ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil Advance Access originally published online on December 3, 2008
ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil 2009 66(1):214-224; doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsn189
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This article appears in the following ICES Journal of Marine Science issue: European Symposium on Marine Protected Areas as a Tool for Fisheries Management and Ecosystem Conservation [View the issue table of contents]
Australia’s deep-water reserve network: implications of false homogeneity for classifying abiotic surrogates of biodiversity
CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship, Marine Laboratories, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia
Correspondence to A. Williams: tel: +61 3 6232 5222; fax: +61 3 6232 5000; e-mail: alan.williams{at}csiro.au.
Williams, A., Bax, N. J., Kloser, R. J., Althaus, F., Barker, B., and Keith G. 2009. Australia’s deep-water reserve network: implications of false homogeneity for classifying abiotic surrogates of biodiversity. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 214–224.Australia’s southeast network of deep-water marine reserves, declared in July 2007, was designed using a hierarchy that represented the distribution of marine biodiversity as a nested set of bioregions. In this hierarchy, geomorphic units, individual or aggregations of seabed geomorphic features, are the finest scale used in the design process. We evaluated the interaction between two hierarchical levels (depth and geomorphic features), using video survey data on seamounts and submarine canyons. False within-class homogeneity indicated that depth, size, complexity, configuration, and anthropogenic impact need to be added as modifiers to allow geomorphic features to act as surrogates for biodiversity distribution. A consequence of using unmodified geomorphic surrogates, and of not correctly nesting geomorphic features within depth, is the diminished recognition of the importance and comparative rarity of megafaunal biodiversity of the continental margin (<1500-m depths). We call this area the zone of importance, because it is where targeted marine impacts coincide with the greatest megafaunal biodiversity. Refining the geomorphic classification is desirable for future biodiversity characterization, but an alternative approach is to define patterns in biodiversity and abiotic variables jointly, and to utilize finer scale information and provide a classification that preserves the maximum information of both datasets.
Keywords: Australia, benthic habitats, biodiversity surrogates, classification, deep-sea environments, Marine Protected Areas, surrogates
Received 22 October 2007; accepted 4 June 2008; advance access publication 3 December 2008.
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  A. Williams, N. J. Bax, and R. J. Kloser Remarks on "Comment on: Williams et al. (2009) Australia's deep-water reserve network: implications of false homogeneity for classifying abiotic surrogates of biodiversity, ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 214-224" by Peter T. Harris, Andrew D. Heap, Tara J. Anderson, and Brendan Brooke ICES J. Mar. Sci., December 1, 2009; 66(10): 2086 - 2088. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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P. T. Harris, A. D. Heap, T. J. Anderson, and B. Brooke Comment on: Williams et al. (2009) "Australia's deep-water reserve network: implications of false homogeneity for classifying abiotic surrogates of biodiversity". ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 214-224 ICES J. Mar. Sci., December 1, 2009; 66(10): 2082 - 2085. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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