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: The German Bight (North Sea) is a centre of development of offshore wind energy. In the near future, windfarms will cover a significant part (about 25%) of the German Exclusive Economic Zone. In order to understand and assess potential effects of the construction and early operational phase of offshore wind turbines on the marine environment, an extensive research programme was carried out at Germany's first offshore windfarm alpha ventus. Here, data are presented on macroinfauna and local sediment characteristics collected as part of this programme. Grab samples were taken annually in autumn in 2008 (baseline), 2009 (construction phase) and 2010 and 2011 (early operational phase). Sampling stations were located along transects between adjacent turbines inside the windfarm and in two reference areas with similar environmental conditions in terms of sediment characteristics and water depth. A total of 336 samples were taken inside the windfarm and 192 samples in the reference areas. Sediment characteristics were described in terms of grain size distribution and organic content. The infauna was taxonomically analysed and quantified in terms of abundance and biomass. One-hundred three infauna taxa were identified, mainly belonging to the polychaetes, crustaceans and bivalves, living in fine to medium sandy soft bottom in water depths ranging from -27 m to -30 m. The data can be useful in meta-analyses of renewable energies impacts. Additionally, the data can support species distribution modelling to gain a better understanding of species' requirements and habitats as a basis for spatial planning scenarios and the evaluation of the ecological status of the marine environment. Moreover, the data can serve as baseline data for future monitoring and management of nearby protected areas where environmental conditions are comparable to those of the present study area.

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.