A Review of Surrogates for Marine Benthic Biodiversity

A growing need to manage marine biodiversity sustainably at local, regional and global scales cannot be met by applying the limited existing biological data. Abiotic surrogates of biodiversity are thus increasingly valuable in filling the gaps in our knowledge of biodiversity patterns, especially identification of 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 use of abiotic variables as surrogates for patterns in benthic assemblages with particular regard to how variables are tied to processes affecting biodiversity and how easily those variables can be measured at scales relevant to resource management decisions.