Use of predictive habitat modelling to assess the distribution and extent of the current protection of ‘listed’ deep‐sea habitats

Ross, Rebecca E.; Howell, Kerry L.

doi:10.1111/ddi.12010

Cited by 99 publications

(131 citation statements)

References 72 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

125

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Scientists and decision-makers involved in conservation and management also grew an interest for marine habitat mapping (e.g., Ross and Howell, 2013;Selgrath et al, 2016): while habitat maps can serve many purposes, statistics show that habitat mapping studies are most often directly or indirectly set in a context of conservation or management (Figure 1), and the meta-analysis showed that 16 review articles were written on the use of marine habitat mapping for conservation and management between 2003 and 2016. The proportion of habitat mapping studies set in a context of conservation or management is higher in the marine environment (about 67%) than in other types of environments (about 58%) (Figure 1).…”

Section: Habitat Mapping and Spatial Sciences For Conservation And Mamentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Use of Maps and Models in Conservation and Resource Management (Warning: Results May Vary)

Lecours

2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Conservation planning and management typically require accurate and spatially explicit data at scales that are relevant for conservation objectives. In marine conservation, these data are often combined with spatial analytical techniques to produce marine habitat maps. While marine habitat mapping is increasingly used to inform conservation efforts, this field is still relatively young and its methods are rapidly evolving. Because conservation efforts do not always specify standards or guidelines for the production of habitat maps, results can vary dramatically. As representations of real environmental characteristics, habitat maps are highly sensitive to how they are produced. In this review paper, I present four concepts that are known to cause variation in spatial representation and prediction of habitats: the methodology used, the quality and scale of the data, and the choice of variables in regards to fitness for use. I then discuss the potential antinomy associated with the use of habitat maps in conservation: while habitat maps have become an invaluable tool to inform and assist decision-making, maps of the same area built using different methods and data may provide dissimilar representations, thus providing different information and possibly leading to different decisions. Exploring the theories and methods that have proved effective in terrestrial conservation and the spatial sciences, and how they can be integrated in marine habitat mapping practices, could help improve maps used to support marine conservation efforts and result in more reliable products to inform conservation decisions. Having a strong, consistent, transparent, repeatable, and science-based protocol for data collection and mapping is essential for effectively supporting decision-makers in developing conservation and management plans. The development of user-friendly tools to assist in the application of such protocol is crucial to a widespread improvement in practices. I discuss the potential to use interactive and collaborative Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to encourage the conservation and management community, from data collectors and mapmakers to decision-makers, to move toward a digital resilience and to develop such science-based protocol. Until standards and protocols are developed, habitat maps should always be interpreted with care, and the methods and metadata associated with their production should always be explicitly stated.

show abstract

Section: Habitat Mapping and Spatial Sciences For Conservation And Mamentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Use of Maps and Models in Conservation and Resource Management (Warning: Results May Vary)

Lecours

2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Although subjective manual mapping is the most common approach for identifying areas of potential coral habitats (Davies et al 2008;Ross and Howell 2013), more objective and automated approaches have been published (Salcedo-Sanz et al 2016). However, the semi-automated mapping approach presented in this study uses a fast and consistent automatic method and allows inclusion of additional data sets that have been developed within a GIS environment.…”

Section: Semi-automated Mapping: Bgs Seabed Mapping Toolboxmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using novel acoustic and visual mapping tools to predict the small-scale spatial distribution of live biogenic reef framework in cold-water coral habitats

