An international collaborative effort to inventory and monitor biodiversity in the narrow inshore zone of the world's oceans at depths of less than 20 meters.

Yoshihisa Shirayama		Brenda Konar	Katrin Iken
Patricia Miloslavich	Lisandro Benedetti-Cecchi	Edward Kimani	Juan José Cruz Motta

Project Leaders:

Dr. Yoshihisa Shirayama, NaGISA Principal Investigator, Seto Marine Biological Laboratory, Kyoto University, Wakayama, Japan

Dr. Brenda Konar, Associate Professor Marine Science, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Institute of Marine Science, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA

Dr. Katrin Iken, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Institute of Marine Science, Fairbanks, AK, USA

Dr. Patricia Miloslavich, Universidad Simón Bolivar, Departmento de Estudios Ambientales, Pabellón II. Sartenejas - Baruta, Edo, Miranda. A. P. 89000. Venezuela

Dr. Lisandro Benedetti-Cecchi, University of Pisa Dipartimento di Scienze dell'Uomo e dell'Ambiente, Via A. Volta 6, I-56126 Pisa

Dr. Edward Kimani, Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, English Point Mkomaki, Mombassa 81651 Kenya

Dr. Juan José Cruz Motta, Universidad Simón Bolívar, Depto. Estudios Ambientales, Miranda, Venezuela

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Visit the NaGISA web site

Wading through a Seagrass bed in Phuket, Thailand, a NaGISA member brings back valuable samples for the lab. Taken by S. Bussarawit, Oct 2004.

The Natural Geography In Shore Areas (NaGISA) is a collaborative effort aimed at inventorying and monitoring habitat specific biodiversity in the global near shore. The international character of the project and its target zone are reflected in the work nagisa, which is Japanese for the narrow coastal zone where the land meets the sea. NaGISA holds a unique position in the Census of Marine Life as an ambassador project, linking CoML to local interests around the world. NaGISA's first aim is to draw up an global baseline of biodiversity and then to use the network organized in that effort to continue monitoring those same shores for the next 50 years.

METHODS AND TECHNOLOGY

NaGISA used both passive and active sampling to assess quantitative/qualitative ecological/taxonomic information from the near shore zone. Employing a simple, cost-efficient and intentionally low-tech sampling protocol NaGISA will fulfill the goal of a series of well-distributed standard transects from the high intertidal zone to 20 meters water depth around the world by 2009. This is possible as the protocols are widely adaptable and have been adopted by research groups in many different countries (although new participants are always welcome!). The simple design of the protocols and unique nested hierarchy allows not only local community involvement but satisfies the technical/statistical needs of a global census.

NaGISA targets two specific habitats, rocky bottom macroalgal communities and soft bottom seagrass communities. Both complex globally occurring ecosystems that are currently far less well characterized than they should be. At each NaGISA study site, replicate samples are collected at the high, mid and low intertidal and at 1, 5 and 10m subtidal zones (15 and 20m are done whenever possible). There are two levels of target sampling -- both include measurement of surface and bottom seawater temperature and a visual classification of substrata.

• 1. Non-invasive sampling using photography and observational techniques, percent cover estimates of colonial invertebrates and rhizoidal macroalgae and counts of algal stipes and solitary fauna within quadrats.
• 2. Invasive sampling, or direct removal, consists of core samples taken within sea grass beds, and careful and complete removal of all organisms (macro and meio) from small quadrats within macroalgal sites.

A Rock fish swims between the kelp at 5m depth in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Taken by C. Debenham, June 2003.

DATA AVAILABILIY

Data collected through the NaGISA project is publicly available through the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS). OBIS is online global atlas where NaGISA data can be accessed, modeled and mapping along with data from other sources in a multidimensional geographic context. NaGISA data is also incorporated into a unique qualitative non-relational member based database that will be opened to the public in 2010 as well as a number of local area and taxon specific databases that are open to various communities on request.

THE FUTURE

Biodiversity is one potential measure of ecosystem health, and a measure of biological interactions such as competition, disturbance, facilitation, predation, recruitment, and productivity of a system. On a larger scale, biodiversity measurements can serve as an indicator of the balance between speciation and extinction. Inventorying and monitoring biodiversity are a crucial task for identifying and clarifying activities that impact ecosystems. NaGISA will provide baseline data for long-term monitoring, as well as information needed to answer fundamental questions concerning changes in biodiversity with latitude and longitude. The great strength of NaGISA is that the CoML goals of global biodiversity coverage can be met and financed through locally vested interests in every coastal country in the world, while a standardized data matrix suitable for testing a wide range of ecological theories and solving practical problems is promoted. No other project has ever dealt with biodiversity information with such fine resolution on such a wide scale. Because of the large international and geographic scope of the program, NaGISA researchers are delving in to the development of new methods including new techniques for the taxonomic study of meiofauna using flow-cytometry techniques, gel suspension and holographic imaging. It is NaGISA expectation that by improving modern methods and increasing the scope of taxonomic study we may achieve a more thorough and accurate characterization of global biodiversity.

Visit the Natural Geography in Shore Areas web site