On the Use of Abiotic Surrogates to Describe Marine Benthic Biodiversity

A growing need to manage marine biodiversity at local, regional and global scales cannot be met by applying the limited existing biological data sets. Abiotic surrogacy is increasingly valuable in filling the gaps in our knowledge of biodiversity hotspots, habitats needed by endangered or commercially valuable species and systems or processes important to the sustained provision of ecosystem services.This review examines the utility of abiotic surrogates across spatial scales with particular regard to how abiotic variables are tied to processes which affect biodiversity and how easily those variables can be measured at scales relevant to resource management decisions.