Fig. 3: Biomass changes in relation to fisheries, stressors, and socioeconomic indicators.

a–c Bivariate relationships between the projected animal biomass changes under a worst-case emission scenario (RCP8.5) and a total fisheries landings within 18 FAO statistical areas, b average cumulative human impacts within marine ecoregions, and c the human development index of maritime states. Bivariate maps (left panels) depict the spatial distribution of the relationships shown in the right panels. Dark and light blue depict projected biomass increase, red, orange, and yellow depict decline; horizontal line denotes no change in biomass. Symbol size in (a) depicts the geographic size of the FAO areas. d Estimated slopes from relationships between spatial gradients in 17 indicators of fisheries productivity, human stressors, and socioeconomic status (see methods for details) and projected biomass changes. Green circles are biomass changes under RCP2.6 and purple squares under RCP8.5; lines depict the 95% CIs. Darker, opaque points denote statistically significant interactions (p < 0.05), and lighter, semi-transparent points are non-significant. The sample sizes of the relationships are in parentheses. Negative slopes indicate stronger biomass declines in locations where indicators are largest and vice versa. All indicators in a–d have been standardized to units of variance from the mean.