News
Saara Suominen joined the OBIS secretariat
OBIS science officer secretariat
We welcome Ms Saara Suominen (Finland) at the OBIS secretariat. She will support us in setting up a monitoring plan for early detection of invasive species, utilizing eDNA analysis, as part of the PacMAN Project (Pacific Islands Marine Bioinvasions Alert Network), funded by the Government of Flanders, as well as providing helpdesk support to OBIS nodes and users.
OBIS and Global Biodiversity Information Facility update and expand cooperation agreement
GBIF Partnerships
Renewal of partnership with GBIF targets improved data exchange, better network coordination and shared guidance on publishing marine biodiversity data
Meeting report of the 3rd OBIS Executive Committee is now online
EC-OBIS work plan
The third session of the OBIS Executive Committee (OBIS-EC) was held between 23-25 June 2020 as an online meeting. The meeting report is now online and provides an overview of the status of the OBIS 2020 workplan.
VACANCY
OBIS Communications Consultant (3 months)
OBIS Communications Consultant (3 months)
(CLOSED) Vacancy - OBIS Communications Consultant (3-months)
Vacancy Communications
OBIS is hiring a consultant (three months) to develop a number of visuals to illustrate the OBIS network, activities and key value propositions. The vacancy is open until 5 July 2020.
VACANCY
Science Officer Genetic Data (OBIS)
Science Officer Genetic Data (OBIS)
(CLOSED) Vacancy - Science Officer Genetic Data (OBIS)
Vacancy Genetic Data
The Flanders Marine Institute is recruiting a Science officer - genetic data, for secondment to OBIS. This is a short-term (initially one year) full-time contract. Duty Station is Oostende (Belgium). Deadline 30 June 2020.
OBIS celebrates 20 years and changes name to Ocean Biodiversity Information System
OBIS 20 years new name
On 26 May 2000, the Census of Marine Life issued a press release to launch the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS). 20 years later, OBIS continues to grow and innovate under IOC/IODE, both in terms of number of records, in data quality as well as in the variety of data types and technologies. OBIS remains to be place to find accurate information on marine biodiversity. The 20th anniversary also marks the change to a new name, the Ocean Biodiversity Information System.
Recently published datasets
Use cases
Occupancy‐derived thermal affinities reflect known physiological thermal limits of marine species
climate physiology biogeography
In this study we used the robis package to extract 2,176,906 OBIS occurrence records for 533 marine species from 24 taxonomic classes for which we had access to experimentally derived thermal limits. By linking these occurrence records to global sea surface and sea bottom temperature, we compared the temperatures at which species actually live to their thermal limits.
(free e-book) Biogeographic Atlas of the Deep NW Pacific Fauna
NW Pacific deep-sea benthos
The Biogeographic Atlas of the Deep NW Pacific Fauna’ has been published by Pensoft as an open-access e-book, after a three-year intense collaboration of more than 40 deep-sea experts around the word. This book is designed as a guide, synthesis, and review of the current knowledge of the benthic fauna that is distributed in the bathyal and abyssal zones (below 2,000 m) of the NW Pacific. All the data (old and new) used are available in OBIS.
Some fish go deeper to cool off in warming seas
community temperature index climate change
A study published in the journal Nature Climate Change using OBIS data showed how fish, demersal and planktonic communities changed as warm-water species increase and cold-water marine species become less successful due to climate warming.
The great dying at the end of the Permian linked to ocean warming and oxygen loss
Biogeography extinction climate change
A study published in Science using historical data of ocean warming and oxygen loss, combined with species traits and occurrence data from OBIS revealed patterns of habitat loss and extinction at the end of the Permian period.
Microscopic “body-snatchers” and “planktonic-greenhouses” are ubiquitous with contrasting biogeographies and abundance in our oceans
Biogeography mixotrophs plankton
A study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B using data from OBIS investigated for the first time the biogeography of mixotrophs, planktonic species which acquire phototrophic capability from their prey. The study shows that “body-snatchers”, (e.g., ciliates, which can steal plastids from their prey) dominate high-biomass areas such as coastal seas while the “planktonic-greenhouses” (e.g., Rhizaria, which enslave entire populations of their prey as endosymbionts) are particularly dominant in oligotrophic open seas. The findings from this study significantly changes the understanding of the functioning of the marine food web and hence the trophodynamics and the biogeochemical cycles in the oceans.
Coastal benthic biogeographic regions are stable across the millennia
Biogeography fossil data
A new study published in Global Ecology and Biogeography, using recent occurrence data from the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) and fossil data from the Paleobiology Database, showed that modern and the near past global ecosystem feature highly similar biogeographic structures, which is remarkable given the known climatic variations of the past ten million years.
