First evidence of correlated ecosystem service and food web robustness in a sub-Antarctic marine protected area

In protected areas management, ecosystem services (ES) are increasingly considered alongside biodiversity conservation. Even so, the decisions made with respect to ecosystem service conservation rarely include the potential cascade effects of biodiversity loss on ecosystem service provisions. We performed a series of extinction simulations for eight ES integrated into a food web model for the Namuncurá-Burdwood Bank Marine Protected Areas I and II (N-BB MPA; ~54-56° S, ~56-62° W). For the first time in a marine ecosystem of this scale, we find that the robustness of the food web to species loss is highly correlated with ES's robustness to species loss. This study builds on recent efforts to deploy network theory for establishing conservation goals and presents a novel approach for applying network theory to ES maintenance. We determine that ecosystem service providers play little role in maintaining network stability, and that highly connected species and species which support ES indirectly should receive greater attention from conservation planners. While existing data are likely insufficient to determine the true robustness of individual services, we suggest that integrating ES into existing food webs, even without detailed quantitative data on service provision, can complement existing predictions of structural changes to food webs to identify vulnerable ES.