Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ)
When most people try to visualize the “Sea” they envisage large marine expanses, and their underwater ecosystems. Until recently, the Sea Around Us project (SAUP) was way offshore, too. Yet, the sea also includes the coast – where the land meets the sea and where one finds some of the world’s most productive marine areas such as reefs, mangroves and seagrass beds. Coastal areas are of great importance to fisheries, not to mention tourism, aquaculture, transportation and gas and oil.
This dataset shows the global distribution of seagrasses, and is composed of two subsets of point and polygon occurrence data. The data were compiled by UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre in collaboration with many collaborators (e.g.
For the first time, a composite map of the world’s ecosystem assets has been produced, covering both marine and terrestrial realms. In this report for the UNEP Division of Early Warning and Assessment, UNEP-WCMC has combined information about key ecosystem assets into global maps. The assets included are freshwater resources, soil quality, organic carbon, terrestrial and marine biodiversity, and global fish catch (as a proxy for marine fish stocks).
Bioconstructions such as coralligenous outcrops and maërl beds are typical Mediterranean underwater seascapes. Fine-scale knowledge on the distribution of these sensitive habitats is crucial for their effective management and conservation. In the present study, a thorough review of existing spatial datasets showing the distribution of coralligenous and maërl habitats across the Mediterranean Sea was undertaken, highlighting current gaps in knowledge.
Knowing less about the deep sea habitats than the surface of the moon Most scientifi c studies have focused on easily accessible coastal waters and surface ocean. Only a small percentage of the deep seafl oor has been subject to biological investigation. Revealing the natural beauty and ecological value of deep sea habitats With the technological advances of the past few decades, much has been added to our knowledge of deep sea habitats, and people have begun to realize the value and importance of this large and remote habitat to life on Earth.
This dataset shows mean global sea surface Net Primary Productivity (NPP) values for the month of June, averaged for the period from 2003 to 2007.