biodiversitys big wet secret the global distribution of marine biological records reveals chronic under-exploration of the deep pelagic ocean生物多样性的大湿的秘密世界的海洋生物分布记录揭示了深海海洋长期正在开采之中.pdfVIP

Biodiversity’s Big Wet Secret: The Global Distribution of Marine Biological Records Reveals Chronic Under-Exploration of the Deep Pelagic Ocean 1 2 3 Thomas J. Webb *, Edward Vanden Berghe , Ron O’Dor 1 Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom, 2 Ocean Biogeographic Information System, Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States of America, 3 Census of Marine Life, Consortium for Ocean Leadership, Washington, D. C., United States of America Abstract Background: Understanding the distribution of marine biodiversity is a crucial first step towards the effective and sustainable management of marine ecosystems. Recent efforts to collate location records from marine surveys enable us to assemble a global picture of recorded marine biodiversity. They also effectively highlight gaps in our knowledge of particular marine regions. In particular, the deep pelagic ocean – the largest biome on Earth – is chronically under- represented in global databases of marine biodiversity. Methodology/Principal Findings: We use data from the Ocean Biogeographic Information System to plot the position in the water column of ca 7 million records of marine species occurrences. Records from relatively shallow waters dominate this global picture of recorded marine biodiversity. In addition, standardising the number of records from regions of the ocean differing in depth reveals that regardless of ocean depth, most records come either from surface waters or the sea bed. Midwater biodiversity is drastically under-represented. Conclusions/Significance: The deep pelagic ocean is the largest habitat by volume on Earth, yet it remains biodiversity’s big we