Document: REB-3-82-4

Marine and estuarine habitat classification.

REBECCA ALLEE, DRJ.*, D.DAIL BROWN and D.TOM HOURIGAN

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring MD 20910 USA ¹

Abstract:
Marine species and their habitats are increasingly threatened by impacts from development, pollution, fishing activities and other human activities. Conserving biodiversity is essential if we are to succeed in sustaining our coastal and ocean resources. However, the historical approach to species conservation has been one at a time and is often unsuccessful. The traditional species-by-species approach to conservation and management can no longer stand alone, and must be supplemented by efforts that conserve whole habitats and their natural communities. Conservationists are now recognizing the need for an ecosystem approach to conservation which requires that we consider the natural biodiversity of the system. However, before we can conserve the biodiversity, we must first have a better understanding of what resources we have and where they exist. Such efforts require that mappers, resource managers, and scientists have a common "language" with which to describe habitats of concern and to effectively conserve our resources, we must have a system that will allow us to prioritize our conservation needs. This can be accomplished through development of a marine ecosystem classification system. In pursuit of such a system, the Ecological Society of America and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently hosted a workshop to develop a national marine and estuarine habitat classification system. Prior to that workshop, a synthesis of existing systems was compiled for use during the workshop. Using the synthesis and expert knowledge, the participants of the workshop were able to identify essential habitat parameters, such as depth, energy regime, hydrogeomorphic features, and substratum, among others, for use in habitat classification. The result was a descriptive ecosystem and habitat classification system for marine and estuarine waters that incorporates these important parameters. The higher levels of this classification system address broad-scale parameters while the lowest level pulls in the biodiversity of a specific habitat type.

Keywords: habitat, charaterization, classification, biodiversity, mapping, conservation, marine, estuarine

This abstract is being presented at: 3:45 PM in session:
Oral Session #65: Wetlands, Estuaries and Salt Marshes.