Area requirements to safeguard Earth's marine species

Despite substantial biodiversity conservation efforts over the past two decades, Earth's biodiversity is rapidly declining. We identify global priorities for the expansion of marine conservation efforts, aiming to conserve at least 10% of the range of all 22,885 mapped marine species. We found that a minimum of 8.5 million km2 (2.5% of the ocean) of new conservation areas are required, and show that, in total, at least 26% of the ocean needs effective conservation to preserve marine biodiversity.