Use cases
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, 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
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
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
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
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.
Too hot at the Equator?
A recent review of the literature and available data on latitudinal gradients in marine species richness in OBIS found that in all previous studies, and for a dataset of 65 000 species, they were bimodal, with a dip in richness immediately south of the Equator (−5° to −15°). This was the case for benthic and pelagic, vertebrate and invertebrate, and all species together.
Highest marine species richness is found in tropical coastal areas
Costello & Chaudhary (2017) used data from OBIS to show that marine species richness is higher in the coastal tropics and decreases with depth. The paper reviews what factors have led to species diversification, and how this knowledge informs conservation priorities.
Analysis of OBIS maps distinct biogeographic realms in the world ocean
Analysis of OBIS demonstrates for the first time that the ocean can be classified into distinct realms based on the uniqueness of their animals and plants. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.
Plant feeding promotes diversity in the Crustacea
Poore et al. (2017) showed that the ability to eat seaweeds and plants promotes diversity among crustaceans, just as it does among herbivorous insects. The records from OBIS for each clade were analysed to estimate range size, latitudinal range and the occurrence in the biogeographic realms of Spalding et al. (2007). These analyses detected that plant-feeding clades did, on average, have larger range sizes, and that the increases in their richness could not be explained by disproportionate sampling in the tropics or in certain biogeographic regions.
Illuminating the Twilight Zone - expert panel maps the world's mesopelagic zone
A new study using data from OBIS identified 33 mesopelagic ecoregions of the world’s oceans. This is a first step towards a dynamic mesopelagic biogeography, which forms an important baseline to assess human impacts on the mesopelagic, or "twilight" zone; world’s second-largest cumulative ecosystem.
Identifying relevant predictors for marine species distribution modelling with MarineSPEED
Bosch et al. (2017) showed that while temperature is a relevant predictor of global marine species distributions, considerable variation in predictor relevance is linked to the species distribution modelling (SDM) set-up. A standardized benchmark dataset (MarineSPEED) was created by combining records from OBIS and GBIF with environmental data from Bio-ORACLE and MARSPEC. Using this dataset, predictor relevance was analysed under different variations of SDMs for all combinations of predictors from eight correlation groups.
Counting seals with drones and thermal imagery
Alexander Seymour and his team at the Duke University Marine Laboratory, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada counted 3,355 grey seals using unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAV) with thermal sensors. The case study was published in Nature’s Scientific Reports journal. The data are available in OBIS through our OBIS-SEAMAP node.
More losers than winners for Southern Ocean marine life in a warmer future.
A study of the marine invertebrates living in the seas around Antarctica published in the journal Nature Climate Change using data from OBIS revealed that 79% of Antarctica’s endemic species do face a significant reduction over the next century as the Antarctic seafloor warms.
OBIS data reveals that climate change will exacerbate the impact of historical overfishing on an iconic Caribbean reef fish
Species distribution models using data from OBIS demonstrated that future conservation efforts of the Nassau Grouper (and endangered fish species occurring in the Caribbean region) may need to be adjusted to account for changes in the seasonality of spawning, a northward shift in their distribution and a shortening of the spawning season.
High species richness in the Central Indo-Pacific explained by time and many colonization events
In a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B in October 2018, Miller et al. explored how the timing and rates of fundamental evolutionary processes—speciation, extinction, and colonization events have jointly shaped differences in regional species richness in percomorph fishes. This study is also an example of how the wealth of biodiversity data made available through databases such as OBIS, coupled with modern analytical techniques, can help provide new insights into long-standing questions in ecology and evolutionary biology.
Mapping knowledge gaps in marine diversity reveals a latitudinal gradient of missing species richness
In a study published in Nature Communications in November 2018, researchers from Federal University of Goiás explored global spatial patterns in species richness by analyzing more than 3 million occurrence records of almost 35,000 marine species from OBIS and other public datasets to identify missing occurrences (gaps) across species latitudinal range.
Coastal benthic biogeographic regions are stable across the millennia
A new study published in Global Ecology and Biogeography, using recent occurrence data from the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) and fossil data from the Paleobiology Database, showed that modern and the near past global ecosystem feature highly similar biogeographic structures, which is remarkable given the known climatic variations of the past ten million years.
