[OANNES Foro] Aquatic biodiversity enhances multiple nutritional benefits to humans

[Mario Cabrejos]

PNAS 2021 Vol. 118 No. 15

Published April 5, 2021

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1917487118 |



*Aquatic biodiversity enhances multiple nutritional benefits to humans*



Joey R. Bernhardt a,b,1 and Mary I. O’Connor a  a Department of Zoology,
Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
V6T 1Z4, Canada; and b Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale
University, New Haven, CT 06520



*Significance*

Food security is not simply about maintaining yields, but it is also about
the need for a stable supply of nutritionally diverse foods. Obtaining
nutritious food is a major challenge facing humanity, and diverse aquatic
ecosystems can help meet this goal. To test how aquatic biodiversity
affects human health, we assembled a dataset of nutrients, contaminants,
and ecological traits of 801 aquatic species. We used ecological models to
quantify the role of species richness and ecological functional diversity
and found that these biodiversity dimensions enhanced seafood micronutrient
and fatty acid provisioning by the same mechanisms that link biodiversity
to productivity in grasslands, forests, and other systems. Our results
underscore the need to minimize aquatic biodiversity loss to sustain and
improve human well-being.

*Abstract*

Humanity depends on biodiversity for health, well-being, and a stable
environment. As biodiversity change accelerates, we are still discovering
the full range of consequences for human health and well-being. Here, we
test the hypothesis—derived from biodiversity–ecosystem functioning
theory—that species richness and ecological functional diversity allow
seafood diets to fulfill multiple nutritional requirements, a condition
necessary for human health. We analyzed a newly synthesized dataset of
7,245 observations of nutrient and contaminant concentrations in 801
aquatic animal taxa and found that species with different ecological traits
have distinct and complementary micronutrient profiles but little
difference in protein content. The same complementarity mechanisms that
generate positive biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning in
terrestrial ecosystems also operate in seafood assemblages, allowing more
diverse diets to yield increased nutritional benefits independent of total
biomass consumed. Notably, nutritional metrics that capture multiple
micronutrients and fatty acids essential for human well-being depend more
strongly on biodiversity than common ecological measures of function such
as productivity, typically reported for grasslands and forests.
Furthermore, we found that increasing species richness did not increase the
amount of protein in seafood diets and also increased concentrations of
toxic metal contaminants in the diet. Seafood-derived micronutrients and
fatty acids are important for human health and are a pillar of global food
and nutrition security. By drawing upon biodiversity–ecosystem functioning
theory, we demonstrate that ecological concepts of biodiversity can deepen
our understanding of nature’s benefits to people and unite sustainability
goals for biodiversity and human well-being.
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