News
This is your chance to become Co-Chair of the OBIS Data Coordination Group!
actionable data community Data Coordination Group
We are seeking a Co-Chair for the OBIS Data Coordination Group (DCG), a vital leadership role at the heart of global marine data management. Apply by 23.3.2025 23:59 CET!
Breaking barriers in ocean science - A conversation with Martha Patricia Vides Casado
International Women's Day community capacity development Gender balance
To celebrate the International Women's Day, we had the privilege of interviewing Martha Patricia Vides Casado, Head of the Research Line at the Programa de Biodiversidad y Ecosistemas Marinos (BEM) at the Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (INVEMAR) in Colombia. She shared precious insights on the role of women in science and leadership, sharing her experience, highlighting challenges and ways forward.
Engaging with local researchers to improve data sharing - How IndOBIS enhances regional capacity
actionable data community capacity development IODC-III Policy
Discover IndOBIS' strategy for engaging with researchers at local and national levels to drive up data contributions.
Norway joins OBIS - Integrated data for a sustainable future
community Norway GBIF
Explore how Norway is transforming its national marine biodiversity data landscape by joining OBIS!
PacMAN by OBIS - A transposable sea-to-screen framework to fight marine biorisk
actionable data community capacity development IODC-III Policy
Explore how the OBIS framework developed within the PacMAN project can help fighting marine invasive species.
Exploring ocean DNA with Saara Suominen - A conversation on eDNA, science, and inspiration
eDNA community capacity development Women in science
Celebrating Women and Girls in Science Day with Saara Suominen, OBIS scientific officer, sharing her journey, marine science insights, and career advice.
Recently published datasets
Happywhale - Spectacled porpoise in South Pacific Ocean
Original provider: Happywhale Dataset credits: Happywhale and contributors Abstract: Happywhale.com is a resource to help you know whales as individuals, and to benefit conservation science with rich data about individual whales. Supplemental information: Sightings and images were submitted to Happywhale by contributors. A portion of the Happywhale data were transferred to OBIS-SEAMAP upon the agreement between Happywhale and OBIS-SEAMAP. There may be duplicate records among Happywhale datasets and other OBIS-SEAMAP datasets. The precision of date/time vary per record. Some records have date accuracy up to year only. This dataset includes sightings and photos from the following 1 contributors in alphabetic order: Lachlan Hall
Happywhale - Irrawaddy dolphin in North Pacific Ocean
Original provider: Happywhale Dataset credits: Happywhale and contributors Abstract: Happywhale.com is a resource to help you know whales as individuals, and to benefit conservation science with rich data about individual whales. Supplemental information: Sightings and images were submitted to Happywhale by contributors. A portion of the Happywhale data were transferred to OBIS-SEAMAP upon the agreement between Happywhale and OBIS-SEAMAP. There may be duplicate records among Happywhale datasets and other OBIS-SEAMAP datasets. The precision of date/time vary per record. Some records have date accuracy up to year only. This dataset includes sightings and photos from the following 1 contributors in alphabetic order: Rob Jansen
Happywhale - Australian sealion in Indian Ocean
Original provider: Happywhale Dataset credits: Happywhale and contributors Abstract: Happywhale.com is a resource to help you know whales as individuals, and to benefit conservation science with rich data about individual whales. Supplemental information: Sightings and images were submitted to Happywhale by contributors. A portion of the Happywhale data were transferred to OBIS-SEAMAP upon the agreement between Happywhale and OBIS-SEAMAP. There may be duplicate records among Happywhale datasets and other OBIS-SEAMAP datasets. The precision of date/time vary per record. Some records have date accuracy up to year only. This dataset includes sightings and photos from the following 1 contributors in alphabetic order: Joel Moore
All Atlantic ocean sampling day South America
The study of the marine microbiome is essential to understanding the health of our oceans and their impact on the planet. These microorganisms play a crucial role in the regulation of biogeochemical cycles, oxygen production, degradation of pollutants and the marine food chain. In addition, the marine microbiome influences the global climate and is a valuable resource for biotechnology and medicine. Investigating this microscopic world helps us protect our marine ecosystems and address urgent environmental challenges. DNA analysis through techniques such as amplicon sequencing (metabarcoding) allows the identification of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbial species in water samples. Metagenomics, on the other hand, gives us the ability to sequence all the genes present in the microbiome, providing information about gene abundances involved in metabolic pathways (profiles functional) and at different taxonomic levels (taxonomic profiles). Ocean Sampling Day (OSD) is a global scientific campaign that aims to analyze marine biodiversity and microbial function using molecular sequencing techniques. This dataset contains 2 occurrences that were taken in Puerto Colombia and Barranquilla the 9th of september 2023, both are identified up to domain Eukarya and Prokaryota.
Sponge occurrence and associated species and habitat descriptions derived from the 2021 and 2022 SCUBA diving surveys in the Eastern Shore Islands Area of Interest, Nova Scotia.
