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A hierarchical classification of benthic biodiversity and assessment of protected areas in the Southern Ocean
Citation
Douglass, LL and Turner, J and Grantham, HS and Kaiser, S and Constable, A and Nicoll, R and Raymond, B and Post, A and Brandt, A and Beaver, D, A hierarchical classification of benthic biodiversity and assessment of protected areas in the Southern Ocean, PLoS ONE, 9, (7) Article e100551. ISSN 1932-6203 (2014) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
DOI: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0100551
Abstract
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.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | benthic biodiversity, Southern Ocean, marine biodiversity |
| Research Division: | Environmental Sciences |
| Research Group: | Environmental management |
| Research Field: | Conservation and biodiversity |
| Objective Division: | Environmental Management |
| Objective Group: | Management of Antarctic and Southern Ocean environments |
| Objective Field: | Biodiversity in Antarctic and Southern Ocean environments |
| UTAS Author: | Constable, A (Dr Andrew Constable) |
| UTAS Author: | Raymond, B (Dr Ben Raymond) |
| ID Code: | 96509 |
| Year Published: | 2014 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 42 |
| Deposited By: | CRC-Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems |
| Deposited On: | 2014-11-07 |
| Last Modified: | 2017-10-31 |
| Downloads: | 325 View Download Statistics |
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