Bridging the biodiversity data gaps: Recommendations to meet users’ data needs

A strong case has been made for freely available, high quality data on species occurrence, in order to track changes in biodiversity. However, one of the main issues surrounding the provision of such data is that sources vary in quality, scope, and accuracy. Therefore publishers of such data must face the challenge of maximizing quality, utility and breadth of data coverage, in order to make such data useful to users. Here, we report a number of recommendations that stem from a content need assessment survey conducted by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Through this survey, we aimed to distil the main user needs regarding biodiversity data. We find a broad range of recommendations from the survey respondents, principally concerning issues such as data quality, bias, and coverage, and extending ease of access. We recommend a candidate set of actions for the GBIF that fall into three classes: 1) addressing data gaps, data volume, and data quality, 2) aggregating new kinds of data for new applications, and 3) promoting ease-of-use and providing incentives for wider use. Addressing the challenge of providing high quality primary biodiversity data can potentially serve the needs of many international biodiversity initiatives, including the new 2020 biodiversity targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the emerging global biodiversity observation network (GEO BON), and the new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)

Field validation of habitat suitability models for vulnerable marine ecosystems in the South Pacific Ocean:Implications for the use of broad-scale models in fisheries management

AbstractManagement of human activities which impact the seafloor in the deep ocean is becoming increasingly important as bottom trawling and exploration for minerals, oil, and gas continue to extend into regions where fragile ecosystems containing habitat-forming deep-sea corals and sponges may be found. Spatial management of these vulnerable marine ecosystems requires accurate knowledge of their distribution. Predictive habitat suitability modelling, using species presence data and a suite of environmental predictor variables, has emerged as a useful tool for inferring distributions outside of known areas. However, validation of model predictions is typically performed with non-independent data. In this study, we describe the results of habitat suitability models constructed for four deep-sea reef-forming coral species across a large region of the South Pacific Ocean using MaxEnt and Boosted Regression Tree modelling approaches. In order to validate model predictions we conducted a photographic survey on a set of seamounts in an un-sampled area east of New Zealand. The likelihood of habitat suitable for reef-forming corals on these seamounts was predicted to be variable, but very high in some regions, particularly where levels of aragonite saturation, dissolved oxygen, and particulate organic carbon were optimal. However, the observed frequency of coral occurrence in analyses of survey photographic data was much lower than expected, and patterns of observed versus predicted coral distribution were not highly correlated. The poor performance of these broad-scale models is attributed to lack of recorded species absences to inform the models, low precision of global bathymetry models, and lack of data on the geomorphology and substrate of the seamounts at scales appropriate to the modelled taxa. This demonstrates the need to use caution when interpreting and applying broad-scale, presence-only model results for fisheries management and conservation planning in data poor areas of the deep sea. Future improvements in the predictive performance of broad-scale models will rely on the continued advancement in modelling of environmental predictor variables, refinements in modelling approaches to deal with missing or biased inputs, and incorporation of true absence data

Regional Decline of Coral Cover in the Indo-Pacific: Timing, Extent, and Subregional Comparisons

A number of factors have recently caused mass coral mortality events in all of the world's tropical oceans. However, little is known about the timing, rate or spatial variability of the loss of reef-building corals, especially in the Indo-Pacific, which contains 75% of the world's coral reefs.We compiled and analyzed a coral cover database of 6001 quantitative surveys of 2667 Indo-Pacific coral reefs performed between 1968 and 2004. Surveys conducted during 2003 indicated that coral cover averaged only 22.1% (95% CI: 20.7, 23.4) and just 7 of 390 reefs surveyed that year had coral cover >60%. Estimated yearly coral cover loss based on annually pooled survey data was approximately 1% over the last twenty years and 2% between 1997 and 2003 (or 3,168 km(2) per year). The annual loss based on repeated measures regression analysis of a subset of reefs that were monitored for multiple years from 1997 to 2004 was 0.72 % (n = 476 reefs, 95% CI: 0.36, 1.08).The rate and extent of coral loss in the Indo-Pacific are greater than expected. Coral cover was also surprisingly uniform among subregions and declined decades earlier than previously assumed, even on some of the Pacific's most intensely managed reefs. These results have significant implications for policy makers and resource managers as they search for successful models to reverse coral loss

SNAGA, TEORIJA I PRAKSA (Kraft, Theorie und Praxis)

We have developed a global biogeographic classification of the mesopelagic zone to reflect the regional scales over which the ocean interior varies in terms of biodiversity and function. An integrated approach was necessary, as global gaps in information and variable sampling methods preclude strictly statistical approaches. A panel combining expertise in oceanography, geospatial mapping, and deep-sea biology convened to collate expert opinion on the distributional patterns of pelagic fauna relative to environmental proxies (temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen at mesopelagic depths). An iterative Delphi Method integrating additional biological and physical data was used to classify biogeographic ecoregions and to identify the location of ecoregion boundaries or inter-regions gradients. We define 33 global mesopelagic ecoregions. Of these, 20 are oceanic while 13 are ‘distant neritic.’ While each is driven by a complex of controlling factors, the putative primary driver of each ecoregion was identified. While work remains to be done to produce a comprehensive and robust mesopelagic biogeography (i.e., reflecting temporal variation), we believe that the classification set forth in this study will prove to be a useful and timely input to policy planning and management for conservation of deep-pelagic marine resources. In particular, it gives an indication of the spatial scale at which faunal communities are expected to be broadly similar in composition, and hence can inform application of ecosystem-based management approaches, marine spatial planning and the distribution and spacing of networks of representative protected areas

