An Overview of Marine Biodiversity in United States Waters
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Issue Date
2010-08-02Author
Fautin, Daphne G.
Dalton, Penelope
Incze, Lewis S.
Leong, Jo-Ann C.
Pautzke, Clarence
Rosenberg, Andrew
Sandifer, Paul A.
Sedberry, George R.
Tunnell, John W., Jr.
Abbott, Isabella
Brainard, Russell E.
Broduer, Melissa
Eldredge, Lucius G.
Feldman, Michael
Moretzsohn, Fabio
Vroom, Peter S.
Wainstein, Michelle
Wolf, Nicholas
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Type
Article
Article Version
Scholarly/refereed, publisher version
Rights
© 2010 Fautin et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
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Show full item recordAbstract
Marine biodiversity of the United States (U.S.) is extensively documented, but data assembled by the United States National Committee for the Census of Marine Life demonstrate that even the most complete taxonomic inventories are based on records scattered in space and time. The best-known taxa are those of commercial importance. Body size is directly correlated with knowledge of a species, and knowledge also diminishes with distance from shore and depth. Measures of biodiversity other than species diversity, such as ecosystem and genetic diversity, are poorly documented. Threats to marine biodiversity in the U.S. are the same as those for most of the world: overexploitation of living resources; reduced water quality; coastal development; shipping; invasive species; rising temperature and concentrations of carbon dioxide in the surface ocean, and other changes that may be consequences of global change, including shifting currents; increased number and size of hypoxic or anoxic areas; and increased number and duration of harmful algal blooms. More information must be obtained through field and laboratory research and monitoring that involve innovative sampling techniques (such as genetics and acoustics), but data that already exist must be made accessible. And all data must have a temporal component so trends can be identified. As data are compiled, techniques must be developed to make certain that scales are compatible, to combine and reconcile data collected for various purposes with disparate gear, and to automate taxonomic changes. Information on biotic and abiotic elements of the environment must be interactively linked. Impediments to assembling existing data and collecting new data on marine biodiversity include logistical problems as well as shortages in finances and taxonomic expertise.
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Citation
Fautin, D., Dalton, P., Incze, L. S., Leong, J.-A. C., Pautzke, C., Rosenberg, A., … Wolff, N. (2010). An Overview of Marine Biodiversity in United States Waters. PLoS ONE, 5(8). http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0011914
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as: © 2010 Fautin et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited