Marine Habitats
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Marine coastal regions are amongst the most productive systems of the planet, yet they are undergoing rapid transformations in response to intensifying human activities and global change. Regime shifts, abrupt transitions between alternative states, are increasingly observed in a wide range of coastal systems, including coral reefs, macroalgal forests, seagrasses and mangroves. These non-linear responses to deteriorating environmental conditions often result in considerable loss of ecosystem functions and services. | |
| Domain: | Ocean | |
| Subdomain: | Biological/Ecosystems | |
| Scientific Area: | Biosphere | |
| ECV Steward: | ||
| Products: | Mangrove Cover and Composition; Seagrass Cover (areal extent); Macroalgal Canopy Cover and Composition; Hard coral cover and composition | |
World Map Mangrove Distribution
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Reference: Giri, C., Z. Zhu, L.L. Tieszen, A. Singh, S. Gillette and J.A. Kelmelis. 2008. Mangrove forest distribution and dynamics (1975-2005) of the tsunami-affected region of Asia. Journal of Biogeography 35: 519-528. |
ECV Products and Requirements
These products and requirements reflect the Implementation Plan 2022 (GCOS-244).
The requirements are found in the complete 2022 ECVs Requirements document as well: ECV Marine Habitat Properties.
| Products | Mangrove Cover and Composition | Seagrass Cover (areal extent) | Macroalgal Canopy Cover and Composition | Hard Coral Cover and Composition | ||||||||
| (*) | Unit | Values | Unit | Values | Unit | Values | Unit | Values | ||||
| Horizontal Resolution | G | m2 | 30x30 | m | 30 | m2 | 0.25 | km | 10-100 | |||
| B | 1 | |||||||||||
| T | 50x50 | 250 | 250 | 1000 | ||||||||
| Vertical Resolution | G | - | - | m | 1 | m | 10 | |||||
| B | - | - | 5 | |||||||||
| T | - | - | 10 | ≈ | ||||||||
| Temporal Resolution | G | month | 12 | y | 1 week | month | 1 | y | 1 | |||
| B | 3 | |||||||||||
| T | 12 | 1 | 12 | 5-10 | ||||||||
| Timeliness | G | month | 6 | month | 4 | y | 0.25 | |||||
| B | 6 | 2 | ||||||||||
| T | 12 | 12 | 5 | |||||||||
| Required Measurement Uncertainty (2-sigma) | G | Areal extent | 10 | % | Percent cover | 10 | % | |||||
| B | 20 | |||||||||||
| T | 20 | 10 | 30 | 5 | ||||||||
| Stability | G | Percent cover/ decade | 10 | Percent cover | 20 | |||||||
| B | 30 | |||||||||||
| T | 50 | 50 | ||||||||||
(*) Goal (G): an ideal requirement above which further improvements are not necessary. Breakthrough (B): an intermediate level between threshold and goal which, if achieved, would result in a significant improvement for the targeted application. The breakthrough value may also indicate the level at which specified uses within climate monitoring become possible. It may be appropriate to have different breakthrough values for different uses. Threshold (T): the minimum requirement to be met to ensure that data are useful
Data Sources
This list provides sources for openly accessible data sets with worldwide coverage for which metadata is available. It is curated by the respective GCOS ECV Steward(s). The list does not claim to be complete. Anyone with a suitable dataset who wishes it to be added to this list should contact the GCOS Secretariat.
- Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN)
- Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)
- Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS)
