A circumpolar benthic bioregionalisation for the Antarctic continental shelf derived from seafloor imagery.

<p>Areas that contain ecologically distinct biological content, called bioregions, are a central component to understanding broad-scale biodiversity patterns and for spatial and ecosystem-based management. However, the distribution seafloor communities around Antarctica is poorly known because biological data are relatively sparse over the vast scale of the Antarctic shelf. Therefore, large scale bioregionalisations are generally produced using full coverage environmental data and are assumed to be proxies for biodiversity patterns and /or expert opinion, which is less transparent or reproducible. Here we develop a 2 km resolution, circumpolar benthic bioregionalisation that explicitly integrates biological data and uses a robust statistical framework. We utilise a new and extensive circumpolar database of 3, 500 consistently annotated seafloor images, called Antarctic Seafloor Annotated Imagery Database, coupled with environmental data in a novel statistical approach called Regions of Common Profile to delineate, describe and predict the distribution of circumpolar bioregions. In this talk we briefly outline the approach and describe the species profiles, environmental characteristics and spatial distribution of the bioregions identified. These maps have multiple potential uses. We discuss their ability to provide a useful baseline for understanding broadscale biodiversity patterns and their potential to inform survey designs for future monitoring. </p>