Progress report for
Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON)
Achievement at a glance
MBON has advanced developing dynamic maps of the oceans biogeographic provinces using historical and near-real-time satellite data: Seascapes. MBON has published the seascape classification for the global ocean with NOAA NESDIS CoastWatch.In collaboration with GEO BON, Esri, the US Geological Survey, generated and published the Ecological Marine Units (EMUs) and standardized ecological coastal units. These are derived from historical global hydrographic data collected by ships around the world.
MBON is working on validation of the seascapes, and is conducting capacity building efforts using webinars and workshops as part of the Pole to Pole MBON effort.
MBON has also advanced ideas for new remote sensing concepts to enable the observation of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) from space and augment the capabilities of observing Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs).
References:
Seascapes: https://coastwatch.noaa.gov/cw/node/153.html
Ecological Marine Units: https://www.esri.com/en-us/about/science/ecological-marine-units/overview
Kavanaugh, M.T., et al. 2016. Seascapes as a new vernacular for ocean monitoring, management and conservation. ICES Journal of Marine Science. doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsw086.
Muller-Karger, F., et al. 2017. Megaregions Among the Large Marine Ecosystems of the Americas. Environmental Development. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2017.01.005.
Oliver M. J., Irwin A. J. 2008 . Objective global ocean biogeographic provinces . Geophysical Research Letters , 35 : L15601 .
Sayre, Roger, et al. 2017. A Three-Dimensional Mapping of the Ocean Based on Environmental Data. Oceanography. https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2017.116
Sayre, Roger, et al. 2018. A new 30 meter resolution global shoreline vector and associated global islands database for the development of standardized ecological coastal units, Journal of Operational Oceanography, DOI: 10.1080/1755876X.2018.1529714.
Challenges faced in implementation
The generation of seascapes involves the application of several different global satellite data products, including physical and bio-optical products. Generating a consistent thematic classification across all regions of the globe and for all time periods is a challenge.MBON seeks participation in the validation of seascapes and Ecological Marine Units for different locations, examples of applications, and feedback to improve these products.
Beneficiaries
Seascapes and Ecological Marine Units help understand how and why life in the sea changes.
This helps conservation organizations, academic institutions, resource managers, citizen scientists, and the private sector to quantify areas where there may be positive or negative trends and use the data to inform decisions that conserve typical or beneficial biodiversity.