Why Map Benthic Habitats

Publisher Summary This chapter provides a synthesis of seabed geomorphology and benthic habitats based on up-to-date information contained in the case studies. It examines the drivers that underpin the need for benthic habitat maps, including threats to benthic habitats. Benthic habitat maps are spatial representations of physically distinct areas of seabed that are associated with particular species, communities, or assemblages that consistently occur together. Habitat maps can illustrate the nature, distribution, and extent of distinct physical environments and importantly, they can predict the distribution of the associated species and communities. The data sets collected for constructing habitat maps provide fundamental information that can be used for a range of management and industry applications, including the management of fisheries, spatial marine environmental management, design of marine reserves, supporting offshore oil and gas infrastructure development, port and shipping channel construction, maintenance dredging, tourism, and seabed aggregate mining. Seafloor habitat mapping provides fundamental baseline information for decision makers working in these sectors. GeoHab is an international association of marine scientists conducting research using a range of mapping technologies in the study of biophysical indicators of benthic habitats and ecosystems as proxies for biological communities and species diversity. Using this approach, combinations of physical attributes of the seabed identify habitats that have been demonstrated to be effective surrogates for the benthic communities. Seafloor geomorphology is one of the most useful physical attributes of the seabed mapped and measured by GeoHab scientists.

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