Microscopic “body-snatchers” and “planktonic-greenhouses” are ubiquitous with contrasting biogeographies and abundance in our oceans
A study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B using data from OBIS investigated for the first time the biogeography of mixotrophs, planktonic species which acquire phototrophic capability from their prey. The study shows that “body-snatchers”, (e.g., ciliates, which can steal plastids from their prey) dominate high-biomass areas such as coastal seas while the “planktonic-greenhouses” (e.g., Rhizaria, which enslave entire populations of their prey as endosymbionts) are particularly dominant in oligotrophic open seas. The findings from this study significantly changes the understanding of the functioning of the marine food web and hence the trophodynamics and the biogeochemical cycles in the oceans.
The great dying at the end of the Permian linked to ocean warming and oxygen loss
A study published in Science using historical data of ocean warming and oxygen loss, combined with species traits and occurrence data from OBIS revealed patterns of habitat loss and extinction at the end of the Permian period.
Some fish go deeper to cool off in warming seas
A study published in the journal Nature Climate Change using OBIS data showed how fish, demersal and planktonic communities changed as warm-water species increase and cold-water marine species become less successful due to climate warming.
(free e-book) Biogeographic Atlas of the Deep NW Pacific Fauna
The Biogeographic Atlas of the Deep NW Pacific Fauna’ has been published by Pensoft as an open-access e-book, after a three-year intense collaboration of more than 40 deep-sea experts around the word. This book is designed as a guide, synthesis, and review of the current knowledge of the benthic fauna that is distributed in the bathyal and abyssal zones (below 2,000 m) of the NW Pacific. All the data (old and new) used are available in OBIS.
Occupancy‐derived thermal affinities reflect known physiological thermal limits of marine species
In this study we used the robis package to extract 2,176,906 OBIS occurrence records for 533 marine species from 24 taxonomic classes for which we had access to experimentally derived thermal limits. By linking these occurrence records to global sea surface and sea bottom temperature, we compared the temperatures at which species actually live to their thermal limits.
How anthozoan distribution records from OBIS contribute to the global biogeography of the ocean midnight zone
A global analysis of the benthic fauna of the lower bathyal using data from OBIS revealed a surprisingly high level of endemism. The study published in March 2022 by Watling & Lapointe (2022) proposed a revision of the bathyal provinces of the world.
Cold-water species deepen to escape warm water temperatures
How species traits of cephalopods and malacostracans, extracted from the OBIS database contributed to evidence of cold-water species deepening in response to warming waters in the Mediterranean Sea.
Through the eyes of a Cretaceous crab
By extracting depth data of extant benthic and pelagic Brachyuran crabs from the OBIS database, along with habitat and lifestyle information, authors were able to interpret the fossil species examined herein, to have been an active swimmer, most likely hunting and predating on pelagic comma shrimps.
Giant manta ray distribution in the western North Atlantic Ocean
Species distribution modeling (SDM) as a tool to predict the probability of occurrence for giant manta rays in the western North Atlantic Ocean. The data from this study is based on occurrence records and decades of sighting data from OBIS and an array of other data sources. These distribution predictions will ultimately allow for better protection and conservation of the threatened giant manta ray.
Discovering life in extreme environments with deep-sea equipment
The development of deep-sea equipment has allowed researchers to start to unveil the vast biodiversity and ecosystems in the extreme deep-sea environments. Discoveries of deep-sea species, based on occurrences from the OBIS database, were compared to the global distribution of deep-sea equipment. The results suggest a correlation to the regions of extensive species discovery and the locational distribution of advanced deep-sea equipment.
Predicting global distribution and population connectivity – the predatory broadnose sevengill shark as an example.
Presence data sourced from OBIS, amongst other repositories and literature sources, contributed to predicting the global possible suitable habitat for a highly mobile predator shark, the broadnose sevengill shark, based on environmental niche modeling.
Detecting life in the deep-sea: a glimpse of the top predator, the Yokozuna Slickhead in Japanese waters.
New insights and video footage of possibly the largest deep-sea-endemic predatory teleost fish species, the Yokozuna Slickhead, using a combination of eDNA metabarcoding and baited camera observations, at depths of 2000 m. OBIS occurrence data contributed to the distributional comparison of this species to the only other deep-sea-endemic teleost fish species with total length over 2 m, the Giant Grenadier, Albatrossia pectoralis.
