Johnathan Kool

The Southern Ocean is central to global ocean mixing and climate regulation via its disproportionate uptake of human-induced heat and carbon dioxide, yet the underlying processes are still poorly understood. Coordinated and sustained effort in observation and modelling of Southern Ocean processes in the past, present and future is therefore critical for understanding and mitigating the changes underway. Free and equitable access to Southern Ocean data is a fundamental prerequisite to meeting this objective. Here, we present a tool for discovery of, and access to, existing Southern Ocean data—SOOSmap, Version 2 (soosmap.aq). SOOSmap is a gateway to physical, biogeochemical and biological open-access data, free for anyone to use, from ocean science experts to classroom students. SOOSmap was developed in a collaboration of the Southern Ocean Observing System and the European Marine Observations and Data Network Physics project, with the aim to provide an easy to use one-stop-shop for Southern Ocean data held in repositories around the world. In this article, we illustrate the different methods of data access within SOOSmap, describe SOOSmap in the context of other polar data resources and initiatives, demonstrate how SOOSmap can be put into practice by a variety of stakeholders, and instruct users on how they can get involved in the SOOS community and contribute new data to SOOSmap, which is fundamental for this tool to continue to be useful for informing policy and decision-making about changes occurring in the Southern Ocean.

Invasive alien species are a major driver of global biodiversity loss. Constrained conservation budgets demand that threat abatement strategies take into account the heterogeneity of areas in need of protection, such as significant ecological and cultural sites, as well as the competing values, preferences, and objectives of stakeholders. We used strategic foresight to assess the threat that invasive alien grasses pose to environmental and Indigenous cultural values on the floodplains of a comanaged, World Heritage‐inscribed national park. We found strategic foresight to be a useful framework to set management priorities that simultaneously conserve biological and cultural diversity. However, it required the development and application of novel ecological and participatory tools and significant time, financial, and human resources. This was the first study to apply strategic foresight to weed management planning in a realistic, culturally complex setting and our work provides an exemplar for the application of the strategic foresight framework and our tools to other contexts.

Remote populations can influence connectivity and may serve as refugia from climate change. Here, we investigated two reef-building corals ( Pseudodiploria strigosa and Orbicella franksi ) from the Flower Garden Banks (FGB) – the most isolated, high-latitude Caribbean reef system that retains high coral cover. We characterized coral size frequency distributions, quantified larval mortality rates and onset of competence, estimated larval production, and created detailed biophysical models incorporating these parameters to evaluate source-sink dynamics from 2009 to 2012. Mortality rates were similar across species but competency differed dramatically: P. strigosa was capable of metamorphosis within 2.5 days post fertilization (dpf), while O. franksi were not competent until >20dpf and remained competent up to 120dpf Despite these differences, models demonstrated that larvae of both types were similarly successful in reseeding the FGB. Nevertheless, corals with shorter pelagic larval durations (PLD), such as P. strigosa , were highly isolated from the rest of the Caribbean, while long PLD corals, such as O. franksi , could export larvae to distant northern Caribbean reefs. These results suggest that FGB coral populations are self-sustaining and highlight the potential of long PLD corals, such as endangered Orbicella , to act as larval sources for other degraded Caribbean reefs.

Marine reserves are becoming progressively more important as anthropogenic impacts continue to increase, but we have little baseline information for most marine environments. In this study, we focus on the Oceanic Shoals Commonwealth Marine Reserve (CMR) in northern Australia, particularly the carbonate banks and terraces of the Sahul Shelf and Van Diemen Rise which have been designated a Key Ecological Feature (KEF). We use a species-level inventory compiled from three marine surveys to the CMR to address several questions relevant to marine management: 1) Are carbonate banks and other raised geomorphic features associated with biodiversity hotspots? 2) Can environmental (depth, substrate hardness, slope) or biogeographic (east vs west) variables help explain local and regional differences in community structure? 3) Do sponge communities differ among individual raised geomorphic features? Approximately 750 sponge specimens were collected in the Oceanic Shoals CMR and assigned to 348 species, of which only 18% included taxonomically described species. Between eastern and western areas of the CMR, there was no difference between sponge species richness or assemblages on raised geomorphic features. Among individual raised geomorphic features, sponge assemblages were significantly different, but species richness was not. Species richness showed no linear relationships with measured environmental factors, but sponge assemblages were weakly associated with several environmental variables including mean depth and mean backscatter (east and west) and mean slope (east only). These patterns of sponge diversity are applied to support the future management and monitoring of this region, particularly noting the importance of spatial scale in biodiversity assessments and associated management strategies.

The recently declared Australian Commonwealth Marine Reserve (CMR) Network covers a total of 3.1 million km² of continental shelf, slope, and abyssal habitat. Managing and conserving the biodiversity values within this network requires knowledge of the physical and biological assets that lie within its boundaries. Unfortunately very little is known about the habitats and biological assemblages of the continental shelf within the network, where diversity is richest and anthropogenic pressures are greatest. Effective management of the CMR estate into the future requires this knowledge gap to be filled efficiently and quantitatively. The challenge is particularly great for the shelf as multibeam echosounder (MBES) mapping, a key tool for identifying and quantifying habitat distribution, is time consuming in shallow depths, so full coverage mapping of the CMR shelf assets is unrealistic in the medium-term. Here we report on the results of a study undertaken in the Flinders Commonwealth Marine Reserve (southeast Australia) designed to test the benefits of two approaches to characterising shelf habitats: (i) MBES mapping of a continuous (~30 km²) area selected on the basis of its potential to include a range of seabed habitats that are potentially representative of the wider area, versus; (ii) a novel approach that uses targeted mapping of a greater number of smaller, but spatially balanced, locations using a Generalized Random Tessellation Stratified sample design. We present the first quantitative estimates of habitat type and sessile biological communities on the shelf of the Flinders reserve, the former based on three MBES analysis techniques. We contrast the quality of information that both survey approaches offer in combination with the three MBES analysis methods. The GRTS approach enables design based estimates of habitat types and sessile communities and also identifies potential biodiversity hotspots in the northwest corner of the reserve’s IUCN zone IV, and in locations close to shelf incising canyon heads. Design based estimates of habitats, however, vary substantially depending on the MBES analysis technique, highlighting the challenging nature of the reserve’s low profile reefs, and improvements that are needed when acquiring MBES data for small GRTS locations. We conclude that the two survey approaches are complementary and both have their place in a successful and flexible monitoring strategy; the emphasis on one method over the other should be considered on a case by case basis, taking into account the survey objectives and limitations imposed by the type of vessel, time available, size and location of the region where knowledge is required.