Atlas of

Marine Biodiversity Conservation

in the Coral Triangle

The "Atlas of Biodiversity Conservation in the Coral Triangle " consists of three sets of Web-mapping application: (1) Biodiversity Features, (2) Areas of Importance for Biodiversity Conservation, (3) Marine Protected Area (MPA) Network Expansion.

The first atlas , Biodiversity Features, provided comprehensive data on the region's marine protected areas and biodiversity features including biogenic habitat, habitat rugosity, species richness, distribution of threatened and endemic species, and areas important for sea turtle. This tool also provided datasets of threats to the marine environment (anthropogenic and climate change induced pressure), and of environmental characteristics of the region including physical, and biochemical oceanography.

The second atlas , Areas of Importance for Biodiversity Conservation, comprised two layers: (1) Regional biodiversity hotspots, and (2) Sites of biodiversity importance. Each layer was developed based on the multi-criteria analysis of five ecological criteria, namely sensitive habitat, species richness, the presence of species of conservation concern, the occurrence of restricted-range species, and areas of importance for particular life history stages of species.

The third atlas , Marine Protected Areas (MPA) Network Expansion, consisted of two datasets: (1) Regional priority areas, and (2) National priority areas. The maps were developed using conservation prioritization tools based on seven different sets of biodiversity features (biogenic habitat, habitat rugosity, species richness, distribution of threatened and endemic species, areas important for sea turtles), two types of threat (anthropogenic and climate change induced pressure) and the coverage of existing MPA network.

The Atlas presents representative information to support a better understanding of important areas for biodiversity conservation and the application of marine biodiversity informatics to aid conservation prioritization.

The atlas provides data described in: Asaad, I., Lundquist,C.J., Erdmann, M.V., & Costello, M.J. (2018). An Interactive atlas of marine biodiversity conservation. University of Auckland, New Zealand.

For more details: i.asaad@auckland.ac.nz

Ver . 01 - 2018