Conservation Science at The Nature Conservancy - Mark Spalding, Senior Marine Scientist

Mark Spalding
Senior Marine Scientist

People

Mark Spalding
Senior Marine Scientist

Contact Information
The Nature Conservancy
93 Centre Drive
Newmarket
CB8 8AW
UK
Phone: +44 1638 661961
E-mail: mspalding@tnc.org

Brief Biography
Mark is a marine scientist who has worked for many years on global assessments of biodiversity distribution, human impacts and conservation effort. He has also worked extensively on global protected areas information and assessment. Mark leads marine work for the Conservancy’s global science and indicators program. Working with an international team of scientists they are undertaking a range of broad-scale, spatially explicit analyses of marine biodiversity, condition, and future threat. This work is playing a critical role in informing conservation management, priority setting and future investment policies. The team’s work aims to influence not only the senior leadership within TNC, but also the global community: both through engagement in academic and policy fora, and in the regular and high profile, publication of scientific findings which will inform and direct academic, policy and public awareness.

Prior to joining TNC Mark worked for the United Nations Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre and he has published a number of influential books, reports and papers, particularly relating to tropical coastal environments (coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses). He has also worked in the field on coral reefs of the Indian Ocean (Chagos Archipelago, Seychelles, Mauritius), looking at reef fish community structures and the impacts of fisheries and on coral bleaching. Mark is currently working with partners in the development of a marine biogeographic classification which will form the basis of future conservation assessment for TNC and others. He is writing a new and enlarged edition of the World Mangrove Atlas (Earthscan). He is lead editor of a new book on The World’s Protected Areas (California) and is also commencing work on papers describing the current distribution and gaps in the worlds marine protected areas network and a global assessment on the distribution of saltmarsh communities and species. Mark studied for a B.A. at Clare College, University of Cambridge (UK) and later a Ph.D in the Department of Geography, also at Cambridge.

Education
1998 Ph.D., University of Cambridge, UK
Dissertation: Biodiversity patterns in coral reefs and mangrove forests: global and local scales
1990 B.A. (Hons), Natural Sciences (Zoology), University of Cambridge, UK

Previous experience
Marine ecologist, working as independent consultant, with Research Associate postion in Cambridge Coastal Research Unit (University of Cambridge) and Senior Consultant to UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, UK. 2002-2004.

Senior Marine Ecologist – UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge UK. 1998-2002.

Marine Ecologist (and previously Research Assistant), UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge UK 1990-1995.

Key Publications
Chape S, Spalding M, Jenkins M (in press) The World's Protected Areas. Status, values, and prospects in the twenty-first century. University of California Press, Berkeley, California, pp 352

Spalding M, Fox H, Davidson N, Ferdana Z, Finlayson M, Halpern B, Jorge M, Lombana A, Lourie S, Martin K, McManus E, Molnar J, Allen G, Recchia C, Robertson J (in press) Marine Ecoregions of the World: a bioregionalization of coast and shelf areas. BioScience

Chape S, Harrison J, Spalding M, Lysenko I (2005) Measuring the extent and effectiveness of protected areas as an indicator for meeting global biodiversity targets. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, B 360: 443-455

Spalding MD (2004). A Guide to the Coral Reefs of the Caribbean. University of California Press, Berkeley, USA

Spalding MD, Kramer PK (2004). The Caribbean. In Glover LK and Earle SA (eds.) Defying Ocean’s End: an agenda for action. Island Press, Washington DC. 7-41

Chape S, Blyth S, Fish L, Fox P, Spalding M (2003). 2003 United Nations List of Protected Areas. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK and UNEP-WCMC, Cambridge, UK.

Spalding MD (2003). Partial recovery of sharks in the Chagos Archipelago. Shark News, newsletter of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group. 15: 12-13

Spalding MD, Taylor ML, Ravilious C, Short FT and Green EP (2003). The global distribution and status of seagrass ecosystems. In Green EP and Short FT (eds.) World Atlas of Seagrasses. University of California Press, Berkeley, USA.

Burke L, Selig L, Spalding M (2002). Reefs at Risk in Southeast Asia. World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C.

