1. Marine Biodiversity
Indicators for Policy
Making
Ward Appeltans
IOC/UNESCO
iMarine e-Infrastructure for data driven decision making and research, 14-15 May 2013,
Brussels

2. We are losing our natural habitats
van Hooidonk et al. 2013. Temporary refugia for coral reefs in a warming world. Nature Clim. Change
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1829
50% 100%

3. We are losing our natural habitats

4. Fish and invertebrate stocks are
over-exploited
Source: FAO

5. Introduction and establishment of
marine invasive alien species
Copyright holder: European Environment Agency (EEA).

6. We are losing species at an
unprecedented rate

7. Currently 2,4% of the ocean is protected

8. The loss of Biodiversity is a global
concern
• 1992 – UN Conference on Environment and
Development, Rio de Janeiro
– Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD): objectives are
the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use
of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the
benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources,
• 2002 – World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg regarded biodiversity a benefit to
society and important to alleviate poverty
– CBD target to significantly reduce the current rate of
biodiversity loss by 2010.
– In 2003, EU target to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010.

9. EU Biodiversity Indicators
• Streamlining European Biodiversity Indicators
(SEBI)
– In 2005, the EU established a process to
streamline national, regional and global
indicators and, crucially, to develop a
simple and workable set of indicators to
measure progress and help reach the
2010 target.
– By the end of 2007 : 26 indicators were
published by the EEA.

10. Global Biodiversity
Indicators
• 2006, CBD COP8 established a consortium of
indicator developers and the Biodiversity
Indicators Platform (BIP) was formed.

11. Post 2010
• 2010, 3rd
Global Biodiversity Outlook (based on BIP
indicators) reported that the UN biodiversity target
had not been met and warned that the pressures on
biodiversity continue to intensify
• 2010, EU biodiversity assessment report concluded
that also the EU has missed its target.

12. Post 2010
• 2010, 10th
CBD COP in Nagoya adopted the
Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020.
– 5 strategic goals and 20 new targets.
• 2011, EU Biodiversity Strategy – Our life
insurance, our natural capital
– 2050 vision and 2020 headline target and 6 key targets
1. Fully implement the Birds and Habitats Directives.
2. Maintain and restore ecosystems and their services.
3. Increase the contribution of agriculture and forestry to
maintaining and enhancing biodiversity.
4. Ensure the sustainable use of fisheries resources.
5. Combat invasive alien species.
6. Help avert global biodiversity loss.

13. Post 2010
2012, United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development (Rio+20)
“The future we want”
“Blueprint for Ocean and Coastal Sustainability”
•Actions to reduce stressors and maintain or restore the structure
and function of marine ecosystems for equitable and sustainable
use of marine resources and ecosystems.
•Implement Actions to Adapt to and Mitigate Ocean Acidification
•Develop and Execute a Global Program aimed at Greater
Protection and Restoration of Vital Ocean and Coastal Habitats,
•Strengthen the Legal Framework to Effectively Address Aquatic
Invasive Species

14. Ocean Biogeographic
Information System
OBIS is the world’s largest open access, online data
system on the diversity, distribution and abundance of
marine species
35 million distribution records
120,000 marine species
1,130 datasets
>800 publications
Data legacy of 10-year Census of Marine Life
Adopted by UNESCO-IOC, project of IODE, hosted by IOC project
office for IODE in Oostende (Belgium)

15. Nr of observation records (5D) in OBIS

16. Nr of observation records (1D) in OBIS
White is no data

17. Arctic view: number of records in
OBIS per 5d (left) and 1d (right) cell

18. Pacific view: number of records in
OBIS per 5d (left) and 1d (right) cell

19. Very few historical data
Only 100 marine species for which we have yearly records between 1955-2005

20. Nr of observation records per depth and distance
from coastline in OBIS – vast mid waters are
unexplored
2013 has around 2.7x more records (almost 19Million, cf. almost 7M) compared to 2009, and the
range of sample depths represented has increased slightly, from 0-10670m in 2009 to 0-10900m
now.

21. OBIS data growth: # records
35 million geo-referenced species observations (+ 5 million since Jan 2011)

22. OBIS data growth:# records.k/dataset

23. OBIS data growth: # marine species.K
120,000 marine
species (+ 5,000
since Jan 2011)

24. Nr of species (5D) in OBIS

25. Nr of species expected in a sample
of 50 specimens per 5D in OBIS

26. Nr of observation records and Nr of
species in OBIS per year

27. Marine Species Diversity – current
knowledge
700K – 1 million marine species
230K described
120K in OBIS
12K OBIS/year
5,4K IUCN assessment
Appeltans et al (2012). The Magnitude of Global
Species Diversity, Current Biology 22

28. Trendylyzer
• Trends in global species composition:
– Are we observing more or fewer species?
– What are the most common species (10 - 25 or n) and is
this changing over time and space?
– Can we detect regime shifts?
• Trends in distribution and abundance of selected
species:
– What is the extinction risk of species?
• The protected area overlays indicator:
– Does the global protected area system covers a
representative sample of the world’s biodiversity (including
threatened species), and is it targeting the most important
sites for biodiversity?

29. Most observed species (Nr of
records)

30. High global variations per year

31. King pinguins invasion in 2004!
Photo credits: Eric Whoeler
I don’t think so

32. North Sea has the highest Nr of
records

33. Most observed pelagic species in the
North Sea

34. Trends of most observed North Sea
species

35. Trends of pelagic North Sea species
Regime shift
Herring recovered
after the fish ban

36. Marine species conservation status
in EU
Protected vs Endangered species in Europe:
•77 marine species on EU Habitat directive list
•35 marine species on EU Bird directive list
•35 marine species on OSPAR list
•18 marine species on CITES list
•71 EU marine species threatened according to IUCN
Red list (16 CR, 16 EN and 39 VU)
Source PESI/EU-nomen

37. Marine species conservation status
in EU
• bullet
Copyright holder: European Environment Agency (EEA).
EU Habitat Directive; number of assessments in brackets.

38. fin whale
Balaenoptera physalus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Threatened with extinction and are or may be affected by
trade. Commercial trade in wild-caught specimens of
these species is illegal (permitted only in exceptional
licensed circumstances)
Species of community interest, in need of strict
protection
This species is threatened and/or declining in the entire
North-East Atlantic
This species is endangered and is considered to be
facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild

39. Fin whale: global distribution
OBIS-SEAMAP, Ocean Biogeographic Information System -
Spatial Ecological Analysis of Megavertebrate Populations

40. Fin whale : global annual trends
Nr of Records
Abundance

41. Fin whale : EU annual trends
Nr of Records
Abundance

42. Fin whale : summer sightings 1950-1990

43. Fin whale : summer sightings since 2000

44. 46
Non-indigenous species and likely vectors of their
introductions in the North Sea
In total 167 alien and
cryptogenic species
Dominant vectors:
shipping (~50%,
ballast water + hull
fouling) and intentional
introductions for
stocking or
aquaculture purposes
(14-30%)
Relative importance of
vectors: (black = hull
fouling, dark grey =
aquaculture, stocking,
light grey = ballast
water, etc.)
[slide: Sergey Olenin]
(Gollasch et al. 2009)

45. Ensis directus in 1960
Source: OBIS, 2013

46. Ensis directus in 1965
Source: OBIS, 2013

47. Ensis directus in 1979
Source: OBIS, 2013

48. Ensis directus in 1995
Source: OBIS, 2013

49. Ensis directus in 2000
Source: OBIS, 2013

50. Ensis directus in 2005
Source: OBIS, 2013

51. 10% of coastal and marine areas are
protected by 2020…
• EBSA
• VME
• Natura2000
• MPA
• UNESCO WHS
• UNESCO Biospheres
• …

52. Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs):
Criteria
1. Uniqueness or rarity
2. Special importance for life history of species
3. Importance for threatened, endangered or declining
species and/or habitats
4. Vulnerability, fragility, sensitivity, slow recovery
5. Biological productivity
6. Biological diversity
7. Naturalness
2008 COP9 criteria established

53. CBD-COP10 listed OBIS as a key source of
information for the identification of Ecologically or
Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) part of CBD
Areas of high biodiversity
Areas of special importance
for the life history of a
species
Areas of significant naturalness
Areas of
uniqueness or rarity

54. North Pacific regional EBSA workshop, Moscow,
25 Feb – 1 March 2013
OBIS contributions to the CBD EBSA process

55. OBIS contributions to the CBD EBSA process
Marine Mammal Observations
Eastern Tropical & Temperate
Pacific EBSA workshop, Galapagos
Ecuador, August 2012
IUCN Red-List Species
Wider Caribbean and Western
Mid-Atlantic workshop, Recife,
Brazil, February 2012
examples

56. OBIS contributions to the CBD EBSA process
Biological Diversity all taxa
Wider Caribbean and Western
Mid-Atlantic workshop, Recife,
Brazil, February 2012
Proposed site meeting EBSA criteria:
Abrolhos Bank & Vitoria-Trindade Chain
Described in-part due to high regional biodiversity
as depicted using OBIS data.

