Fig. 4: Effects of emission mitigation on projected animal biomass change.

a Relationship between average projected animal biomass change across EEZs under a worst-case (RCP8.5) vs. strong mitigation scenario (RCP2.6). Horizontal and vertical dashed lines denote no change in projected biomass. The solid line represents a 1:1 relationship; points above this line depict EEZs in which strong (RCP2.6), relative to weak (RCP8.5), mitigation leads to greater biomass and vice versa. b Change in projected animal biomass resulting from strong, relative to weak mitigation within maritime EEZs (semitransparent circles) summarized within major continents (colors). The mean effect of emission mitigation on animal biomass for each continent is shown as opaque symbols with lines denoting the 95% CIs where n > 3. The number of EEZs is in parentheses. Points to the right of the vertical line denote biomass increases with strong emission mitigation relative to the worst-case scenario. c Effect of strong, relative to weak, mitigation on projected animal biomass within EEZs in relation to development status. Points above the horizontal line depict increased animal biomass with strong, relative to weak, mitigation and vice versa. For a–c, symbol size depicts the size of the EEZs and colors the continent; orange = North America, yellow = South America, purple = Europe, red = Africa, blue = Asia, and green = Oceania.