Areas Importance for Biodiversity Conservation
Atlas of areas of biodiversity importance in the Coral Triangle, comprised of : (1) Regional biodiversity hotspots, (2) Sites of biodiversity importance.
This map provides data described in: Asaad, I., Lundquist,C.J., Erdmann, M.V., & Costello, M.J. (2018). An Interactive atlas for marine biodiversity conservation in the Coral Triangle. University of Auckland, Auckland. New Zealand
This dataset is comprised of two layers of biodiversity importance areas. Each layer was developed based on the multi-criteria analysis of five ecological criteria: (1) fragile and sensitive habitat (the coverage of biogenic habitats: coral reefs, seagrass and mangrove); (2) species richness (modeled geographic distributions of 10,672 species ranges and occurrence records of 19,251 species); (3) the presence of species of conservation concern (distributions of 834 species of special conservation concern; (4) the occurrence of restricted-range species (distributions of 373 restricted-range reef fish species); and (6) areas of importance for particular life history stages (distribution of six species of sea turtle).
The datasets were clipped to the CT region using a grid approach of half-degree cells (0.5°), where each cell covered an area of ~ 55 x 55 km. All of the datasets obtained from each criterion were superimposed to produce an integrated dataset. The areas of biodiversity importance were analyzed based on the biodiversity score of each cell. The score of each criterion was calculated based on the total number of habitat, species or species index that fell within each cell.
The map comprises:
1. The Regional Biodiversity Hotspots analyzed using the hotspots analysis tools ESRI in ArcGIS (ESRI, 2016b; Getis & Ord, 1992; Ord & Getis, 1995). The statistically significant Z score (GI* statistics) were analyzed by comparing the local sum of a cell’s score and its neighbors proportionally to the sum of all cells’ scores. The hotspots analysis clustered the area into three classes of hotspots (99%, 95% and, 90% confidence level), and one class of not statistically significant clusters.
2. The sites of biodiversity importance that identified area of biodiversity importance by analyzing the biodiversity score of each cell. The higher the score, the higher their biodiversity importance. The cells were ranked into five equal interval classes, from high to low biodiversity importance.