Funded under DFO's Marine Conservation Targets Program in partnership with the Huntsman Marine Science Centre (HMSC), this diver-based imagery and sample collection benthic survey documents the occurrence of sponges at 42 dive sites in the Eastern Shore Islands (ESI) Area of Interest (AOI, ~2089 km2) off the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada from dive surveys conducted in summer 2021 and 2022. Water quality, species occurrences and counts, habitat, slope, and substrate characteristics were catalogued through diver log sheets, camera imagery, specimen vouchers, and high-resolution bathymetric data. A total of 54 dives to depths from 11 to 33 m (below sea level), collecting up to 147 still images, one-hour of video, and 17 specimen samples per site, resulted in 220 observations for 27 different sponge taxa. This included three new records for Canada (Hymedesmia stellifera, Plocamionida arndti, Hymedesmia jecusculum) and a range extension for a species new to science (Crellomima mehqisinpekonuta) which was recently described from the Bay of Fundy. There were also four species which may seem to be new to science (Halichondria sp., Hymedesmia sp., Protosuberires sp., and Sphaerotylus sp.). Sponges were found to occupy a diversity of micro-habitats, often several different ones in proximity. A total of eight distinct habitat classes were defined, based on varying abundances and diversity of sponges and associated benthic species. These are likely widely distributed among the many complex submerged seabed features within this AOI. Collected specimens were preserved and are stored at the Atlantic Reference Centre (ARC) in St. Andrew's, New Brunswick.
Metabarcoding of Benthic Marine Communities in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
To monitor marine invasive species distribution and broad taxonomic diversity in the subtidal fauna and flora of the DFO Maritimes region, metabarcoding of eDNA samples was performed at a total of 49 sites between 2021-2022. For each site, three 1-L amber bottles of seawater collected from ~1m above the benthos at each site was filtered with Sterivex 0.22-µm filters prior to DNA extraction with a Qiagen DNEasy Power Water Kit and sequencing with an Illumina NovaSeqtm6000 instrument (primers are included in metadata). Raw paired-end reads were merged with NGmerge v0.3 and denoised with DnoisE v1.4.1 (DnoisE settings are included in the metadata). Singletons were removed and remaining sequences were assigned to species-level by BLAST against a local copy of the nr/nt database (downloaded Nov 2023).
Use cases
State of knowledge on marine connectivity gathered by migratory marine species
ABNJ connectivity marine species management telemetry tracking
Advancements in technology have improved our knowledge of how different areas of the ocean are connected by the movement of migratory and mobile marine species. This information is vital to inform area-based management and conservation efforts. The authors of this study, led by the OBIS-SEAMAP node, performed a literature review of 25 years of accessible connectivity data for 173 marine mammal, fish, sea turtle, and seabird species to shed light on the current state of knowledge. They found telemetry methods are the most effective tool for demonstrating connectivity, but that significant gaps and obstacles remain in this field of research.
Invasive marine algae in the Mediterranean was misidentified for decades
Algae Invasive species Mediterranean Modelling
The red algae, "Lophocladia lallemandii", one of the worst invasive species in the Mediterranean, was misidentified for nearly three decades. The researchers who discovered this error recommend genetic analysis as a mandatory first step when identifying, monitoring and managing invasives. OBIS served as a useful data repository to confirm the occurrence of this misidentified species.
Preserving seagrasses in a changing climate
climate change modelling MPA seagrass
This study provides the first comprehensive global assessment of how climate change may affect the distribution and range of 66 seagrass species. It also examines how well the current global MPA coverage will protect these important ecosystems in the future. The authors relied on occurrence records from OBIS, along with other sources of data and expert knowledge, to develop species distribution models under various scenarios.
Metabarcoding is a promising tool for identifying species of fish from their eggs and larvae
DNA eggs fish larvae ichthyoplankton metabarcoding Indian Ocean
Understanding the diversity and distribution of fish egg and larvae in the ocean provides invaluable information on ecosystem health, capacity to recover from disturbances and helps guide management and conservation efforts. This study shows that metabarcoding is a promising tool that allows for rapid and accurate species identification. OBIS was used to validate and confirm the distribution range, habitat and occurrence of the species detected by metabarcoding.
How many species live in the world’s largest marine mineral exploration region?
Biodiversity Deep sea Pacific Taxonomy
This study offers the first comprehensive synthesis of published data for the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the central and eastern Pacific. The authors report that this area, which covers 6 million km2, represents significant undescribed biodiversity with an estimated 88%–92% species waiting to be described. Data used in this research were extracted from OBIS highlighting its value as a global data repository for marine biodiversity.
Current knowledge on the reproduction of deep-sea corals
Corals Deep Sea Depth Distribution Reproduction
This study looks at the current state of research on the reproduction of deep-sea corals. Occurrence records were extracted from OBIS to find available information for species living at depths below 100m. Less than 7% of known deep-sea coral species were found to have any aspect of their reproduction reported in the literature highlighting significant gaps and priorities for future research.