Roberts CM, Mclean CJ, Allen GR, Hawkins JP, McAllister DE, Mittermeier C, Schueler F, Spalding M, Veron JEN, Wells F, Vynne C, Werner T (2002). Marine biodiversity hotspots and conservation priorities for tropical reefs. Science 295: 1280-1284

Sheppard CRC, Spalding M, Bradshaw C, Wilson S (2002). Erosion vs. recovery of coral reefs after El Niño: Chagos reefs, Indian Ocean. Ambio 31(1): 40-48

Spalding, MD (2002). Spatial variation in coral reef fish biodiversity at intermediate scales around oceanic islands. Proceedings of 9th International Coral Reef Symposium, Bali, Indonesia, 23-27 October, 2000: 81-87

Spalding, M (2002). The World Heritage List – the best of all worlds? Parks 12(3): 50-57

Spalding MD and Jarvis G (2002). Impacts of the 1998 coral mortality on reef fish communities in the Seychelles. Marine Pollution Bulletin 44: 309-321

Burke L, Kura Y, Kassem K, Revenga C, Spalding M, McAllister D (2001) Pilot Analysis of Global Ecosystems: Coastal ecosystems. World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C.

Green, R., Harley, M., Spalding, M and Zöckler, C (eds) (2001). The Impacts of Climate Change on Wildlife. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Sandy, UK.

Spalding MD (2001) Mangroves. In: Steele JH, Turekian KK, and Thorpe SA (eds). Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences. Academic Press, California. 1533-1542.

Spalding, MD, Ravilious, C and Green EP (2001). World Atlas of Coral Reefs. University of California Press, Berkeley. 424pp.

Spencer T, Teleki KA, Bradshaw C, Spalding, MD (2000) Coral bleaching in the Southern Seychelles during the 1997-98 Indian Ocean warm event. Marine Pollution Bulletin 40(7): 569-586

Spalding MD (1999) Biodiversity patterns in Chagos reef fishes. In: Sheppard CRC, Seaward MRD (eds) Linnean Society Occasional Publications, 2: Ecology of the Chagos Archipelago. Published for the Linnean Society of London, by Westbury Publishing, London

Anderson RC, Sheppard CRC, Spalding MD and Crosby R (1998). Shortage of Sharks at Chagos. Shark News, newsletter of the IUCN Shark Specialist Group.

Bryant D, Burke LB, McManus JM and Spalding MD (1998). Reefs at Risk. World Resources Institute, ICLARM, World Conservation Monitoring Centre and United Nations Environment Programme. 56pp.

Spalding MD (1997). The global distribution and status of mangrove ecosystems. Intercoast Network. Vol. 1 (Spec. Ed.): 20-21.

Spalding MD, Blasco F and Field CD (eds.). (1997). World Mangrove Atlas. International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems, Okinawa, Japan. 178pp.

Spalding MD (1997). Mapping global coral reef distribution. Proceedings of the Eighth International Coral Reef Symposium, Panama. Vol. 2: 1555-1560.

Spalding MD and Grenfell AM (1997). New estimates of global and regional coral reef areas. Coral Reefs 16: 225-230.

Baker JM, Spalding MD, Moore J and Tortell P (1996). Sensitivity Mapping for Oil Spill Response. IMO/IPIECA Report Series - 1. International Maritime Organization and International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association, London, UK.

Jameson SC, McManus JW, and Spalding MD (1995). State of the Reefs: regional and global perspectives. US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, USA. 32pp.

Spalding MD (1995). Global reef mapping. Coral Reefs. Vol. 14: 214.

Research summary
My research has largely focused on the “summing up” of information describing the biodiversity of the oceans and of the factors, both positive and negative, that impact on the marine environment. The dearth of global data describing marine habitats and species distribution stands in marked contrast to the terrestrial environment, largely explained by the extreme challenges of utilising remote sensing tools or even of direct sampling in a deep aquatic environment. Even so considerable information exists at national and regional levels and much of my work has focused on bringing together such data to build up global datasets, and also to recombine and analyse such data in novel and informative ways. Examples include the building of global habitat maps (mangroves, coral reefs, seagrasses and, still underway, saltmarshes). The direct publication of such data is already a critical contribution to a broad array of users. This information also lies at the heart of important additional analyses, enabling assessments of conservation progress, or of threats and so forth. Examples of this would include looking at these habitats in relation to the global protected areas coverage, and the work on Reefs at Risk, where we sought to model and quantify the threats to coral reefs world-wide. Collaboration is a critical element in working at the global scale and I have continued to foster partnerships with others around the world to encourage joined up thinking, the sharing of resources and effort, and the considerable efficiencies that can be bought to conservation investment by building on the work of others. A recent example has been the development of a biogeographic classification of Marine Ecoregions of the World, led by myself, but in close partnership with WWF and with partners from nine other conservation and academic organisations.