Research into the interlinks between biodiversity patterns, processes, threats, conservation and human welfare



Press room


The Mora Lab is committed to communicating science to the public. We consider it a scientist’s societal responsibility to communicate research results to the broader public, especially with respect to research that carries policy implications. This is especially crucial given current rates of biodiversity loss. It is important to realize that policy effectiveness requires the willingness of decision makers, which in part is motivated by the interest of the electorate, to implement science-based strategies, and the compliance of the general public with the resulting regulations. All of these tasks are likely to be achieved if politicians and the general public are better informed. Below is the media outreach for some of our papers.

On the number of species on Earth and in the ocean

Journal: Plos Biology
Authors: Camilo Mora, Derek P Tittensor, Sina Adl, Alastair G B Simpson & Boris Worm
Blurb: The discovery of a pattern for how species are classified taxonomically allows scientists to calculate the total number of species on Earth and in the ocean.

Ongoing global biodiversity loss and the need to move beyond protected areas: a review of technical and practical shortcomings

Journal: Marine Ecology Progress Series
Authors: Camilo Mora & Peter F Sale
Blurb: Continued reliance on a strategy of setting aside land and marine territories as “protected areas” is insufficient to stem global biodiversity loss, according to a new comprehensive assessment.

Global human footprint on the linkage between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in reef fishes

Journal: Plos Biology
Authors: Camilo Mora, Octavio Aburto-Oropeza, Arturo Ayala Bocos, Paula M. Ayotte, Stuart Banks, Andrew G. Bauman, Maria Beger, Sandra Bessudo, David J. Booth, Eran Brokovich, Andrew Brooks, Pascale Chabanet, Joshua Cinner, Jorge Cortés, Juan J. Cruz-Motta, Amilcar Cupul Magaña, Edward DeMartini, Graham J. Edgar, David A. Feary, Sebastian C. A. Ferse, Alan Friedlander, Kevin J. Gaston, Charlotte Gough, Nicholas A. J. Graham, Alison Green, Hector Guzman, Marah Hardt, Michel Kulbicki, Yves Letourneur, Andres López Pérez, Michel Loreau, Yossi Loya, Camilo Martinez, Ismael Mascareñas-Osorio, Tau Morove, Marc-Oliver Nadon, Yohei Nakamura, Gustavo Paredes, Nicholas Polunin, Morgan S. Pratchett, Héctor Reyes Bonilla, Fernando Rivera, Enric Sala, Stuart Sandin, German Soler, Rick Stuart-Smith, Emmanuel Tessier, Derek P. Tittensor, Mark Tupper, Paolo Usseglio, Laurent Vigliola, Laurent Wantiez, Ivor Williams, Shaun K. Wilson & Fernando A. Zapata
Blurb: A global field study on coral reefs indicates the existence of accelerating relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in coral reefs and conclude that the functionality of the most diverse reef systems is the most impaired by the deleterious effects of human populations worldwide.

An enigmatic problem in marine ecology uncovered

Journal: Ecography
Authors: Camilo Mora , Eric Treml, Jason Roberts, Kate Crosby, Denis Roy & Derek P Tittensor
Blurb: Reef fishes and many other marine species live all their adulthood in one place but at a young age, when they’re eggs and larvae, spend a short period of time drifting and swimming in the ocean. It seems intuitive that the duration of this open water period should determine the geographic extent over which species are found as species that spend longer drifting at sea are likely to reach greater distances. Interestingly enough, numerous studies have consistently failed to find any relationship between the duration of the open water period and the geographic coverage of marine species. This new research paper from an international and interdisciplinary team has uncovered this mystery.

Global patterns and predictors of marine biodiversity across taxa

Journal: Nature
Authors: Derek P. Tittensor, Camilo Mora, Walter Jetz, Heike K. Lotze, Daniel Ricard, Edward Vanden Berghe & Boris Worm
Blurb: This study indicates a fundamental role of temperature or kinetic energy in structuring cross-taxon marine biodiversity, and that changes in ocean temperature, in conjunction with other human impacts, may ultimately rearrange the global distribution of life in the oceans.

Management Effectiveness of the World's Marine Fisheries

Journal: Plos Biology
Authors: Camilo Mora, Ransom A. Myers, Marta Coll, Simone Libralato, Tony J. Pitcher, Rashid U. Sumaila, Dirk Zeller, Reg Watson, Kevin J. Gaston & Boris Worm
Blurb: A new study provides the first global evaluation of how management practices influence fisheries' sustainability. The study assessed the effectiveness of the world's fisheries management regimes using evaluations by nearly 1,200 fisheries experts and analyzing these in combination with data on the sustainability of fisheries catches.

A clear human footprint on the Caribbean coral reefs

Journal: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Biological Sciences
Authors: Camilo Mora
Blurb: Coral reefs in the Caribbean have suffered significant changes due to the proximal effects of a growing human population.

Risk of extinction accelerated due to interacting human threats

Journal: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Biological Sciences
Authors: Camilo Mora, Rebekka Metzger, Audrey Rollo &Ransom A. Myers
Blurb: The simultaneous effect of habitat fragmentation, over-exploitation, and climate change could accelerate the decline of populations and substantially increase their risk of extinction.

Conservation of coral reefs by a global network of marine protected areas

Journal: Science
Authors: Camilo Mora, Serge Andréfouët, Mark J. Costello, Christine Kranenburg, Audrey Rollo, John Veron, Kevin J. Gaston and Ransom A. Myers
Blurb: First-ever analysis reveals reef protected areas too small and far apart.





University of Hawaii Manoa

Last updated Jul 7, 2011

Camilo Mora