Marine protected areas may miss key connections if people and nature are assessed separately

Connectivity research is growing, but split

The review analyzed 7,911 peer-reviewed articles published between 2010 and 2024 and found that connectivity research has shifted from studying dispersal, population structure, and spatial patterns toward more applied topics such as marine protected area network design, ecological restoration, and governance. However, the literature has remained limited in addressing social–ecological feedbacks, management effectiveness, equity, and the changing role of human activities in shaping ecological connectivity.

To address these gaps, the authors developed a Social-Ocean Connectivity framework that connects ecological resistance, coastal human activity, governance processes, and socio-cultural relations. They did not apply the framework to a specific case study, but described how methods such as principal component analysis, least-cost path modeling, and hypergraph-based network representation could be combined in future empirical assessments of MPA systems.

Assessment needs social and ecological links

The review argues that meeting international biodiversity and ocean goals depends not only on where marine protected areas are placed, but on whether their design accounts for both biological connections and the human systems that influence them. It highlights the need to evaluate connectivity alongside governance capacity, social legitimacy, and equitable conservation outcomes, rather than treating these as separate assessment questions.

Systematic review and proposed framework

This is a systematic evidence map and conceptual framework based on a broad review of peer-reviewed literature from 2010–2024. The main limitation is that the work summarizes and synthesizes existing studies rather than testing a new integrated assessment approach in the real world; the proposed framework is outlined for future empirical use, not demonstrated through a completed case-study application.