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IODC-III, call for abstracts - Join forces with OBIS to showcase the importance of fit-for-purpose and actionable data for ocean biodiversity
IODC-III, call for abstracts - Join forces with OBIS to showcase the importance of fit-for-purpose and actionable data for ocean biodiversity

Participate in the OBIS-led session at the third edition of the International Ocean Data Conference on 10-11 March 2025

Living Data 2025 - The call for sessions is open. Submit yours today!
Living Data 2025 - The call for sessions is open. Submit yours today!

Participate in Living Data 2025 to increase collaboration, capacity and equitable access to data and tools supporting biodiversity monitoring and management.

UNESCO eDNA Expeditions - Successfully transforming innovative eDNA sampling into actionable data with OBIS expertise
UNESCO eDNA Expeditions - Successfully transforming innovative eDNA sampling into actionable data with OBIS expertise

Decoding the Ocean - UNESCO eDNA Expeditions Unveil Ocean Biodiversity

Help Build a Holistic Ocean Observing System: Survey for a Collaborative Ocean Observing Blueprint
Help Build a Holistic Ocean Observing System: Survey for a Collaborative Ocean Observing Blueprint

The Horizon Europe project BioEcoOcean is seeking input via a survey for the development of a Blueprint for Integrated Ocean Science.

Marine perspectives on COP16-Reinforced global collaborations to better support conservation
Marine perspectives on COP16-Reinforced global collaborations to better support conservation

With a dedicated Ocean Day and numerous positive concrete outcomes for ocean observations and marine biodiversity conservation, COP16 was a milestone for advancing global ocean observing and information systems. The formal recognition of OBIS and GOOS as crucial marine components of the Global Biodiversity Framework demonstrates the readiness of the two infrastructures to accelerate marine knowledge provision to better protect our Ocean.

Shaping the Future of Marine Biodiversity Data - Takeaways from the 6th OBIS Executive Committee Meeting
Shaping the Future of Marine Biodiversity Data - Takeaways from the 6th OBIS Executive Committee Meeting

The Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) Executive Committee meeting took place at the InnovOcean Campus in Oostende, Belgium, from 14 to 16 October 2024\. The meeting aimed to set OBIS's strategic course for 2025 and establish a visionary document to set long-term goals and foster synergies with other IODE activities. In this article, we outline the three essential takeaways from the meeting.

Use cases

Habitat-based cetacean density models for the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico
Habitat-based cetacean density models for the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico

Cetaceans are protected worldwide but vulnerable to incidental harm from an expanding array of human activities at sea. Managing potential hazards to these highly-mobile populations increasingly requires a detailed understanding of their seasonal distributions and habitats. Pursuant to the urgent need for this knowledge for the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, we integrated 23 years of aerial and shipboard cetacean surveys, linked them to environmental covariates obtained from remote sensing and ocean models, and built habitat-based density models for 26 species and 3 multi-species guilds using distance sampling methodology.

Pteropods at risk
Pteropods at risk

Pteropods, also called sea butterflies, are tiny snails living in the water column that play a critical role in various ecosystems as prey for a variety of predators. There is a great concern about the potential impact of global change – and particularly ocean acidification – on these organisms as they exhibit an external shell, which is sensitive to changes in ocean chemistry. To represent the impact of both ocean acidification and global warming on pteropods, risk indicators have been calculated for three widely spread taxa that are dominant in high latitudes (Limacina helicina), temperate (Limacina retroversa), and warm waters (Creseis spp.). To create the indicators, experimental and observational data on pteropods’ response to global change were coupled with models describing chemical (aragonite saturation state) and physical (temperature) conditions of the ocean at present, in 2030 and 2050, under the “business as usual” carbon dioxide (CO2) emission scenario (RCP 8.5) and the “two degree stabilization” CO2 emission scenario (RCP 4.5). The present results confirm that global change is a very serious threat for high latitude pteropods: by 2050 under the CO2 emissions scenario RCP 8.5, they likely will not be able to thrive in most of the Arctic Ocean and some regions of the Southern Ocean.

Deep-sea diversity patterns are shaped by energy availability
Deep-sea diversity patterns are shaped by energy availability

The deep ocean is the largest and least-explored ecosystem on Earth, and a uniquely energy-poor environment. The distribution, drivers and origins of deep-sea biodiversity remain unknown at global scales. Here we analyse a database of more than 165,000 distribution records of Ophiuroidea (brittle stars), a dominant component of sea-floor fauna, and find patterns of biodiversity unlike known terrestrial or coastal marine realms. Both patterns and environmental predictors of deep-sea (2,000–6,500m) species richness fundamentally differ from those found in coastal (0–20m), continental shelf (20–200m), and upper-slope (200–2,000m) waters. Continental shelf to upper-slope richness consistently peaks in tropical Indo-west Pacific and Caribbean (0–30°) latitudes, and is well explained by variations in water temperature. In contrast, deep-sea species show maximum richness at higher latitudes (30–50°), concentrated in areas of high carbon export flux and regions close to continental margins. We reconcile this structuring of oceanic biodiversity using a species–energy framework, with kinetic energy predicting shallow-water richness, while chemical energy (export productivity) and proximity to slope habitats drive deep-sea diversity. Our findings provide a global baseline for conservation efforts across the sea floor, and demonstrate that deep-sea ecosystems show a biodiversity pattern consistent with ecological theory, despite being different from other planetary-scale habitats.

Systematic biodiversity change - global reorganisation of species pools
Systematic biodiversity change - global reorganisation of species pools

A global study based on time series datasets from OBIS published in Science in 2014 detected temporal species community composition change, not systematic loss of diversity.

Multimodal SADs linked to spatial and taxonomic breadth
Multimodal SADs linked to spatial and taxonomic breadth

Species abundance distribution (SAD) models using OBIS and GBIF data reveals multimodality patterns are rather common and increase with ecological heterogeneity.

Some like it warm? Warm-dwelling species have increased in response to climate change in western/central Europe
Some like it warm? Warm-dwelling species have increased in response to climate change in western/central Europe

A new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, using data from OBIS, showed effects of climate change on species’ abundances, with an increase of warm-dwelling marine fish in the North Sea.

Projects

MARCO-BOLO

Funded by the EU Horizon Europe programme (along with UKRI), MARCO-BOLO is a €7.3 million, 4-year project that will strengthen European marine, coastal and freshwater biodiversity observation to understand and restore ocean health.

PacMAN

Developing an invasive species monitoring system as well as an early-warning decision-support tool for Pacific Island States.

eDNA Expeditions

UNESCO’s Environmental DNA (eDNA) Expeditions is a global citizen science initiative aimed at advancing knowledge of marine biodiversity and the impacts of climate change on the distribution patterns of marine life across UNESCO World Heritage marine sites.

OBIS in numbers

141M
species observations
195K
marine species
36
nodes worldwide
27M
DNA sequences
6K
scientists & data managers
99
countries engaged

Recent datasets