Global Diversity of the Stylasteridae (Cnidaria: Hydrozoa: Athecatae)

The history and rate of discovery of the 247 valid Recent stylasterid species are discussed and graphed, with emphasis on five historical pulses of species descriptions. A table listing all genera, their species numbers, and their bathymetric ranges are presented. The number of species in 19 oceanographic regions is mapped, the southwestern temperate Pacific (region including New Zealand) having the most species; species are cosmopolitan from the Arctic Circle to the Antarctic at depths from 0 to 2789 m. The current phylogenetic classification of the genera is briefly discussed. An illustrated glossary of 53 morphological characters is presented. Biological and ecological information pertaining to reproduction, development, commensals, and distribution is discussed. Aspects of stylasterid mineralogy and taxa of commercial value are discussed, concluding with suggestions for future work

Understanding environmental controls and predicting climate change effects on the health and occurrence of coral communities and their constituent organisms

Research presented in this thesis provides insight into important environmental controls on coral occurrence and survival, potential climate related problems coral ecosystems face in the coming decades, the probable temporal and spatial progression of these problems, and provides tools that will aid the science community in anticipating range shifts and in identifying areas for protection. These topics are addressed by investigating four research foci, which follow a logical progression from shallow-hermatypic, to deep-hermatypic, to deep-ahermatypic corals. This is due largely to the success of early model predictions for shallow-hermatypic corals and the fact that new applications of the methodologies were quickly recognized for deep-hermatypic and ahermatypic coral ecosystems. The latter two are breaking novel ground and opening new fields of study. Model results indicate both hermatypic and ahermatypic coral ecosystems, which are presently under intense anthropogenic stress, will face even greater challenges within the century. Research findings presented in this thesis show the primary drivers behind the 1998 coral bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef were a combination of low winds, clear skies, and neap tides. These conditions caused sea surface temperatures to rise and resulted in significant coral mortality. Coral bleaching events have persisted post 1998 and will continue to occur in the future. Model projections indicate that rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations will significantly reduce the saturation state of carbonate minerals in the surface ocean and the deep sea within the century. By 2070, nearly all reefs in the Pacific basin will be “marginal” with respect to aragonite, which will probably result in long-term, gradual decreases in calcification, reef accumulation, and changes in community structure. The projections indicate this “saturation stress” will be compounded by rising average sea surface temperatures throughout much of the Pacific, including the Indo-Pacific center of coral diversity. Decreases in aragonite saturation state will not be limited to the surface ocean and will probably have negative affects on the calcification rates/mechanisms of deep sea scleractinian bioherms and marine plankton throughout the world's oceans. Modeling suitable reef habitat from environmental data successfully predicted numerous uncharted deep-hermatypic reefs within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and Timor Sea. Identifying the location of deep-hermatypic reefs will become increasingly important in the coming decades as these areas are less likely to experience coral bleaching events. Light availability and average nitrate were the most important variables in determining where reefs (both modeled and documented) occur. Temperature, salinity, and phosphate concentration were also statistically significant. An online spatial analysis tool was developed to predict potential ranges of marine organisms (e.g. sea anemones and anemonefishes) and areas which could be susceptible to marine species invasions. These predictions were derived by examining the environmental characteristics of waters surrounding known locations of constituent reef organisms. Documented locations of anemonefishes and their sea anemone hosts were used as a case study, but this tool is applicable for all marine taxa that live within relatively well defined environmental limits. A promising future application of this tool is to predict species range shifts due to climate change

Mesophotic Coral Reef Ecosystems in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area: their potential distribution and possible role as refugia from disturbance

This report reviews the most recent science regarding the potential distribution of mesophotic coral reef ecosystems (MCEs) throughout the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, and discusses the potential importance of MCEs as refugia for corals and other sessile benthic megafauna from disturbance and as potential sources of coral larvae to disturbed shallow‐water coral reefs. MCEs are zooxanthellate coral reef communities occurring in the intermediate depths of the photic zone (~30–150 metres) and have been documented in many regions of the world's oceans, including the tropical western Atlantic, Red Sea, and throughout the Indo‐Pacific. MCEs are not as well studied as their shallow‐water counterparts because they are found in waters that cannot be accessed safely with conventional SCUBA methods. However, recent advances in SCUBA technology (e.g. closed‐circuit rebreathers and mixed gas diving) and robotics (autonomous underwater vehicles and remotely operated vehicles) provide a means to access MCEs, enabling scientists to document the unique mix of both shallow‐water coral reef fauna and other species that are endemic to the mesophotic zone. The potential importance of MCEs as refugia areas from environmental disturbance and climate change makes them of great interest to managers of coral reef ecosystems, as illustrated by the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently developing a Research Strategy for mesophotic coral ecosystems

The sea surface temperature story on the Great Barrier Reef during the coral bleaching event of 1998

[Extract] The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) experienced its most intensive and extensive coral bleaching event on record in early 1998 (Berkelmans & Oliver, 1999). Bleaching occurs when there is widespread loss of pigment from coral, due mainly to the expulsion of symbiotic algae (Yonge & Nicholls, 1931). The algae are usually expelled in times of stress, often caused by sea surface temperatures (SST) which are higher than the coral colony's tolerance level. This may be as little as 1 to 2°C above the mean monthly summer values (Glynn et al., 1988; Drollet et al., 1994; Berkelmans & Willis, 1999). Other causes of stress are above-average amounts of solar radiation, high turbidity, and low salinity. Generally, high SSTs and high levels of solar radiation go hand in hand, and are occasionally accompanied by low tides