TY - JOUR
T1 - Biogeochemical regions of the Mediterranean Sea
T2 - An objective multidimensional and multivariate environmental approach
AU - Reygondeau, Gabriel
AU - Guieu, Cécile
AU - Benedetti, Fabio
AU - Irisson, Jean Olivier
AU - Ayata, Sakina Dorothée
AU - Gasparini, Stéphane
AU - Koubbi, Philippe
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017/2/1
Y1 - 2017/2/1
N2 - When dividing the ocean, the aim is generally to summarise a complex system into a representative number of units, each representing a specific environment, a biological community or a socio-economical specificity. Recently, several geographical partitions of the global ocean have been proposed using statistical approaches applied to remote sensing or observations gathered during oceanographic cruises. Such geographical frameworks defined at a macroscale appear hardly applicable to characterise the biogeochemical features of semi-enclosed seas that are driven by smaller-scale chemical and physical processes. Following the Longhurst's biogeochemical partitioning of the pelagic realm, this study investigates the environmental divisions of the Mediterranean Sea using a large set of environmental parameters. These parameters were informed in the horizontal and the vertical dimensions to provide a 3D spatial framework for environmental management (12 regions found for the epipelagic, 12 for the mesopelagic, 13 for the bathypelagic and 26 for the seafloor). We show that: (1) the contribution of the longitudinal environmental gradient to the biogeochemical partitions decreases with depth; (2) the partition of the surface layer cannot be extrapolated to other vertical layers as the partition is driven by a different set of environmental variables. This new partitioning of the Mediterranean Sea has strong implications for conservation as it highlights that management must account for the differences in zoning with depth at a regional scale.
AB - When dividing the ocean, the aim is generally to summarise a complex system into a representative number of units, each representing a specific environment, a biological community or a socio-economical specificity. Recently, several geographical partitions of the global ocean have been proposed using statistical approaches applied to remote sensing or observations gathered during oceanographic cruises. Such geographical frameworks defined at a macroscale appear hardly applicable to characterise the biogeochemical features of semi-enclosed seas that are driven by smaller-scale chemical and physical processes. Following the Longhurst's biogeochemical partitioning of the pelagic realm, this study investigates the environmental divisions of the Mediterranean Sea using a large set of environmental parameters. These parameters were informed in the horizontal and the vertical dimensions to provide a 3D spatial framework for environmental management (12 regions found for the epipelagic, 12 for the mesopelagic, 13 for the bathypelagic and 26 for the seafloor). We show that: (1) the contribution of the longitudinal environmental gradient to the biogeochemical partitions decreases with depth; (2) the partition of the surface layer cannot be extrapolated to other vertical layers as the partition is driven by a different set of environmental variables. This new partitioning of the Mediterranean Sea has strong implications for conservation as it highlights that management must account for the differences in zoning with depth at a regional scale.
KW - 3D partition
KW - Biogeography
KW - Environmental conditions
KW - Longhurst approach
KW - Ocean
KW - Semi-enclosed sea
KW - Vertical divisions
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U2 - 10.1016/j.pocean.2016.11.001
DO - 10.1016/j.pocean.2016.11.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85007093241
SN - 0079-6611
VL - 151
SP - 138
EP - 148
JO - Progress in Oceanography
JF - Progress in Oceanography
ER -