<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">PNAS 2021
Vol. 118 No. 15 </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Published
April 5, 2021</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1917487118">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1917487118</a> |</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:16pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Aquatic biodiversity enhances multiple nutritional benefits to humans</span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Joey R. Bernhardt a,b,1</span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> and Mary I. O’Connor a </span><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> 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</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(17,17,17)">Significance</span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 18pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(17,17,17)">Abstract</span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 18pt;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.</span><span lang="EN-US"></span></p></div>