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cold-water corals form substantial biogenic habitats on continental shelves and in deep-sea areas with topographic highs, such as banks and seamounts. In the Atlantic, many reef and mound complexes are engineered by Lophelia pertusa, the dominant framework-forming coral. In this study, a variety of mapping approaches were used at a range of scales to map the distribution of both cold-water coral habitats and individual coral colonies at the Mingulay Reef Complex (west Scotland). The new ArcGIS-based British Geological Survey (BGS) seabed mapping toolbox semi-automatically delineated over 500 Lophelia reef 'minimounds' from bathymetry data with 2-m resolution. The morphometric and acoustic characteristics of the minimounds were also automatically quantified and captured using this toolbox. Coral presence data were derived from high-definition remotely operated vehicle (ROV) records and high-resolution microbathymetry collected by a ROVmounted multibeam echosounder. With a resolution of 0.35 9 0.35 m, the microbathymetry covers 0.6 km 2 in the centre of the study area and allowed identification of individual live coral colonies in acoustic data for the first time. Maximum water depth, maximum rugosity, mean rugosity, bathymetric positioning index and maximum current speed were identified as the environmental variables that contributed most to the prediction of live coral presence. These variables were used to create a predictive map of the likelihood of presence of live cold-water coral colonies in the area of the Mingulay Reef Complex covered by the 2-m resolution data set. Predictive maps of live corals across the reef will be especially valuable for future long-term monitoring surveys, including those needed to understand the impacts of global climate change. This is the first study using the newly developed BGS seabed mapping toolbox and an ROV-based microbathymetric grid to explore the environmental variables that control coral growth on cold-water coral reefs.

show abstract

“…Habitat suitability modeling is being used increasingly to predict distribution patterns of VME indicator taxa in the deep sea, where data are particularly sparse, and such models are considered useful for marine ecosystem management (Ross and Howell, 2013;Reiss et al, 2014). Habitat suitability models have been produced for numerous deep-sea taxa (see review by Vierod et al, 2014), but the predicted distributions are dependent on how the models are constructed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Resolution Habitat Suitability Models for the Conservation and Management of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems on the Louisville Seamount Chain, South Pacific Ocean

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) are ecosystems at risk from the effects of fishing or other kinds of disturbance, as determined by the vulnerability of their components (e.g., habitats, communities, or species). Habitat suitability modeling is being used increasingly to predict distribution patterns of VME indicator taxa in the deep sea, where data are particularly sparse, and the models are considered useful for marine ecosystem management. The Louisville Seamount Chain is located within the South Pacific Regional Fishery Management Organization (SPRFMO) Convention Area, and some seamounts are the subject of bottom trawling for orange roughy by the New Zealand fishery. The aim of the present study was to produce high-resolution habitat suitability maps for VME indicator taxa and VME habitat on these seamounts, in order to evaluate the feasibility of designing within-seamount spatial closures to protect VMEs. We used a multi-model habitat suitability mapping approach, based on bathymetric and backscatter data collected by multibeam echo sounder survey, and data collected by towed underwater camera for the stony coral and habitatforming VME indicator species Solenosmilia variabilis, as well as two taxa indicative of stony coral habitat (Brisingida, Crinoidea). Model performance varied among the different model types used (Boosted Regression Tree, Random Forest, Generalized Additive Models), but abundance-based models consistently out-performed models based on presence-absence data. Uncertainty for ensemble models (combination of all models) was lower overall compared to the other models. Maps resulting from our models showed that suitable habitat for S. variabilis is distributed around the summitslope break of seamounts, and along ridges that extend down the seamount flanks. Only the flat, soft sediment summits are predicted to be unsuitable habitat for this stony coral species. We translated a definition for stony coral-reef habitat into a S. variabilis abundance-based threshold in order to use our models to map this VME habitat. These maps showed that coral-reef occurred in small and isolated patches, and that most of the seabed on these seamounts is predicted to be unsuitable Rowden et al.High-Resolution VME Habitat Suitability Maps habitat for this VME. We discuss the implications of these results for spatial management closures on the Louisville Seamount Chain seamounts and the wider SPRFMO area, and future modeling improvements that could aid efforts to use habitat suitability maps for managing the impact of fishing on VMEs.

show abstract

Use of predictive habitat modelling to assess the distribution and extent of the current protection of ‘listed’ deep‐sea habitats

Cited by 99 publications

References 72 publications

On the Use of Maps and Models in Conservation and Resource Management (Warning: Results May Vary)

On the Use of Maps and Models in Conservation and Resource Management (Warning: Results May Vary)

Using novel acoustic and visual mapping tools to predict the small-scale spatial distribution of live biogenic reef framework in cold-water coral habitats

High-Resolution Habitat Suitability Models for the Conservation and Management of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems on the Louisville Seamount Chain, South Pacific Ocean

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About