Publications

Selected publications are organized for quick scanning by search committees, collaborators, and conservation-science partners. Tags highlight major research themes; DOI links are included where available.

Selected / Flagship Papers

First author · Nature Climate Change · 2022

Towards climate-smart, three-dimensional protected areas for biodiversity conservation in the high seas.

Brito-Morales I, Schoeman DS, Everett J, Klein CJ, Dunn D, Garcia Molinos J, Burrows MT, Buenafe KCV, Dominguez RM, Possingham HP, Richardson AJ. Nature Climate Change 12, 402-407.

climate adaptation conservation planning high seas spatial ecology

Significance: Advances climate-smart, depth-aware protected-area design for biodiversity conservation in the high seas.

DOI

First author · Nature Climate Change · 2020

Climate velocity reveals increasing exposure of deep-ocean biodiversity to future warming.

Brito-Morales I, Schoeman DS, Garcia Molinos J, Burrows MT, Klein CJ, Arafeh-Dalmau N, Kaschner K, Garilao C, Kesner-Reyes K, Richardson AJ. Nature Climate Change 10, 576-581.

climate velocity marine biodiversity deep ocean global change ecology

Significance: Shows that deep-ocean biodiversity faces increasing exposure to future warming, broadening climate-risk assessment beyond surface ecosystems.

DOI

First author · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · 2018

Climate velocity can inform conservation in a warming world.

Brito-Morales I, Garcia Molinos J, Schoeman DS, Burrows MT, Poloczanska ES, Brown CJ, Ferrier S, Harwood TD, Klein CJ, McDonald-Madden E, Moore PJ, Pandolfi JM, Watson JEM, Wenger AS, Richardson AJ. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 33, 441-457.

climate velocity conservation science climate adaptation spatial ecology

Significance: Synthesizes how climate velocity can guide conservation decisions as species and environmental conditions move under climate change.

DOI

Co-author · conceptual/methods contributor · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · 2023

Demystifying global climate models for use in the life sciences.

Schoeman DS, Sen Gupta A, Harrison CS, Everett J, Brito-Morales I, Hannah L, Bopp L, Roehrdanz P, Richardson AJ. Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

climate models biodiversity data science reproducible workflows

Significance: Helps ecologists and conservation scientists use global climate-model products more defensibly in biodiversity research.

DOI

Co-author · climate-velocity and reproducible figures lead · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · 2026

Identifying marine climate refugia to advance climate-smart conservation.

Sanz-Martin M, Olguin-Jacobson C, Bolin JA, Quiles-Pons C, Brito-Morales I, Garcia Molinos J, Hidalgo M, Alabia ID, Gissi E, Provost MM, Micheli F, Arafeh-Dalmau N. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. In press.

marine refugia climate-smart conservation protected areas

Significance: Reviews how marine climate refugia can strengthen climate-smart conservation and protected-area planning.

DOI | Code

Accepted / In Press

Co-author · climate-velocity and reproducible figures lead · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · 2026

Identifying marine climate refugia to advance climate-smart conservation.

Marina Sanz-Martin, Carolina Olguin-Jacobson, Jessica A. Bolin, Carla Quiles-Pons, Isaac Brito-Morales, Jorge Garcia Molinos, Manuel Hidalgo, Irene D. Alabia, Elena Gissi, Mikaela M. Provost, Fiorenza Micheli, Nur Arafeh-Dalmau. 2026. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. In press.

marine refugia climate adaptation conservation planning

DOI | Code

In Review

Manuscripts are available upon request unless a preprint is linked.

First author

Evolving area-based conservation for a dynamic ocean.

Isaac Brito-Morales, Yulia Egorova, Lee Hannah, Guillermo Ortuño Crespo, Nur Arafeh-Dalmau. In review.

dynamic ocean area-based conservation climate adaptation

Co-author · writing and workflow support

Multifaceted thermal exposure reveals climate refugia shortfalls in the Mediterranean marine protected areas.

Ian Omedes Bassat, Manuel Hidalgo, Carla Quiles-Pons, Jorge Garcia Molinos, Isaac Brito-Morales, Nur Arafeh-Dalmau, Javier Soto-Navarro, Marina Sanz-Martin. In review.

climate refugia thermal exposure marine protected areas

Senior author · analysis, figures, and code lead

Ocean fronts concentrate fishing pressure on threatened megafauna.

Lee Hannah, Sarayu Ramnath, Kylie L. Scales, Vincent Rossi, Ana Sequeira, Tammy E. Davies, Elliott Hazen, Daniel Dunn, Peter I. Miller, Sophie Laran, Valeria Falabella, Lenaya-Aiden Gonzales, Isaac Brito-Morales. In review. Prepared for submission to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

ocean fronts marine megafauna fishing pressure conservation policy

Code

First author · Preprint available

Megafauna show pervasive yet distinct affinity to ocean fronts: the urgent need for adaptive conservation in a warming world.

