Modelled Spatial Distributions of Mäerl Habitats
This dataset shows modelled spatial distributions of mäerl beds across the Mediterranean Sea. These bioconstructions are typical Mediterranean underwater seascapes, comprising coralline algal frameworks that grow in dim light conditions. They are the result of the building activities of algal and animal constructors, counterbalanced by physical, as well as biological, eroding processes. Because of their extent, biodiversity and production, mäerl habitats rank among the most important ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea, and they are considered of great significance both for fisheries and carbon regulation.
Simple
- Date (Publication)
- 2014-11-11T20:34:00
- Presentation form
- Digital model
- Purpose
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Fine-scale knowledge on the distribution of sensitive habitats such as mäerl beds is crucial for their effective management and conservation. Based on known occurrences of these habitats and a set of environmental predictors, modelling was carried out to produce the first continuous maps of these habitats across the entire basin. The predictive maps can be fed into the development of basin-wide conservation plans (e.g. for establishing networks of marine protected areas) or other forms of marine spatial planning, and also in policy development.
- Status
- Completed
- Point of contact
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Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre
Corinne Martin
corinne.martin@unep-wcmc.org
Owner
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Not planned
- Theme
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bioconstruction
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mäerl
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maerl
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Marine habitat mapping
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GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
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Habitats and biotopes
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- Use limitation
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Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)
- Use limitation
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Viewable and downloadable
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
- Spatial representation type
- Grid
- Denominator
- 200000
- Language
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eng
- Character set
- UTF8
- Topic category
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- Environment
- Begin date
- 2014-05-27T20:39:00
- End date
- 2014-05-27T20:40:00
Vertical extent
- Minimum value
- 1
- Maximum value
- 0
- Supplemental Information
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Martin CS, Giannoulaki M, De Leo F, Scardi M, Salomidi M, Knitweiss L, Pace ML, Garofalo G, Gristina M, Ballesteros E, Bavestrello G, Belluscio A, Cebrian E, Gerakaris V, Pergent G., Pergent-Martini C, Schembri PJ, Terribile K, Rizzo L, Ben Souissi J, Bonacorsi M, Guarnieri G, Krzelj M, Macic V, Punzo E, Valavanis V, Fraschetti S (2014) Coralligenous and maerl habitats: predictive modelling to identify their spatial distributions across the Mediterranean Sea. Scientific Reports 4: 5073. URL: http://www.nature.com/srep/2014/140527/srep05073/full/srep05073.html
Other cited reference(s):
Giannoulaki M, Belluscio A, Colloca F, Fraschetti S, Scardi M, Smith C, Panayotidis P, Valavanis V, Spedicato MT (Eds.) (2013). Mediterranean Sensitive Habitats (MEDISEH), final project report. DG MARE Specific Contract SI2.600741. Heraklion (Greece): Hellenic Centre for Marine Research. 557 p. URL: mareaproject.net/download/71/
The maps show the predicted occurrence probabilities for coralligenous outcrops and mäerl beds: values 0 and 10 correspond to the lowest (blue colour) and highest (red colour) occurrence probabilities, respectively. Hence, the maps provide information about where the habitats are most likely to occur.
Projection used: World Cylindrical Equal Area with datum WGS 1984.
The work was financed by the Commission of the European Union (Directorate General for Maritime Affairs, DG MARE) through the ÔÇ£Mediterranean Sensitive HabitatsÔÇØ (MEDISEH) project, within the MAREA framework (service contract SI2.600741). Some of the work was also financed through the projects Coconet (FP7, Grant agreement no: 287844) and the projects Prin 2010ÔÇô2011 (MIUR) and RITMARE (MIUR). The authors would also like to express their gratitude to those who kindly shared their occurrence data on coralligenous outcrops and m├ñerl beds, and without whose inputs this work would not have been possible (see Task 1.2 in Giannoulaki et al. 2013).
Geo-referenced occurrence records for coralligenous outcrops and mäerl beds across the Mediterranean basin were compiled as part of two international research projects (Mediseh and CoCoNET). Based on these occurrences and a starting set of 12 environmental variables, maximum entropy (Maxent) was used to model and predict occurrence probabilities. Please refer to Martin et al. (2014) for full details.
Earlier versions of the models were presented in Task 1.3 of Giannoulaki et al. (2013). The predictive maps published in Martin et al. (2014) are based on a more extensive occurrence dataset and more finely-tuned models.
Due to data limitations on species lists across the various component datasets, coralligenous outcrops and mäerl beds were each modelled as a whole, instead of modelling multispecific assemblages with distinct habitat preferences.
Spatial management measures for fisheries that are aimed at protecting coralligenous outcrops and mäerl beds should not be based solely on the model outputs presented here; targeted groundtruthing should be carried out so that informed decisions are taken.
- Reference system identifier
- WGS 1984
- OnLine resource
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Protocol Linkage Name WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep05073 MEDISEH modelling report
- OnLine resource
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Protocol Linkage Name WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download
https://ows.emodnet-seabedhabitats.eu/geoserver/emodnet_open_maplibrary/wcs?SERVICE=WCS&VERSION=2.0.0&REQUEST=GetCoverage&coverageId=emodnet_open_maplibrary:mediseh_maerl
Conformance result
- Date (Publication)
- Pass
Metadata
- File identifier
- 43c7ac30-04da-479d-b5c1-ba621f0981e4 XML
- Metadata language
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eng
- Character set
- UTF8
- Date stamp
- 2022-02-01T16:14:17
- Metadata standard name
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ISO 19115:2003/19139
- Metadata standard version
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1.0
- Metadata author
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Organisation name Individual name Electronic mail address Role UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre
Corinne Martin
corinne.martin@unep-wcmc.org
Point of contact