OBIS and its contribution to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction.

1. Ocean Biogeographic
Information System
Biodiversity in ABNJ
Ward Appeltans, Manager OBIS
IOC-UNESCO
IODE
6th UNGA BBNJ Meeting, 19-23 August 2013, New York

2. IOC of UNESCO
Established in 1960
Functional autonomy within
UNESCO
145 Member States
Focal point for ocean
observations, science,
services and data exchange
Competent international
organization for marine
science and transfer of
marine technology
(UNCLOS)
2

3. From vision to execution
3

4. Major IOC Programmes
Ocean Observations and Services
Global Ocean Observing System. GOOS is a
permanent global system for observations,
modelling and analysis of marine and ocean
variables to support operational ocean services
worldwide. (and JCOMM)
International Oceanographic Data and
Information Exchange. Established in 1961, IODE
facilitates the exchange of oceanographic data
and information between participating Member
States, and serves the needs of users for data
and information products.4

5. NODCs 1961
6

6. NODCs 2013
7

7. 1. To facilitate and promote the discovery, exchange of, and
access to, marine data and information including metadata,
products and information in real-time, near real time and delayed mode, through the use of international
standards, and in compliance with the IOC Oceanographic Data Exchange Policy for the ocean research
and observation community and other stakeholders;
2. To encourage the long term archival, preservation,
documentation, management and servicesof all marine data,
data products, and information;
3. To develop or use existing best practices for the discovery, management, exchange of,
and access to marine data and information, including international standards,
quality control and appropriate information technology;
4. To assist Member States to acquire the necessary capacity to manage
marine research and observation data and information and become partners in the IODE network;
5. To support international scientific and
operational marine programmes, including the Framework
for Ocean Observing for the benefit of a wide range of users.
IODE Objectives (2013)
8

8. Foundation: IOC Data Policy (2003)
Clause 1: Member States shall
provide timely, free and
unrestricted access to all
data, associated metadata and
products generated under the
auspices of IOC programmes..
9

9. Ocean Biogeographic
Information System
OBIS is the world’s largest open access, online data system
on the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine
species
10
• 35 million species
observations
• 120,000 marine species
• 1,130 datasets
• >450 institutions, 56
countries
In ABNJ
• 6 million species
observations
• 74,000 species, of which
17,000 are unique to ABNJ
• 35,000 species live
exclusively at a depth
below 200m.
WWW.IOBIS.ORG

10. High-level goals of OBIS
Jointly with other IOC programmes:
"OBIS will strive to develop a global ocean
observing framework for monitoring the state of
marine biological species diversity, populations and
habitats, to assess risks and impacts on ecosystem
services and to underpin an ecosystem approach for
marine spatial planning and conservation policies for
the protection and sustainable management of the
ocean”
11

11. High-level goals of OBIS
"OBIS will provide the infrastructure and
knowledge base necessary to predict or early
detect emerging issues such as marine invasive
species, harmful algal blooms, shifts in abundance
and species distribution ranges, extinction risks of
species, regime shifts, and loss or degradation of
marine habitats"
12

12. High-level goals of OBIS
"OBIS will build the historical baseline, against
which future change can be measured. It will close
the data gap by growing in terms of geographic,
taxonomic and temporal coverage, as well as
expanding in capturing additional data types and
information"
13

13. OBIS contributes to TMT:
1. National and regional technical centres (OBIS
nodes)
2. Open Access to data and information
3. Standards and guidelines on best practices (Quality
Assurance)
4. National/regional reporting/modeling tools
5. Training in data management, data transfer and data
analysis, Regional training centres
Transfer of Marine Technology
IOC criteria and guidelines
16

14. 22 OBIS nodes
(national, regional and thematic)
1. Argentina
2. Australia
3. Belgium: EurOBIS, AntOBIS
4. Brazil
5. Canada
6. Chile: SE Pacific
7. China
8. Greece: MedOBIS
9. India
10. Japan
11. Korea
12. New Zealand: SW Pacific
13. Oman: (Persian Gulf)
14. Philippines: FishBase, (SEAOBIS)
15. South-Africa: AfrOBIS
16. Ukraine: BlackSea OBIS
17. USA: US-OBIS, SEAMAP, ArCOD, MicrOBIS, Hexacorals, SeaMountsOnline
18. Venezuela: (Caribbean OBIS)
(Regional nodes)
(Thematic nodes)
(Candidate nodes)
17