57. Compilation of scientific data & information
Patrick Halpin, Jesse Cleary, Corrie Curtice, Ben Donnelly
February 20, 2012
Prepared for the Secretariat of the Convention on
Biodiversity (SCBD)
Data to inform the
CBD Workshop
to Facilitate the Description of
Ecologically or Biologically
Significant Marine Areas
in the Wider Caribbean
and Western Mid-Atlantic
~60-70 GIS data layers
Overlay & Analysis
Data types
•Biogeography
•Biological Data
•Physical Data
Workshop Data Report
CBD EBSA workshops

58. Global Map of proposed EBSAs
The North Pacific and South-East Atlantic workshops March-
April 2013 will identify more areas.

59. Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems database
(VME-DB) and iMarine
In line with the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)
Resolution 61/105 FAO developed:
• International
Guidelines for the Management of Deep-Sea Fisheries on the
o to provide guidance for States and regional fisheries
management organizations or arrangements
(RFMOs/As)
o to ensure long-term conservation and sustainable
use of marine living resources in the deep seas and
prevent significant adverse impacts (SAIs) on
vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs)

60. VME Criteria (as per FAO guidelines)
• Uniqueness or rarity
• Functional significance of the habitat
• Fragility
• Life-history traits of component species that make
recovery difficult
• Structural complexity

61. iMarine VRE, FIGIS, and the VME database
The VME-DB can use i-Marine resources for:
Biodiversity/Taxonomic data
-INDEEP World Register of Deep-Sea Species
(WoRDSS)
-CenSeam and other OBIS sources, accessible
through OBIS
-FAO Deep sea species distribution maps
-Aquamaps for Deep sea species
Environmental/Physical data
-Geomorphology and predicted habitat (Gold)
- GEBCO
Fisheries data
- FAO or regional catch time series

62. Current inventory of VME locations

63. Protected area overlays with
biodiversity
Does the global protected area system covers a
representative sample of the world’s biodiversity, and is
it targeting at the most important sites for
biodiversity?
• Potential indicators:
–How many species with IUCN red list status per Marine Protected
Area?
–How many species with IUCN status in < n MPAs?
–How many endemic species per MPA (Nr and occurrences)?
–What is the edge effect; MPA in the center or close to outer limit
of the species distribution range?

64. OBIS holds 1,000,000 species observations
of 15,000 marine species in UNESCO’s 46
marine world heritage sites

65. Conclusions
biodiversity indicators : status
• We still need to improve geographic, taxonomic, and
temporal coverage of data to unravel global
biodiversity trends (lack of data and lack of sharing).
• The complexity of biodiversity and ecosystem
functioning requires a selection of species at various
trophic levels.
• An Ecosystem-Approach to the management of our
living resources requires an holistic approach: linking
biodiversity indicators to pressures, threats and
impacts on goods and services.

66. We need to move from uneven,
coarse resolution data...
The future
High resolution, contiguous
coverage in space & time…
This data needs to be aggregated
and made freely available to all
nations, institutions and individuals
To…
Our shared goal is to move
from ad hoc scientific expert
processes to more
systematic scientific
assessments.

67. Recommendations
• Improve global coordination of marine biodiversity
and ecosystem monitoring.
• Establish Essential Biodiversity Variables (in
collaboration with GOOS/GEO BON/GEO Blue
Planet)
• Establish permanent marine biodiversity
observatories.
• Improve standardization and sharing of data.
• Build capacity through training, standards, best
practices and guidelines (in collaboration with IODE).
– Contribute to CBD's report on the "adequacy of observations, and of data
systems, for monitoring the biodiversity attributes addressed in the Aichi
Biodiversity Targets".

68. "We are all data hungry”
Major processes to assess progress of the Biodiversity
targets:
•2013: EU Habitat Directive (6-year report)
•2014: EU marine ecosystem & service assessment
•2014: CBD 4th Global Biodiversity Outlook
•2015: UN 1st World Ocean Assessment
•2018: 1st IPBES assessment

69. Role of iMarine
• iMarine can support the assessment processes by
providing generic tools like TrendyLyzer to help
Member States assess the state of the environment
and of biodiversity.
• iMarine provides a collaborative research
environment.
• iMarine contributes to the standardization and
sharing of data

70. One Planet – One OceanOne Planet – One Ocean
72
Thank you!Thank you!
Special thanks to :
Angela Italiano and Gianpaolo Coro (CNR)
Pat Halpin and Ei Fujioka (OBIS-SEAMAP), Anton Ellenbroek,
Aureliano Gentile and Fabio Carocci (FAO), Tom Webb (U.
Sheffield)