Protecting marine biodiversity

Still footage taken by a trawl-mounted camera at Tressler Bank showing the diversity of marine invertebrates on the sea floor, including feathery ‘gorgonians’ or soft corals (two orange feather-like structures at left of image), hydrocorals, feather stars
Still footage taken by a trawl-mounted camera at Tressler Bank showing the diversity of marine invertebrates on the sea floor.
Photo: AAD
This research stream aims to develop efficient and effective methods to deliver a comprehensive, adequate and representative system of marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean.

Spatial protection for marine biodiversity is a priority issue identified by both the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP) and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). This research stream aims to support the development of a comprehensive, adequate and representative candidate network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) within the CCAMLR area, focusing on East Antarctica and including identification and conservation of biological hotspots and vulnerable marine ecosystems.

CCAMLR has managed fisheries using area-based approaches on a very large scale but is moving towards a smaller scale management framework. This shift in scale will require research to identify the appropriate spatial scales at which management actions will occur – such as when implementing the conservation of representative areas, scientific areas, vulnerable areas, and areas where important ecosystem processes occur.

These solitary sea-squirts (ascidians) stand up to half a metre high on the sea bed, providing a platform for other filter feeding animals, and the brittle stars in the foreground. They were found in sediments off Larsen A and Terre Adélie, during CAML vo
These solitary sea-squirts (ascidians) stand up to half a metre high on the sea bed, providing a platform for other filter feeding animals and the brittle stars in the foreground.
Photo: J.Gutt, AWI
Uncertainties surround the biodiversity and spatial heterogeneity of Southern Ocean marine ecosystems. A combination of synthetic and modelling approaches using currently available data will be needed to produce robust strategies for the conservation of Southern Ocean biodiversity in the face of threats from fishing activities and global change. An initial bioregionalisation of the Southern Ocean has already been produced and this will be used to further define management areas and MPAs (two of which already exist in Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone in the Southern Ocean;  the Heard and McDonald islands group, and Macquarie Island). A vulnerable marine ecosystem has already been defined off the Australian Antarctic Territory.

The key research questions being investigated in this stream are:

  • Which marine areas need most protection in East Antarctica?
  • What methods and data are required to define marine areas for protection?
  • Can we better identify effective stocks, or meta-populations of harvested species to assist with the development of spatial management procedures?
  • Can areas of high conservation value in the Southern Ocean be identified using proxy data (e.g. sea surface temperature or remotely sensed ocean colour)?

Stream leaders: Dr Jan Strugnell and Professor Andrew McMinn

Stream Implementation Plan: Stream 3.4 Protecting marine biodiversity

This research feeds into:

  • Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP)
  • Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).
This page was last modified on June 29, 2011.