Global Ocean Conservation Priorities – Biodiversity Protection

Numerical ranking of the global ocean to prioritize conservation actions aimed at biodiversity protection. The conservation action being prioritized is highly protected Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Most important pixels are ranked higher (1) and least important pixels are ranked lower (0). Pixels ranked between 0.95-1, correspond to the most important 5% of the ocean. Pixels ranked between 0.9-1, correspond to the most important 10% of the ocean, and so on. Existing highly protected MPAs represent the starting condition of the analyses and are placed at the top of the ranking. Variable mapped: Global priority ranking for biodiversity conservation Data Projection: Mollweide Equal Area Mosaic Projection: Mollweide Equal Area Extent: Global Cell Size: 50km Source Type: Thematic Source: National Geographic Society Publication: Sala, Enric, Juan Mayorga, Darcy Bradley, Reniel B. Cabral, Trisha B. Atwood, Arnaud Auber, William Cheung, et al. “Protecting the Global Ocean for Biodiversity, Food and Climate.” Nature, March 17, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03371-z. We define the biodiversity benefit of a given set of MPAs as the weighted sum of the marginal gain in persistence of specific biodiversity features resulting from the removal of abatable impacts relative to business as usual. Included biodiversity features are: 1. Species – We use habitat suitability maps for 4242 species that are indirectly or directly impacted by threats that can be abated with MPAs (i.e., habitat destruction, fishing). Not every species is weighted equally, their relative importance in a function of: a. Extinction risk b. Evolutionary distinctiveness c. Functional distinctiveness 2. Biogeographic provinces – We used the spatial delineations of the pelagic (n = 37), coastal (n = 62), bathyal (n = 14), and abyssal (n = 14) provinces of the ocean as individual biodiversity features to ensure representation of different facets of biodiversity throughout the world’s ocean. 3. Seamounts – We included the density of seamounts as they are known aggregators of pelagic biodiversity and an important habitat for deep-sea species which are underrepresented in global species distribution datasets. Because the model maximizes the benefits of protection relative to a business-as-usual counterfactual, the distribution and intensity of existing human impacts – classified into abatable and non-abatable by MPAs – is an important determinant of the priority ranking.本数据集用于生成全球海洋的数值排名，以优先排序旨在保护生物多样性的海洋保护行动，本次优先推进的保护行动类型为高标准保护海洋保护区（Marine Protected Areas, MPAs）。其中，像素值越高（趋近1）代表对应海洋区域的重要性越强，像素值越低（趋近0）则代表区域重要性越弱。像素值处于0.95至1区间的区域，对应全球海洋中最重要的5%；像素值处于0.9至1区间的区域，对应全球海洋中最重要的10%，以此类推。现有高标准保护海洋保护区作为本次分析的初始基准条件，其对应的像素排名位列最前列。 本次映射的变量为：全球生物多样性保护优先级排名。 数据投影：摩尔威德等面积投影（Mollweide Equal Area Projection） 数据覆盖范围：全球 格网单元尺寸：50千米 数据类型：专题数据（Thematic） 数据来源：国家地理学会（National Geographic Society） 发表文献：Sala, Enric, Juan Mayorga, Darcy Bradley, Reniel B. Cabral, Trisha B. Atwood, Arnaud Auber, William Cheung, et al. "Protecting the Global Ocean for Biodiversity, Food and Climate." *Nature*, March 17, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03371-z. 我们将某一给定海洋保护区集合的生物多样性收益定义为：相较于常规发展情景，移除可通过海洋保护区缓解的人类威胁后，特定生物多样性特征的存续边际增益的加权总和。本次纳入的生物多样性特征包括： 1. 物种：我们采用了4242个受可通过海洋保护区缓解的威胁（即生境破坏、捕捞活动）直接或间接影响的物种的生境适宜性地图。不同物种的权重并非均等，其相对重要性由以下三项因素决定： a. 灭绝风险 b. 进化独特性 c. 功能独特性 2. 生物地理分区：我们采用了海洋中远洋区（样本量n=37）、近岸区（n=62）、半深海区（n=14）及深渊区（n=14）的空间划界作为独立的生物多样性特征，以确保全球海洋中生物多样性的不同维度均得到充分表征。 3. 海山：我们纳入了海山密度数据，因为海山是远洋生物多样性的重要聚集区，同时也是深海物种的关键栖息地，而深海物种在全球物种分布数据集中的代表性严重不足。 由于本模型旨在最大化相较于常规发展情景的保护收益，现有人类影响的分布与强度（可分为可通过海洋保护区缓解与不可缓解两类）是决定优先级排名的核心影响因素。