biological communities, particularly zooplankton, respond to these dynamic environmental features. The Yangtze River Estuary (...

Calanus sinicus , a temperate copepod with a lethal temperature >27°C, is one of the key species in Chinese coastal marine ecosystems. The C. sinicus population increases in spring and declines in early summer annually due to increasing water temperature. Numerous C. sinicus individuals then congregate in the Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass (YSCWM) and remain under the thermocline from early summer to early autumn. Development and...