Biodiversity's Big Wet Secret: The Global Distribution of Marine Biological Records Reveals Chronic Under-Exploration of the Deep Pelagic Ocean

Thomas J Webb,Edward Vanden Berghe,Ron O'Dor,Thomas M Brooks

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010223

Thomas J Webb, Edward Vanden Berghe + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0010223

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Journal: PLoS ONE	Publication Date: Aug 2, 2010
Citations: 244	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Sheffield

Abstract

BackgroundUnderstanding the distribution of marine biodiversity is a crucial first step towards the effective and sustainable management of marine ecosystems. Recent efforts to collate location records from marine surveys enable us to assemble a global picture of recorded marine biodiversity. They also effectively highlight gaps in our knowledge of particular marine regions. In particular, the deep pelagic ocean – the largest biome on Earth – is chronically under-represented in global databases of marine biodiversity.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe use data from the Ocean Biogeographic Information System to plot the position in the water column of ca 7 million records of marine species occurrences. Records from relatively shallow waters dominate this global picture of recorded marine biodiversity. In addition, standardising the number of records from regions of the ocean differing in depth reveals that regardless of ocean depth, most records come either from surface waters or the sea bed. Midwater biodiversity is drastically under-represented.Conclusions/SignificanceThe deep pelagic ocean is the largest habitat by volume on Earth, yet it remains biodiversity's big wet secret, as it is hugely under-represented in global databases of marine biological records. Given both its value in the provision of a range of ecosystem services, and its vulnerability to threats including overfishing and climate change, there is a pressing need to increase our knowledge of Earth's largest ecosystem.

Highlights

The tragedy of studying biodiversity during an extinction crisis is that we are losing our subject matter faster than we are able to describe it [1]
The majority of our knowledge of marine biodiversity is derived from samples drawn from shallow seas: the number of records in OBIS declines precipitously with increasing bottom depth (Figure 1A)
50% of the OBIS records come from the continental shelf, which constitutes,10% of the ocean, whereas,10% of records are from the Abyssal Plain (4000—6000m), which constitutes c. 50% of the ocean area (Figure 1B)

Summary

Introduction

The tragedy of studying biodiversity during an extinction crisis is that we are losing our subject matter faster than we are able to describe it [1] This is especially true in the marine environment, where the need to value and conserve taxa and habitats that we know little about has been termed a paradox of marine conservation [2]. Recent efforts to collate location records from marine surveys enable us to assemble a global picture of recorded marine biodiversity. They effectively highlight gaps in our knowledge of particular marine regions. The deep pelagic ocean – the largest biome on Earth – is chronically underrepresented in global databases of marine biodiversity

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Conclusion