Abstract
Marine animals are increasingly instrumented with environmental sensors that provide large volumes of oceanographic data. Here, we conduct an innovative and comprehensive global analysis to determine the potential contribution of animal‐borne instruments (ABI) into ocean observing systems (OOSs) and provide a foundation to establish future integrated ocean monitoring programmes. We analyse the current gaps of the long‐term Argo observing system (>1.5 million profiles) and assess its spatial overlap with the distribution of marine animals across eight major species groups (tuna and billfishes, sharks and rays, marine turtles, pinnipeds, cetaceans, sirenians, flying seabirds and penguins). We combine distribution ranges of 183 species and satellite tracking observations from >3,000 animals. Our analyses identify potential areas where ABI could complement OOS. Specifically, ABI have the potential to fill gaps in marginal seas, upwelling areas, the upper 10 m of the water column, shelf regions and polewards of 60° latitude. Our approach provides the global baseline required to plan the integration of ABI into global and regional OOS while integrating conservation and ocean monitoring priorities.
Highlights
Sustained and systematic observations of marine ecosystems are needed to understand how the ocean is changing both naturally and as a result of human activities (Hoegh-Guldberg, 2010; Miloslavich et al, 2018)
Actions towards a more integrated and sustainable ocean observing system (OOS) to facilitate ocean discovery and environmental monitoring are deemed essential for future progress (Cheng et al, 2017; Duarte, Poiner, & Gunn, 2018; Visbeck, 2018)
We focus on pinnipeds and marine turtles as they are often equipped with animalborne instruments (ABI) and incorporate satellite tracking data into our analysis. (n = 7) species
Summary
Sustained and systematic observations of marine ecosystems are needed to understand how the ocean is changing both naturally and as a result of human activities (Hoegh-Guldberg, 2010; Miloslavich et al, 2018). The main gaps include specific ocean regions such as the deep ocean at >2,000 m, high latitudes (>60°), the surface layer (
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