Reconstructing ocean biodiversity hotspots of the Phanerozoic
Is there a limit to global biodiversity in our oceans? This recent study published in Nature using data from OBIS sheds some new insight into this controversial topic in evolutionary ecology and has led to the authors proposing a new hypothesis, the ‘diversity hotspots hypothesis’.
Detecting sperm whales in the eastern Canadian Arctic as sea-ice continues to melt
Marine environments in the Arctic regions continue to be altered due to prolonged durations of sea ice absence, as a result of climate change. Seasonal shifts of habitat use occur as warmer, ice-free regions become available to many ice avoiding marine mammals. In this study, authors combined collected sighting- and acoustic data, including whaling records accessed through the OBIS database, to explore the range expansion of the ice-avoiding sperm whale in the Eclipse Sound area, Baffin Bay. Sperm whale presence in Eclipse Sound is a recent phenomenon, with only two sighting records of these mammals in this region, in 2014 and 2018, respectively. However, acoustic recordings reveal that sperm whales are present in this region yearly between 2015 and 2019 and that there has been an increase in sperm whale presence over the 5 year study period, closely related to the minimum sea ice concentration of each year.
Cumacea (Peracarida) from the deep Nordic Seas
This study compiled and analysed occurrence records of Cumacea from various courses and expeditions, including those available in OBIS, to provide insight into the diversity and distribution of the group from the deep North Atlantic to the Arctic Ocean. The data from this study resulted in the creation of a new OBIS dataset of Icelandic Cumacea (ICECU) from the IceAGE and PASCAL expedition records.
Climate-driven diversity changes of Mediterranean echinoids over the last 6 Ma
Echinoids are an important component of the Cenozoic marine benthic communities. In this publication, we review their diversity in the Mediterranean area within the Late Miocene to recent, a period of remarkable paleogeographic and paleoclimate changes.
Current knowledge on the reproduction of deep-sea corals
This study looks at the current state of research on the reproduction of deep-sea corals. Occurrence records were extracted from OBIS to find available information for species living at depths below 100m. Less than 7% of known deep-sea coral species were found to have any aspect of their reproduction reported in the literature highlighting significant gaps and priorities for future research.
How many species live in the world’s largest marine mineral exploration region?
This study offers the first comprehensive synthesis of published data for the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the central and eastern Pacific. The authors report that this area, which covers 6 million km2, represents significant undescribed biodiversity with an estimated 88%–92% species waiting to be described. Data used in this research were extracted from OBIS highlighting its value as a global data repository for marine biodiversity.
Metabarcoding is a promising tool for identifying species of fish from their eggs and larvae
Understanding the diversity and distribution of fish egg and larvae in the ocean provides invaluable information on ecosystem health, capacity to recover from disturbances and helps guide management and conservation efforts. This study shows that metabarcoding is a promising tool that allows for rapid and accurate species identification. OBIS was used to validate and confirm the distribution range, habitat and occurrence of the species detected by metabarcoding.
Invasive marine algae in the Mediterranean was misidentified for decades
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Preserving seagrasses in a changing climate
This study provides the first comprehensive global assessment of how climate change may affect the distribution and range of 66 seagrass species. It also examines how well the current global MPA coverage will protect these important ecosystems in the future. The authors relied on occurrence records from OBIS, along with other sources of data and expert knowledge, to develop species distribution models under various scenarios.
Invasive marine algae in the Mediterranean was misidentified for decades
The red algae, "Lophocladia lallemandii", one of the worst invasive species in the Mediterranean, was misidentified for nearly three decades. The researchers who discovered this error recommend genetic analysis as a mandatory first step when identifying, monitoring and managing invasives. OBIS served as a useful data repository to confirm the occurrence of this misidentified species.
State of knowledge on marine connectivity gathered by migratory marine species
Advancements in technology have improved our knowledge of how different areas of the ocean are connected by the movement of migratory and mobile marine species. This information is vital to inform area-based management and conservation efforts. The authors of this study, led by the OBIS-SEAMAP node, performed a literature review of 25 years of accessible connectivity data for 173 marine mammal, fish, sea turtle, and seabird species to shed light on the current state of knowledge. They found telemetry methods are the most effective tool for demonstrating connectivity, but that significant gaps and obstacles remain in this field of research.