SUMMARY FOR DECISION MAKERS FIRST CENSUSSCIENTIFIC RESULTS OFTO MARINESUPPORT LIFE THE 2010 SUSTAINABLE HIGHLIGHTSUSE AND OF CONSERVATION A DECADE OF DISCOVERY OF MARINE LIFE A SUMMARY OF THE CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE FOR DECISION MAKERS CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE www.coml.org 1 A DECADE OF DISCOVERY 1. Number of Census of Marine Life collaborators by country. Shaded regions indicate countries involved through its various national and re- gional committees. Source: Jesse Cleary, Census of Marine Life Mapping and Visualization Team INTRODUCTION Biodiversity is essential for the health of the planet systematically explored only about five percent of the and for humans because it underpins ecosystem func­ oceans. Recognizing this knowledge gap, the Census of tions that provide a wide range of goods and services Marine Life, a ten­year international research program to human societies. In the case of marine biodiversity, completed in 2010, greatly enhanced what is known this means the use of marine life for food, energy, about life in the oceans while demonstrating that a biomedical products, recreation, and climate regulat­ global survey of ocean life was possible. The Census was ing services, such as removal of carbon dioxide from a giant scientific partnership supported by the Alfred and release of oxygen into the atmosphere. Some of P. Sloan Foundation and over 500 other institutes and these uses generate direct economic benefits to soci­ donors from more than 80 countries in Africa, Asia, ety, while the value of others, like climate services, is Australia, Europe, North and South America, and less tangible but no less important. Unwise use of the Oceania. It brought together 2,700 scientists to establish ocean, causing degradation and loss of biodiversity, a baseline of the diversity, distribution, and abundance negatively impacts its ecosystems functions, along with of life in the ocean, against which future change can be its ability to provide valuable goods and the invisible measured. For policy makers and others who seek to but necessary services. sustainably use marine resources, the Census provides Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the Earth’s unprecedented scope, access to data and information, surface and sustain a much greater percentage of its and tools and capacity for monitoring and study to biosphere. Despite their vast extent and their impor­ better maintain, protect, and rehabilitate the oceans. tance to planetary functioning and human society, The global overview provided by the Census also allows the oceans and the life they contain are seriously research managers and environmentalists to better understudied. Scientists estimate that humans have prioritize conservation and research initiatives. RESANSMAN LAVI MAREN RESANSMAN LAVI 2 SUMMARY FOR DECISION MAKERS ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE The Census of Marine Life was a ten-year, $650 US million, s3HOWEDTHROUGHSTUDIESOFENVIRONMENTALHISTORYTHATSOME scientific research and outreach program delivered between marine habitats and living resources have been impacted 2000 –2010 by more than 2,700 scientists, supported by by humans for thousands of years. With protection recov- the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and over 500 other insti- ery is slow but possible.Coastal and enclosed seas are the tutes and donors from more than 80 countries [Figure 1]. Its most impacted. achievements include: s $ETERMINED THAT PAST IMPACTS IN THE DEEP SEA WERE s%STABLISHEDABASELINEOFMARINELIFEDIVERSITY DISTRIBUTION AND mainly from disposal of waste and litter. Today, fisheries, abundance against which future change can be measured. HYDROCARBON ANDMINERALEXTRACTIONHAVETHEGREATESTIM pact. In the future, climate change is predicted to have the s!GGREGATED ASOF*ANUARY MORETHANMILLIONOF greatest impact. species-level records obtained before and outside the Census and added millions more from its own field work, s#OLLABORATEDWITHTHE%NCYCLOPEDIAOF,IFETOCOMPLETE including 1,200 newly discovered and described species ~90,000 marine species pages and continues to serve [Figure 2]. Another 5,000 or more await formal description. ASTHEMARINECOMPONENTOFTHE'LOBAL"IODIVERSITY)NFOR- mation Facility. s#REATEDTHE/CEAN"IOGEOGRAPHIC)NFORMATION3YSTEM/")3 the world’s largest online repository of geo-referenced data, s3UPPORTEDTHE7ORLD2EGISTEROF-ARINE3PECIES WHICH which nations can use to develop national and regional as- CONlRMEDTHAT EXCLUDINGMICROBES MORETHAN sessments and to meet their obligations to the Convention on VALIDMARINESPECIESHAVEBEENDESCRIBEDASOF*ANUARY "IOLOGICAL$IVERSITYANDOTHERINTERNATIONALCOMMITMENTS 2011, with an estimated at least 750,000 more species remaining to be described. s-APPEDMIGRATIONROUTESANDBREEDINGAREASTHATCANBE