A hierarchical classification of benthic biodiversity and assessment of protected areas in the Southern Ocean
An international effort is underway to establish a representative system of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Southern Ocean to help provide for the long-term conservation of marine biodiversity in the region. Important to this undertaking is knowledge of the distribution of benthic assemblages....
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ftunivqespace:oai:espace.library.uq.edu.au:UQ:336053 2023-05-15T13:55:24+02:00 A hierarchical classification of benthic biodiversity and assessment of protected areas in the Southern Ocean Douglass, Lucinda L. Turner, Joel Grantham, Hedley S. Kaiser, Stefanie Constable, Andrew Nicoll, Rob Raymond, Ben Post, Alexandra Brandt, Angelika Beaver, Daniel Pronzato, Roberto 2014-07-01 https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:336053 eng eng Public Library of Science doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0100551 issn:1932-6203 Not set Marine protected areas (MPAs) Southern Ocean Benthic biodiversity 1100 Agricultural and Biological Sciences 1300 Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology Journal Article 2014 ftunivqespace https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0100551 2020-12-15T01:51:03Z An international effort is underway to establish a representative system of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Southern Ocean to help provide for the long-term conservation of marine biodiversity in the region. Important to this undertaking is knowledge of the distribution of benthic assemblages. Here, our aim is to identify the areas where benthic marine assemblages are likely to differ from each other in the Southern Ocean including near-shore Antarctica. We achieve this by using a hierarchical spatial classification of ecoregions, bathomes and environmental types. Ecoregions are defined according to available data on biogeographic patterns and environmental drivers on dispersal. Bathomes are identified according to depth strata defined by species distributions. Environmental types are uniquely classified according to the geomorphic features found within the bathomes in each ecoregion. We identified 23 ecoregions and nine bathomes. From a set of 28 types of geomorphic features of the seabed, 562 unique environmental types were classified for the Southern Ocean. We applied the environmental types as surrogates of different assemblages of biodiversity to assess the representativeness of existing MPAs. We found that 12 ecoregions are not represented in MPAs and that no ecoregion has their full range of environmental types represented in MPAs. Current MPA planning processes, if implemented, will substantially increase the representation of environmental types particularly within 8 ecoregions. To meet internationally agreed conservation goals, additional MPAs will be needed. To assist with this process, we identified 107 spatially restricted environmental types, which should be considered for inclusion in future MPAs. Detailed supplementary data including a spatial dataset are provided. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica Southern Ocean The University of Queensland: UQ eSpace Southern Ocean PLoS ONE 9 7 e100551 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
The University of Queensland: UQ eSpace |
op_collection_id |
ftunivqespace |
language |
English |
topic |
Marine protected areas (MPAs) Southern Ocean Benthic biodiversity 1100 Agricultural and Biological Sciences 1300 Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology |
spellingShingle |
Marine protected areas (MPAs) Southern Ocean Benthic biodiversity 1100 Agricultural and Biological Sciences 1300 Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology Douglass, Lucinda L. Turner, Joel Grantham, Hedley S. Kaiser, Stefanie Constable, Andrew Nicoll, Rob Raymond, Ben Post, Alexandra Brandt, Angelika Beaver, Daniel A hierarchical classification of benthic biodiversity and assessment of protected areas in the Southern Ocean |
topic_facet |
Marine protected areas (MPAs) Southern Ocean Benthic biodiversity 1100 Agricultural and Biological Sciences 1300 Biochemistry Genetics and Molecular Biology |
description |
An international effort is underway to establish a representative system of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Southern Ocean to help provide for the long-term conservation of marine biodiversity in the region. Important to this undertaking is knowledge of the distribution of benthic assemblages. Here, our aim is to identify the areas where benthic marine assemblages are likely to differ from each other in the Southern Ocean including near-shore Antarctica. We achieve this by using a hierarchical spatial classification of ecoregions, bathomes and environmental types. Ecoregions are defined according to available data on biogeographic patterns and environmental drivers on dispersal. Bathomes are identified according to depth strata defined by species distributions. Environmental types are uniquely classified according to the geomorphic features found within the bathomes in each ecoregion. We identified 23 ecoregions and nine bathomes. From a set of 28 types of geomorphic features of the seabed, 562 unique environmental types were classified for the Southern Ocean. We applied the environmental types as surrogates of different assemblages of biodiversity to assess the representativeness of existing MPAs. We found that 12 ecoregions are not represented in MPAs and that no ecoregion has their full range of environmental types represented in MPAs. Current MPA planning processes, if implemented, will substantially increase the representation of environmental types particularly within 8 ecoregions. To meet internationally agreed conservation goals, additional MPAs will be needed. To assist with this process, we identified 107 spatially restricted environmental types, which should be considered for inclusion in future MPAs. Detailed supplementary data including a spatial dataset are provided. |
author2 |
Pronzato, Roberto |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Douglass, Lucinda L. Turner, Joel Grantham, Hedley S. Kaiser, Stefanie Constable, Andrew Nicoll, Rob Raymond, Ben Post, Alexandra Brandt, Angelika Beaver, Daniel |
author_facet |
Douglass, Lucinda L. Turner, Joel Grantham, Hedley S. Kaiser, Stefanie Constable, Andrew Nicoll, Rob Raymond, Ben Post, Alexandra Brandt, Angelika Beaver, Daniel |
author_sort |
Douglass, Lucinda L. |
title |
A hierarchical classification of benthic biodiversity and assessment of protected areas in the Southern Ocean |
title_short |
A hierarchical classification of benthic biodiversity and assessment of protected areas in the Southern Ocean |
title_full |
A hierarchical classification of benthic biodiversity and assessment of protected areas in the Southern Ocean |
title_fullStr |
A hierarchical classification of benthic biodiversity and assessment of protected areas in the Southern Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
A hierarchical classification of benthic biodiversity and assessment of protected areas in the Southern Ocean |
title_sort |
hierarchical classification of benthic biodiversity and assessment of protected areas in the southern ocean |
publisher |
Public Library of Science |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:336053 |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0100551 issn:1932-6203 Not set |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0100551 |
container_title |
PLoS ONE |
container_volume |
9 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
e100551 |
_version_ |
1766262005541371904 |