Marine Habitats

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.

World Map Mangrove Distribution

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 abombelliwmo [dot] int (GCOS Secretariat).

Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN)
Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS)
Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS)

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