used to protect animals’ oceanic transit routes. s"UILTINDIVIDUAL INSTITUTIONAL NATIONAL ANDREGIONALCAPAC ity. Through its young alumni, the Census will contribute to s)DENTIlEDWELL EXPLOREDAREASANDTHOSEWHEREFURTHEREX marine life knowledge for decades to come. ploration is warranted. CENSUS OF MARINE LIFE !GLOBALMAPOFTHENEARLYMILLION/")3RECORDSOF SPECIESFROMMORETHANDATASETSSHOWSTHEKNOWNANDUNKNOWNOCEAN%VEN with this decade-long global inventory, Census scientists could not conclusively determine how many species remain to be discovered, though they agree the number is at least 750,000. The gaps show that the inventory is as yet too incomplete even for first order estimates. New marine species, EVENLARGEONES ARESTILLFOUNDDURINGALMOSTEVERYBIOLOGICALEXPEDITIONSource: Ocean Biogeographic Information System 3 A DECADE OF DISCOVERY The Census of Marine Life: than a billion types of microbes may live in the oceans. A New Baseline for Policy In the ocean, a small number of types dominate and The Census global baseline of information about thousands of low­abundance populations account for marine biodiversity focused on the species level of most of the observed diversity. Changes in this highly classification and also developed novel technologies rel­ diverse ‘‘rare biosphere’’ may have profound impacts evant to studies below the species level. on the Earth’s ecosystems. While the Census discovered that ocean life is richer than imagined, it also found the ocean is Reason for Concern and Hope: more connected and more impacted than previously Degradation and Rehabilitation thought. Historic baselines of abundance, garnered of Marine Life from catch records, monastery records, fish bones, Biodiversity is under greatest threat in the enclosed shells, and other credible documentation, show peo­ seas and areas with high population density such as the ple began intensively exploiting and depleting marine Mediterranean, Gulf of Mexico, Baltic, Caribbean, and life thousands of years ago. China’s continental shelf. Marine industries and land­ The Census performed comprehensive regional based pollutants are creating ever greater impacts on the and global analyses of marine species diversity. From health of ocean ecosystems, direct exploitation is reach­ the global synthesis of 13 taxa from zooplankton to ing deeper depths, sectoral uses are overlapping [Figure 4], mammals, two major patterns emerged: (1) in the open and passive dispersion and accumulation are contaminat­ oceans, diversity peaked in mid­latitudes or in subtropi­ ing all ocean realms [Figure 5]. cal “strips” in all oceans; and (2) coastal species were The human footprint on the global ocean is not new. most diverse in tropical areas such as Indonesia, South­ Research from the Census based on a study of 12 tem­ east Asia, and the Philippines. A Census review of all perate coastal and estuarine ecosystems showed that over known marine biodiversity in 25 regions confirmed the centuries, human activities have eliminated 65 per­ the coastal pattern. Sea surface temperature, which is cent of seagrass and wetland habitat. Declines and range significantly impacted by climate change, was the only contractions were measured for the once abundant environmental predictor highly related to diversity Atlantic bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus, off the coast of across all 13 taxa [Figure 3]. northern Europe, whose population was depleted in The Census supported the World Register of 40 years (1910 –1950) and still remains rare there today. Marine Species, which determined that, excluding mi­ The numbers and sizes of exploited large marine animals crobes, about 200,000 valid marine species have been have declined from their historic levels by, on average, 90 described so far. Scientists estimated at least 750,000 percent. more species remain to be described. Little is known Census scientists estimated the global past, present, about the great majority of species. The best­known and future impacts of human­related activities on the marine animals such as whales, seals, and walruses deep sea, which harbors high biodiversity and is the comprise only a tiny part of marine biodiversity. More largest and least known ecosystem on the planet. In past 2ECORDS OF MARINE species from tiny zooplankton to Coastal taxa sharks and whales assembled 0 IN THE /CEAN "IOGEOGRAPHIC )N- formation System of the Census revealed hot spots of species diver- sity. The diversity of coastal species tended to peak around South- [Figure 3] east Asia, while the high diversi- ty of open-ocean creatures spread more broadly across the mid- LATITUDE OCEANS 2ED INDICATES areas of high diversity. Source: 0.75 Tittensor DP, Mora C, Jetz W, et Oceanic taxa al. 2010. Nature 466, 1098– 0.03 1101 0.87 BANCIAN KEHIDUPAN MARIN BANCIAN KEHIDUPAN 4 SUMMARY FOR DECISION MAKERS