Isaac Brito-Morales, Boris Dewitte, Floriane Sudre, Christoph A. Rohner, Elliott L. Hazen, Kylie L. Scales, Matthieu Le Corre, Audrey Jaeger, Sophie Laran, Olivier Bousquet, Ana M. M. Sequeira, Tammy E. Davies, Daniel C. Dunn, Ronel Nel, Lee Hannah, Vincent Rossi. Commun. Biol. In review.

ocean fronts marine biodiversity SDM adaptive conservation

Preprint DOI

Published Papers

Co-author · climate-velocity section lead · Nature Reviews Biodiversity · 2025

Current approaches and future opportunities for climate-smart protected areas.

Buenafe KCV, Dunn DC, Metaxas A, Schoeman DS, Everett JD, Pidd A, Hanson JO, Bentley LK, Kim SW, Neubert S, Scales KL, Dabala A, Brito-Morales I, Richardson AJ. Nature Reviews Biodiversity.

climate-smart conservation protected areas climate adaptation

DOI

Analysis and writing lead · Nature · 2024

To save the high seas, plan for climate change.

Hannah L, Irvine A, Brito-Morales I, Fuller S, Davies T, Tittensor D, Reville G, Shackell N, Hennicke J, Stanley R. Nature.

high seas climate policy marine spatial planning

DOI

Co-author · Ecological Indicators · 2024

Climate velocity drives unexpected southward patterns of species shifts in the Western Mediterranean Sea.

Sanz-Martin M, Hidalgo M, Puerta P, Garcia Molinos J, Zamanillo M, Brito-Morales I, Gonzalez-Irusta JM, Esteban A, Punzon A, Garcia-Rodriguez E, Vivas M, Lopez-Lopez L. Ecological Indicators.

climate velocity species shifts marine biodiversity

DOI

Co-author · conceptual/methods contributor · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · 2023

Demystifying global climate models for use in the life sciences.

Schoeman DS, Sen Gupta A, Harrison CS, Everett J, Brito-Morales I, Hannah L, Bopp L, Roehrdanz P, Richardson AJ. Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

climate models life sciences biodiversity data science

DOI

Co-author · manuscript writing contributor · Ecological Applications · 2023

A metric-based framework for climate-smart conservation planning.

Buenafe KCV, Dunn D, Everett J, Brito-Morales I, Schoeman DS, Hanson JO, Dabala A, Neubert S, Cannicci S, Kaschner K, Richardson AJ. Ecological Applications.

conservation planning climate adaptation metrics

DOI

First author · Nature Climate Change · 2022

Towards climate-smart, three-dimensional protected areas for biodiversity conservation in the high seas.

Brito-Morales I, Schoeman DS, Everett J, Klein CJ, Dunn D, Garcia Molinos J, Burrows MT, Buenafe KCV, Dominguez RM, Possingham HP, Richardson AJ. Nature Climate Change 12, 402-407.

conservation planning high seas climate adaptation

DOI

Equal lead author · climate-velocity methods · Methods in Ecology and Evolution · 2021

Incorporating climate velocity into the design of climate-smart networks of marine protected areas.

Arafeh-Dalmau N, Brito-Morales I, Schoeman DS, Possingham HP, Klein CJ, Richardson AJ. Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

climate velocity marine protected areas conservation planning

DOI

First author · Nature Climate Change · 2020

Climate velocity reveals increasing exposure of deep-ocean biodiversity to future warming.

Brito-Morales I, Schoeman DS, Garcia Molinos J, Burrows MT, Klein CJ, Arafeh-Dalmau N, Kaschner K, Garilao C, Kesner-Reyes K, Richardson AJ. Nature Climate Change 10, 576-581.

climate velocity marine biodiversity deep ocean

DOI

First author · Trends in Ecology & Evolution · 2018

Climate velocity can inform conservation in a warming world.

Brito-Morales I, Garcia Molinos J, Schoeman DS, Burrows MT, Poloczanska ES, Brown CJ, Ferrier S, Harwood TD, Klein CJ, McDonald-Madden E, Moore PJ, Pandolfi JM, Watson JEM, Wenger AS, Richardson AJ. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 33, 441-457.

climate velocity conservation science spatial ecology

DOI

Research Outputs Beyond Papers

Ocean Downscaling Viewer

Interactive Shiny tool for inspecting high-resolution derived ocean products, including baseline and future layers, depth zones, regional overlays, and summary statistics.

R/Shiny climate downscaling decision support

Open app

Megafauna Data Viewer

Interactive Shiny tool for filtering, mapping, and reviewing marine megafauna occurrence records for the Save the Blue 5 project.

R/Shiny marine megafauna biodiversity data

Open app | Save the Blue 5