Global Ocean Conservation Priorities – Biodiversity Protection

Numerical ranking of the global ocean to prioritize conservation actions aimed at biodiversity protection, based on analysis by Sala et al 2021 for the National Geographic Society. Numerical ranking of the global ocean to prioritize conservation actions aimed at biodiversity protection. The conservation action being prioritized is highly protected Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Most important pixels are ranked higher (1) and least important pixels are ranked lower (0). Pixels ranked between 0.95-1, correspond to the most important 5% of the ocean. Pixels ranked between 0.9-1, correspond to the most important 10% of the ocean, and so on. Existing highly protected MPAs represent the starting condition of the analyses and are placed at the top of the ranking.

Variable mapped: Global priority ranking for biodiversity conservation
Data Projection: Mollweide Equal Area
Mosaic Projection: Mollweide Equal Area
Extent: Global  
Cell Size: 50km
Source Type: Thematic
Source: National Geographic Society
Publication: Sala, Enric, Juan Mayorga, Darcy Bradley, Reniel B. Cabral, Trisha B. Atwood, Arnaud Auber, William Cheung, et al. “Protecting the Global Ocean for Biodiversity, Food and Climate.” Nature, March 17, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03371-z.

We define the biodiversity benefit of a given set of MPAs as the weighted sum of the marginal gain in persistence of specific biodiversity features resulting from the removal of abatable impacts relative to business as usual. Included biodiversity features are:

1.    Species – We use habitat suitability maps for 4242 species that are indirectly or directly impacted by threats that can be abated with MPAs (i.e., habitat destruction, fishing). Not every species is weighted equally, their relative importance in a function of:     a. Extinction risk
    b. Evolutionary distinctiveness
    c. Functional distinctiveness

2.    Biogeographic provinces – We used the spatial delineations of the pelagic (n = 37), coastal (n = 62), bathyal (n = 14), and abyssal (n = 14) provinces of the ocean as individual biodiversity features to ensure representation of different facets of biodiversity throughout the world’s ocean.

3.    Seamounts – We included the density of seamounts as they are known aggregators of pelagic biodiversity and an important habitat for deep-sea species which are underrepresented in global species distribution datasets.

Because the model maximizes the benefits of protection relative to a business-as-usual counterfactual, the distribution and intensity of existing human impacts – classified into abatable and non-abatable by MPAs – is an important determinant of the priority ranking. 

Datasets available for download

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated September 11, 2026, 07:30 (UTC)
Created March 24, 2026, 21:06 (UTC)
Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
Title
Title for the Dataset.
Global Ocean Conservation Priorities – Biodiversity Protection
Description
A description of the dataset.

Numerical ranking of the global ocean to prioritize conservation actions aimed at biodiversity protection, based on analysis by Sala et al 2021 for the National Geographic Society. Numerical ranking of the global ocean to prioritize conservation actions aimed at biodiversity protection. The conservation action being prioritized is highly protected Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Most important pixels are ranked higher (1) and least important pixels are ranked lower (0). Pixels ranked between 0.95-1, correspond to the most important 5% of the ocean. Pixels ranked between 0.9-1, correspond to the most important 10% of the ocean, and so on. Existing highly protected MPAs represent the starting condition of the analyses and are placed at the top of the ranking.

Variable mapped: Global priority ranking for biodiversity conservation
Data Projection: Mollweide Equal Area
Mosaic Projection: Mollweide Equal Area
Extent: Global  
Cell Size: 50km
Source Type: Thematic
Source: National Geographic Society
Publication: Sala, Enric, Juan Mayorga, Darcy Bradley, Reniel B. Cabral, Trisha B. Atwood, Arnaud Auber, William Cheung, et al. “Protecting the Global Ocean for Biodiversity, Food and Climate.” Nature, March 17, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03371-z.

We define the biodiversity benefit of a given set of MPAs as the weighted sum of the marginal gain in persistence of specific biodiversity features resulting from the removal of abatable impacts relative to business as usual. Included biodiversity features are:

1.    Species – We use habitat suitability maps for 4242 species that are indirectly or directly impacted by threats that can be abated with MPAs (i.e., habitat destruction, fishing). Not every species is weighted equally, their relative importance in a function of:     a. Extinction risk
    b. Evolutionary distinctiveness
    c. Functional distinctiveness

2.    Biogeographic provinces – We used the spatial delineations of the pelagic (n = 37), coastal (n = 62), bathyal (n = 14), and abyssal (n = 14) provinces of the ocean as individual biodiversity features to ensure representation of different facets of biodiversity throughout the world’s ocean.

3.    Seamounts – We included the density of seamounts as they are known aggregators of pelagic biodiversity and an important habitat for deep-sea species which are underrepresented in global species distribution datasets.

Because the model maximizes the benefits of protection relative to a business-as-usual counterfactual, the distribution and intensity of existing human impacts – classified into abatable and non-abatable by MPAs – is an important determinant of the priority ranking. 
Tags / Keywords
Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
1515862.38
Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
2021-09-23
Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
Field Value
Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
public
License
License used to access the dataset.
This work is licensed under the Esri Master License Agreement. View Summary | View Terms of Use
Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
Location
Location of the dataset.
https://climate.esri.ca/datasets/esri::global-ocean-conservation-priorities-biodiversity-protection
Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner
Owner of the dataset.
esri_oceans
Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
Esri
Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher
Publisher of the dataset.
Esri
Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
Author
Author of the dataset.
esri_oceans
Author Email
Email of the author.
Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
2026-02-19
Field Value
Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
96bb07682ebf470c9855a0056efd1370
Language
Language(s) of the dataset
English
Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
https://climate.esri.ca/datasets/esri::global-ocean-conservation-priorities-biodiversity-protection
Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type
Platform type of the source portal.
Field Value
Version
Version of the datatset
None
Source
Source of the dataset.
None
Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions
Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
Esri
Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
Field Value
Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
Field Value
Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality
A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

0 Comments

Please login or register to comment.