A wide megafauna gap undermines China’s expanding coastal ecosystem conservation

To fulfill sustainable development goals, many countries are expanding efforts to conserve ecologically and societally critical coastal ecosystems. Although megafauna profoundly impact the functioning of ecosystems, they are neglected as a key component in the conservation scheme for coastal ecosystems in many geographic contexts. Here, we reveal a rich diversity of extant megafauna associated with all major types of coastal ecosystems in China, including 218 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, cephalopods and fishes across terrestrial and marine environments. However, 44% of these species are globally threatened and 78% have not yet been assessed in China for extinction risk. More worrisome, 73% of these megafauna have not been designated as nationally protected species, and <10% of their most important habitats are protected. Filling this wide “megafauna gap” in China, and globally, would be a leading step as humanity strives to thrive with coastal ecosystems., A dataset of extant megafaunal species associated with coastal ecosystems in China was compiled (focused on mainland China). Three criteria were used to screen species: the species has (i) a maximum body mass no less than 10 kg, (ii) habitat association with coastal ecosystems, and (iii) geographic ranges encompassing China. Species were screened in the following databases: the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (ver. 2022-2), FishBase (ver. 2023-2), and SeaLifeBase (ver. 2022-12), including all Mammalia, Aves, Reptilia, Chondrichthyes, Actinopterygii, and Cephalopoda. 
This dataset contains species functional traits (including maximum body mass, thermoregulation, feeding mechanism, diet, coastal affinity, vertical position, and coastal habitat use), extinction risk categories (including Red Lists of IUCN and China), and threats to species (IUCN threat classification scheme)  for these megafauna. ,