15. Species name (and classification)
Position (single point, bounding box, transect line)
Time
Abundance (individuals, biomass)
Depth
Cruise, sampling gear, environmental parameters, …
+ Metadata on dataset (who, what, where, when, how,
and citation)
Open-Access to data: what data?
18

16. Sample and observation data from
scientific cruises
(long-term) national monitoring
small-scale research projects
continuous observations (CPR)
scientific literature
museum collections
…
Open-Access to data: Data sources
19

17. Benefit Sharing: data repatriation
102293
23016
9349
102745
182042
266302
1106458
1327640
419965
2104304
8951
52498
0 0 0
2178
5375
310673
25848
18823
442862
743579
2573860
105964
35316
121300
10936
613595 806219 967159
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Belgium S-Korea Japan Brazil Argentina Australia Canada USA New
Zealand
S-Africa India China France Germany Norway
records not from nat. OBIS node
records from nat. OBIS node
20

18. Benefit Sharing: data repatriation
4551
1929
790
9248
1961
6554
8900 23415
5459
11151
7853
3072
0 0 0
21
762
8620
1976
2477
13336
4391 12787
4469
2490
2221
1281
8187 4480 7983
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Belgium S-Korea Japan Brazil Argentina Australia Canada USA New
Zealand
S-Africa India China France Germany Norway
taxa not from nat. OBIS node
taxa from nat. OBIS node
21

19. Catodon (Meganeuron) krefftii Gray, 1865 (synonym)
Catodon australis Wall, 1851 (synonym)
Catodon colneti Gray, 1850 (synonym)
Catodon macrocephalus Lacépède, 1804 (synonym)
Cetus cylindricus Billberg, 1828 (synonym)
Delphinus bayeri Risso, 1826 (synonym)
Phiseter cylindricus Bonnaterre, 1789 (synonym)
Phiseter mular Bonnaterre, 1789 (synonym)
Phiseter trumpo Bonnaterre, 1789 (synonym)
Physalus cylindricus Lacépède, 1804 (synonym)
Physeter andersonii Borowski, 1780 (synonym)
Physeter australasiensis Desmoulins, 1822 (synonym)
Physeter australis Gray, 1846 (synonym)
Physeter catodon Linnaeus, 1758 (synonym)
Physeter maximus G. Cuvier, 1798 (synonym)
Physeter microps Linnaeus, 1758 (synonym)
Physeter microps rectidentatus Kerr, 1792 (synonym)
Physeter novaeangliae Borowski, 1780 (synonym)
Physeter orthodon Lacépède, 1804 (synonym)
Physeter tursio Linnaeus, 1758 (synonym)
Physeterus sulcatus Lacépède, 1818 (synonym)
Tursio vulgaris Fleming, 1822 (synonym)
Physeter macrocephalus
Linnaeus, 1758
Standards and Best practices
Tools for taxonomic quality control
22

20. Tools for geographic quality control
Example dataset “Marine Turtles”:
sightings and strandings of marine turtles around the coast of UK and Ireland”
Outliers due to missing of minus sign. Corrections made after consultation data provider.
-Water/Land positions
- Outlier detection
23

21. Tools for quality control based on
environmental/habitat parameter ranges
Salinity range
Temperature range
Depth range
24

22. Information for national, regional and
global reporting
Increased Nr of reporting obligations for
Member States
• 2014: CBD 4th Global Biodiversity Outlook
• 2014: GEF Transboundary Water Assessment
• 2015: UN 1st World Ocean Assessment
• 2018: 1st IPBES assessment
25

23. >800 papers have cited OBIS
increment of 7 papers per month
26

24. Invasive species
Source: OBIS, 2013
Ensis directus (razor shell)
27

25. Migratory Species Tracking
OBIS-SEAMAP and OTN
Images
28

26. Species distribution modeling (aquamaps)
Flathead mullet (point data)
29

27. Species distribution modeling (aquamaps)
Flathead mullet (native range)
30

28. Species distribution modeling (aquamaps)
Flathead mullet (Year 2050 range)
31

29. Trends of pelagic North Sea
species
Regime shift
Herring recovered
after the fish ban
32

30. Trends in species’ Commonness

31. Trends in species’ Commonness
Albatros
top-ranked seabird
because of tagging

32. Trends in species’ Commonness
Fulmar
? Start or end of major surveys?
OR
Underlying trends?

33. Marine Genetic Resources
Phylum level summary
of the distribution of c.
11.7M DNA
sequences across
c. 190,000 marine
species (Source
Thomas
Webb, unpublished data)
36

34. Marine Genetic Resources
Number of GenBank
sequences plotted
against number of
records in OBIS for
approx. 80,000 species
common to both
databases (Source
Thomas
Webb, unpublished
data)
37
Some of the
uncommon
species have
many DNA
sequences
Some of the
common
species have
few DNA
sequences

35. Biological data for area based management
OBIS provides scientific and technical support the
development of MSP and other area-based management
tools.
38

36. Benguela
Upwelling
System
Areas identified to meet the EBSA criteria (May 2013, SCBD)
39
EBSA MAP REMOVED UPON REQUEST FROM CBD SECRETARIAT

37. 40

38. OBIS holds 1,000,000 species observations of
15,000 marine species in UNESCO’s 46
marine world heritage sites
41

39. Training in observations, data management
and analysis
42
OceanTeacher Academy is a cornerstone of the IODE

40. OceanTeacher in numbers
• 2009-2012:
• > 700 onsite trainees
• ~120 countries
• 8 courses/year
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Courses 2009-2013
0
50
100
150
200
250
2009 2010 2011 2012
180
155
203
177
IODE trainees
0
200
400
600
800
1000
2009 2010 2011 2012
663
953 908
736
Trainee person days
43

41. Next step: Regional Training Centres
44

42. International cooperation
IMOS
EMODNET
MarineGEO
CBMP
SAUPEOL
GBIF IUCN GOBI
FAO
IPBES
IODE
GOOS
GEO
GEO BON
GEO BON
NEON
LifeWatch
EBONE UNEP
CBD
WoRMS
SMEBD
Future Earth
SCOR
SCAR
MoL
OHI
ICSU
UNESCO
WCMC
OBIS
45

43. International cooperation
IMOS
EMODNET
MarineGEO
CBMP
SAUP
EOLGBIF
IUCN
GOBI
FAO
IPBES
IODE
GOOS
GEO
GEO BON
GEO BON
NEON
LifeWatch
EBONE
UNEP
CBD
WoRMS
SMEBD
Future Earth
SCOR
SCAR
MoL
OHI
ICSU
UNESCO WCMC
OBIS
• Through organization of meetings and scientific conferences and
data analysis workshops.
• Establish partnerships, cooperation agreements, participation in
boards and networking activities
46

44. GBIF recognizes OBIS as its marine
sister network
47

45. OBIS is recognized as a data core
component of GEOSS
48

46. 49

47. UN-Biodiversity in ABNJ
May 2013 workshop, technical experts
recognized OBIS as an appropriate
mechanism for data and information
sharing in Areas Beyond National
Jurisdiction
51

48. Potential OBIS role in BBNJ
Capacity Building
Guidelines, standards and best practices
Training in data collection, data management,
QC and data analysis
Data repatriation
National reporting tools
Support in development, hosting and
maintenance of database infrastructure
52

49. Potential OBIS role in BBNJ
One central global open access data portal,
unlocking access to samples and data for
Selection of marine sites to be protected
Environmental Impact Studies
Scientific advancement (e.g. determine the
geographical origin of Marine Genetic
Resources)
Monitoring of changes to the ecosystem (incl.
setting baselines)
53

50. OBIS is unique because
It is truly global (in terms of data and network),
It is part of UN through IOC-UNESCO,
recognized by UNCLOS for Marine Science
and Transfer of Marine Technology and;
OBIS holds data from non commercial, non-
target fishing species, which allows an holistic
(ecosystem) approach to measure impacts of
activities in ABNJ.
54

51. One Planet – One Ocean
THANK YOU