Research Project
Full description Our oceans are under increasing pressure from human activity, including fishing, pollution and global warming. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can be used to provide respite for ecosystems and preserve biodiversity for the future, and there is momentum to conserve 30% of the world's oceans in MPAs by 2030. However, to effectively preserve biodiversity, the MPA network should contain a representative sample of all unique bioregions in the oceans. Identifying bioregions in the open ocean is difficult to do by direct surveying, as it is the largest habitat on Earth, and biological sampling is expensive and slow. I develop a novel data-driven, large-scale approach to forming a bioregionalisation that incorporates biological information from multiple surveys and identifies an appropriate number of bioregions without the need for parameter tuning. I apply the approach to build a bioregionalisation around Australia, then compare the bioregionalisation with existing Australian marine bioregionalisations and apply it to important ecological and conservation questions.