August 13, 2020 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
This study compiled data on the distribution of over 67,000 marine and terrestrial species, including 44,575 marine species from a variety of taxa, both protected and non-protected species. The study analyzes 30 globally-distributed environmental variables simultaneously through the use of artificial neural networks (ANNs) modelling. This approach has the advantage over previous methods by evaluating the relative importance of each variable more robustly and examining how variables interact more clearly. Results indicate that overall, terrestrial diversity is better predicted by environmental factors than marine diversity. The authors call for increased cooperation across scientific domains to advance our understanding of how and why biodiversity is distributed across the globe. This is especially crucial as we seek to understand and manage a rapidly changing planet and face the possible global erosion of biodiversity and hence ecosystem services to human societies. Scientists from a variety of disciplines must come together to find common and global sustainable pathways to reduce the loss of biodiversity. Portion of Figure 1 from publication, map of global species richness observed, modeled and residual errors.
Gagné et al. 2020. Towards a global understanding of the drivers of marine and terrestrial biodiversity. PLoS ONE 15(2).