Data on contemporary and future geographical distributions of marine species are crucial for guiding conservation and management policies in face of climate change. However, available distributional patterns have overlooked key ecosystem structuring species, despite their numerous ecological and socioeconomic services. Future range estimates are mostly available for few species at regional scales, and often rely on the outdated Representative Concentration Pathway scenarios of climate change, hindering global biodiversity estimates within the framework of current international climate policies. Here, we provide range maps for 980 marine structuring species of seagrasses, kelps, fucoids, and cold-water corals under present-day conditions (from 2010 to 2020) and future scenarios (from 2090 to 2100) spanning from low carbon emission scenarios aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement (Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 1-1.9), to higher emissions under reduced mitigation strategies (SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5). These models were developed using state-of-the-art and advanced machine learning algorithms linking the most comprehensive and quality-controlled datasets of occurrence records with high-resolution, biologically relevant predictor variables. By integrating the best aspects of species distribution modelling over key ecosystem structuring species, our datasets hold the potential to enhance the ability to inform strategic and effective conservation policy, ultimately supporting the resilience of ocean ecosystems.
Keywords: Marine biodiversity; Marine ecosystem structuring species; Range maps; Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios; Species distribution modelling.
© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.