The Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) is composed of regional networks of scientists, resource managers, and end-users working to integrate data from existing long-term programs to improve our understanding of changes and connections between marine biodiversity and ecosystem functions. In the United States, MBON projects have been established in the Chukchi Sea (Alaska), Santa Barbara Channel (California), and the National Marine Sanctuaries in Monterey Bay (California) and the Florida Keys (Florida).
This portal provides real-time, delayed-mode, and historical data for in situ and remotely-sensed physical, chemical and biological observations. Additionally, the portal now features a Biodiversity Index visualization tool on species catch surveys. The available indices vary from simple richness (the number of distinct species), to more computationally advanced Shannon-Wiener diversity and Pielou’s evenness.
Biodiversity can be explored per-sample or per-region, with the regions as either automatically generated hexagons or user-defined polygons. Alpha indices are calculated from the average of the sampling events within the selected area. Gamma indices combine all samples within the selected area and treats them as though they were collected as a single sample. Beta indices are the ratio of gamma/alpha indices. The diversity measurement can also be refined by selecting other filters, including taxonomy. For example, you can visualize the diversity of all samples containing a selected common name, or taxonomic rank, e.g., all samples within the order Perciformes.
Beyond the biodiversity feature, the portal provides visual access to:
Visit the MBON portal to check it out: http://mbon.ioos.us/