Managing and distributing marine biodiversity data to meet the needs of marine conservation Steve Wilkinson, Jon Davies & David Connor Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Key drivers (for marine biodiversity data)  EC Habitats Directive  Assessing Favourable conservation status  EC Water Framework Directive  Assessing Ecological status  OSPAR Annex V  Ecological Quality Objectives (EcoQOs)  Priority habitats and species  EC Göteborg Target  biodiversity decline should be halted… by 2010

 MESH: Interreg NWE sea areas OSPAR area

Marine management questions  What is the distribution of seagrass beds around the UK?  Has the state of marine biodiversity changed in the Irish Sea over the past 50 years?  How will biodiversity change over the next 10 years?  What are the main pressures driving biodiversity change?  Where and how should we be concentrating our management effort?

The problem  The British Isles are rich in biodiversity records  BUT:  Owned by a large number of providers with a range of technical skills  Some sources are managed others are not  Wide range of formats (written and electronic)  Need to rapidly pull these together to assist with analyses

National Biodiversity Network  Set out with the goal of making biodiversity data readily available  Over the last ten years has developed guidance, standards and tools to help with this goal  In particular has developed a data portal – the NBN Gateway – to facilitate data exchange

NBN Gateway  Centralised data cache  Very simple format for data supply

NBN Gateway  Centralised data cache  Very simple format for data supply

What is a schema? Mytilus edulis NL100245

Pros and cons of schemas Pros:  There are a lot of tools around to validate and use data provided as a schema BUT:  For less technical users creating, understanding and using them is more difficult  It gets very bulky

NBN Gateway  Centralised data cache  Very simple format for data supply  Multi-user: research / conservation / general interest  Some reporting to encourage data provision and assist with identifying relevant data sources

NBN Gateway  Centralised data cache  Very simple format for data supply  Multi-user: research / conservation / general interest  Some reporting to encourage data provision and assist with identifying relevant data sources

NBN Gateway  Centralised data cache  Very simple format for data supply  Multi-user : research / conservation / general interest  Some reporting to encourage data provision and assist with identifying relevant data sources  Clear acknowledgement of data sources  Controlled data access

NBN Gateway  Centralised data cache  Very simple format for data supply  Multi-user : research / conservation / general interest  Some reporting to encourage data provision and assist with identifying relevant data sources  Clear acknowledgement of data sources  Controlled data access

NBN Gateway  Centralised data cache  Very simple format for data supply  Multi-user : research / conservation / general interest  Some reporting to encourage data provision and assist with identifying relevant data sources  Clear acknowledgement of data sources  Controlled data access  Small number of standard attributes  Ability to download data for further analysis

NBN Gateway  Centralised data cache  Very simple format for data supply  Multi-user : research / conservation / general interest  Some reporting to encourage data provision and assist with identifying relevant data sources  Clear acknowledgement of data sources  Controlled data access  Small number of standard attributes  Download data for further analysis

Solution for marine data  Adopted the NBN solution rather than developing a new one  Development is expensive:  Prototype (1 year) Euro  Concept (2 years) Euro  Production (2 years) Euro  There are also running costs  Euro per year  Adapting the solution is relatively cheap

Has it worked? There are approximately  For all species groups:  NBN has 17 million records from 115 sources  GBIF has 44 million from 93 sources  For marine records:  NBN has 1.4 million records from 15 sources  OBIS has 5.6 million from 38 sources  Currently the NBN holding is increasing by about half a million records a month

Kilometers. No. sample stations Marine data reporting Data are summarised to a 10 km by 10 km grid

Linking to larger networks  Our system is now one of the contributing providers to the GBIF network  Acting on behalf of smaller providers helping them make their data more widely available  Want to use these networks to access data at larger geographic scales  Real test will be – can we get enough data available through these networks to help with our broader scale analyses

The way forward  Need to feed marine biodiversity data into user’s own systems:  NBN provides dynamic query/download of data to ArcGIS allowing spatial functions  Increased data availability will encourage the development of new reporting tools, potentially with a faster/shorter update period  Move towards annual reporting  Habitats

MESH: Development of a framework for Mapping European Seabed Habitats Co-funded by EC INTERREG IIIB Major goals:  collate and harmonise existing marine habitat maps in north-west Europe  provide standards and protocols for habitat mapping studies  develop predictive mapping tools  build a framework for future mapping programmes

Harmonise existing maps  Collate existing data into a GIS to develop first unified seabed map for north-west Europe  Develop standard data exchange format/procedure  Metadata catalogue of mapping studies  Correlate existing maps to standard classification schemes  Internet delivery – promote wider use of data

Summary  Biggest problem was getting critical volume of data  Simple import format  Good interface  Controlled access  Starting to move into other data exchange problems