Aquatic Environment and Biodiversity Annual Review 2012

11. Biodiversity
AEBAR 2012: Marine biodiversity
Scope of chapter Provide an overview of the MPI Biodiversity Programme and address:
National and global context of NZ marine biodiversity research; Research
findings and progress of the MPI Biodiversity Research Programme from
2000–2012; including one-off whole-of-government research initiatives
administered under this programme (e.g. Ocean Survey 20/20 Biodiversity
and Fisheries projects; International Polar Year Census of Antarctic Marine
life project 2007)
Geographic area New Zealand Territorial Seas, EEZ and Continental shelf extension
(BioInfo); South-west Pacific Region associated with South Pacific Regional
Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO);Antarctic Ross Sea region
(BioRoss)
Focal issues New Zealand waters have globally significant levels of marine biodiversity,
and productivity particularly coastal habitats, offshore island habitats and
underwater topographical features such as seamounts, and canyons. With the
exception of shallow sea ice impacted coastal habitats, these features apply
also to the Ross Sea region. Adjacent international waters in the SPRFMO
area contain areas likely to constitute Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems
Key progress
2011-12
(VMEs),
• Predictive habitat modelling has identified potential areas of VMEs in
SPRFMO areas
• Significant progress has been made on mapping deepsea fisheries
habitat at risk from ocean acidification; research on shellfish has
identified thermal stress and ocean acidification as two areas of concern
for New Zealand in an increasing CO2 world.
• Progress has been made towards developing a national Marine
Environmental Monitoring Programme
• A major project on changes in marine shelf systems over the past 1000
years has almost reached completion.
• IPY and Chatham Challenger completed with many outputs and
leveraging opportunities
Emerging issues • The combined effects of multiple stressors arising from climate change
and a range of otheranthropogenic activities on biodiversity and marine
ecosystems (structure and function) are likely to be large and complex.
• Keen interest in the development of ecosystem approaches to marine
resource management is developing.
• The nature and functional role of marine microbial biodiversity in large
scale biogeochemical and ecosystem processes are important but not
well understood.
• Genetic and life-history stage connectivity between and within large
scale habitats may be important to the size and placement of protection
zones.
• Apart from fisheries data, long-term (eg decadal to millenia)
observations of variability and change in the marine environment
(including biodiversity) are not yet generally available at geographic
scales appropriate for national reporting .
• Metrics for assessing the effectiveness of current protection measures in
safeguarding marine biodiversity and aquatic ecosystem health in NZ
and Ross Sea region are inadequate.
• Economic value of ecosystem goods and services provided by marine
biodiversity to current and future generations are not addressed in
extractive business models.
• Marine biodiversity and its monitoring, loss reduction and enhancement
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