OBIS Canada/COINAtlantic Data Mobilization Partnership

The Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) is a global network and central database for a growing wealth of spatially referenced data on the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine life around the world. To further Canada’s international commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) funded this project in 2016 with $60,000 from the Partnership Fund, with the aim of expanding the network of OBIS contributors in Atlantic Canada. OBIS data—which now encompasses more than 45 million records on 159,236 valid marine taxa—enables ongoing monitoring of the decline and/or recovery of biodiversity, ecosystem function, and provision of ecosystem services compared to a baseline established by the Census of Marine Life (CoML). This project will increase the number of Atlantic Canada marine data resources available through OBIS Canada and the web mapping services of The Coastal and Ocean Information Network (COINAtlantic).

Project Number: MAR2016.1
Year: 2016
Partner: ACZISC
Principal Investigator(s): Andrew Sherin
Eco-region: Atlantic