A Global Ecological Classification of Coastal Segment Units to Complement Marine Biodiversity Observation Network Assessments

Roger Sayre,Peter Harris,Dawn Wright,Kevin Butler,Mark Costello,Tom Allen,Bjorn Nyberg,Rost Parsons,Jill Cress,Rebecca Allee,Sean Breyer,Deniz Karagulle,Keith Van Graafeiland,Madeline Martin,Frank Muller-Karger,Charlie Frye

doi:10.5670/oceanog.2021.219

Abstract

A new data layer provides Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) labels for global coastal segments at 1 km or shorter resolution. These characteristics are summarized for six US Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) sites and one MBON Pole to Pole of the Americas site in Argentina. The global coastlines CMECS classifications were produced from a partitioning of a 30 m Landsat-derived shoreline vector that was segmented into 4 million 1 km or shorter segments. Each segment was attributed with values from 10 variables that represent the ecological settings in which the coastline occurs, including properties of the adjacent water, adjacent land, and coastline itself. The 4 million segments were classified into 81,000 coastal segment units (CSUs) as unique combinations of variable classes. We summarize the process to develop the CSUs and derive summary descriptions for the seven MBON case study sites. We discuss the intended application of the new CSU data for research and management in coastal areas.

Highlights

Historically, coastal environments have been characterized primarily based on geomorphological characteristics and hydrodynamic forcing features (e.g., Inman and Nordstrom, 1971; Davies, 1980; Boyd et al, 1992; Cooper and McLaughlin, 1998; Harris et al, 2002; FGDC, 2012; Thom et al, 2018; and Davis and Fitzgerald, 2020)
Classifications and maps are necessary for these applications, there is a lack of standardized, high resolution, and globally comprehensive data describing the global distribution of coastal ecosystems (Burke et al, 2000; Estes et al, 2018)
The work has resulted in several standardized global ecosystem data layers, including Ecological Land Units (ELUs; Sayre et al, 2014), World Terrestrial Ecosystems (WTEs; Sayre et al, 2020), true three-dimensional oceanic pelagic Ecological Marine Units (EMUs; Sayre et al, 2017), and global coastal segment units

Summary

Introduction

Coastal environments have been characterized primarily based on geomorphological characteristics and hydrodynamic forcing features (e.g., Inman and Nordstrom, 1971; Davies, 1980; Boyd et al, 1992; Cooper and McLaughlin, 1998; Harris et al, 2002; FGDC, 2012; Thom et al, 2018; and Davis and Fitzgerald, 2020). Classifications and maps are necessary for these applications, there is a lack of standardized, high resolution, and globally comprehensive data describing the global distribution of coastal ecosystems (Burke et al, 2000; Estes et al, 2018). To address the problem of a general lack of globally comprehensive geospatial data on terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal and marine ecosystem distributions, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) commissioned the development of a high spatial resolution geospatial characterization of global ecosystems (Task T1 in the GEO Ecosystems 2020–2022 Implementation Plan: https:// earthobser vations.org/documents/gwp20_22/GEO-ECO.pdf). The work has resulted in several standardized global ecosystem data layers, including Ecological Land Units (ELUs; Sayre et al, 2014), World Terrestrial Ecosystems (WTEs; Sayre et al, 2020), true three-dimensional oceanic pelagic Ecological Marine Units (EMUs; Sayre et al, 2017), and global coastal segment units

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion