A global biogeographic classification of the mesopelagic zone
By T. T. Suttona, Malcolm R. Clarkb, Daniel C. Dunnc, Patrick N. Halpinc, Alex D. Rogersd, John Guinottee, Steven J. Bogradf, Martin V. Angelg, Jose Angel A. Perezh, Karen Wishneri and 12 more. 2017
278 citations recorded by the source corpus.
We have developed a global biogeographic classification of the mesopelagic zone to reflect the regional scales over which the ocean interior varies in terms of biodiversity and function. An integrated approach was necessary, as global gaps in information and variable sampling methods preclude strictly statistical approaches. A panel combining expertise in oceanography, geospatial mapping, and deep-sea biology convened to collate expert opinion on the distributional patterns of pelagic fauna relative to environmental proxies (temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen at mesopelagic depths). An iterative Delphi Method integrating additional biological and physical data was used to classify biogeographic ecoregions and to identify the location of ecoregion boundaries or inter-regions gradients. We define 33 global mesopelagic ecoregions. Of these, 20 are oceanic while 13 are ‘distant neritic.’ While each is driven by a complex of controlling factors, the putative primary driver of each ecoregion was identified. While work remains to be done to produce a comprehensive and robust mesopelagic biogeography (i.e., reflecting temporal variation), we believe that the classification set forth in this study will prove to be a useful and timely input to policy planning and management for conservation of deep-pelagic marine resources. In particular, it gives an indication of the spatial scale at which faunal communities are expected to be broadly similar in composition, and hence can inform application of ecosystem-based management approaches, marine spatial planning and the distribution and spacing of networks of representative protected areas.
Subfields: Global and Planetary Change, Oceanography
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/35f7acf242a03cbc47dee81730cfb6da3eaeba4b
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In Global and Planetary Change
- Henrique M. Pereira
- Emmanuel S. Boss
- Yunne-Jai Shin
- J. Emmett Duffy
- Raphael M. Kudela
- Sabrina Speich
- Michael J. Follows
- N. Bax
In Oceanography
- L. Karp‐Boss
- Fabrice Not
- Emmanuel S. Boss
- Henrique M. Pereira
- J. Emmett Duffy
- Raphael M. Kudela
- Shinichi Sunagawa
- Sabrina Speich
Citations in the corpus
- Advancing Marine Biological Observations and Data Requirements of the Complementary Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) and Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) Frameworks (2018, background): “Evaluating the density of OBIS records as a function of bottom depth and vertical sampling depth reveals major gaps in the mesopelagic (Sutton et al., 2017; Muller-Karger et al., 2018) and deep ocean zones (Webb et al.”
- Marine DNA viral macro- and micro-diversity from pole to pole (2019, background): “, 1995; Longhurst, 2007), and from mesopelagic ecoregions and biogeochemical provinces based on biogeography and environmental climatology, respectively (Sutton et al., 2017; Reygondeau et al., 2018).”
- Quantifying carbon fluxes from primary production to mesopelagic fish using a simple food web model (2019, background): “Recent studies of mesopelagic biogeography have defined as many as 33 biomes throughout the ocean (Proud et al., 2017; Sutton et al., 2017).”