Description: The author wants to highlight the important role of mesopelagic fish in the conservation of marine living resources. Therefore, in order to further clarify and focus research point on the conservation of marine living resources, the authors replaced the MPA with the protected areas, and slightly modified several other vague places. In these corrections, most of them are the replacement of the terms. The original article has been corrected. The text “marine protected areas” is replaced with “conservation areas for marine living resources” in the title, Line 2–3. The text "the Marine protected areas" is replaced with "mesopelagic fish" in Line 24. The text "the MPA with protected areas" is replaced in Line 10, Line 23, Line 359, Line 370, Line 508, Line 519, Line 546, Line 547, Line 549, Line 552, Line 554, Line 556, Line 558, Line 562, Line 566, Line 769, Several vague places using protected areas are slightly modified in Line 15, Line 20, Line 21, Line 22, Line 155–156, Line 331–332, Line 356–357, Line 359, Line 361, Line 363, Line 365–366, Line 504, Line 505, Line 506, Line 513, Line 783–784. For replacement of the MPA using protected areas, the Fig. 7 and legend are modified without the change of the numbers. (Figure presented.) The text “marine protected areas” is replaced with “conservation areas for marine living resources” in the title in Supplementary information.

Description: 〈jats:p〉Abstract. Systematic long-term studies on ecosystem dynamics are largely lacking from the East Antarctic Southern Ocean, although it is well recognized that they are indispensable to identify the ecological impacts and risks of environmental change. Here, we present a framework for establishing a long-term cross-disciplinary study on decadal timescales. We argue that the eastern Weddell Sea and the adjacent sea to the east, off Dronning Maud Land, is a particularly well suited area for such a study, since it is based on findings from previous expeditions to this region. Moreover, since climate and environmental change have so far been comparatively muted in this area, as in the eastern Antarctic in general, a systematic long-term study of its environmental and ecological state can provide a baseline of the current situation, which will be important for an assessment of future changes from their very onset, with consistent and comparable time series data underpinning and testing models and their projections. By establishing an Integrated East Antarctic Marine Research (IEAMaR) observatory, long-term changes in ocean dynamics, geochemistry, biodiversity, and ecosystem functions and services will be systematically explored and mapped through regular autonomous and ship-based synoptic surveys. An associated long-term ecological research (LTER) programme, including experimental and modelling work, will allow for studying climate-driven ecosystem changes and interactions with impacts arising from other anthropogenic activities. This integrative approach will provide a level of long-term data availability and ecosystem understanding that are imperative to determine, understand, and project the consequences of climate change and support a sound science-informed management of future conservation efforts in the Southern Ocean. 〈/jats:p〉

Description: Mesopelagic fish (meso-fish) are central species within the Southern Ocean (SO). However, their ecosystem role and adaptive capacity to climate change are rarely integrated into marine protected area (MPAs) assessments. This is a pity given their importance as crucial prey and predators in food webs, coupled with the impacts of climate change. Here, we estimate the habitat distribution of nine meso-fish using an ensemble model approach (MAXENT, random forest, and boosted regression tree). Four climate model simulations were used to project their distribution under two representative concentration pathways (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5) for short-term (2006–2055) and long-term (2050–2099) periods. In addition, we assess the ecological representativeness of established and proposed MPAs under climate change scenarios using meso-fish as indicator species. Our models show that all species shift poleward in the future. Lanternfishes (family Myctophidae) are predicted to migrate poleward more than other families (Paralepididae, Nototheniidae, Bathylagidae, and Gonostomatidae). In comparison, lanternfishes were projected to increase habitat area in the eastern SO but lose area in the western SO; the opposite was projected for species in other families. Important areas (IAs) of meso-fish are mainly distributed near the Antarctic Peninsula and East Antarctica. Proposed MPAs cover 23% of IAs at present and 38% of IAs in the future (RCP8.5, long-term future). Many IAs of meso-fish still need to be included in MPA proposals, such as the Prydz Bay and the seas around the Antarctic Peninsula. Our results provide a framework for designing new MPAs incorporating climate change adaptation strategies for MPA management.