3.5 Information gaps and other obstacles to assessing marine biodiversity
Experts identified multiple deficiencies in spatial information about the marine environment and the challenges of filling such gaps. These include: significant gaps in the distribution of intertidal organisms; under-representation of sampling for all species and habitats deeper than 1,500m; a sampling bias for specimens larger than 2 mm, since smaller organisms can escape from the net; the ability of nekton to avoid sampling efforts by swimming away, resulting in under-representation in sampling; only recent knowledge of deep-sea features; a fisheries bias in the information source, resulting from a large portion of data that is generated through commercial fishing activities and research; and virtually complete ignorance about trench environments.
Deficiencies in information about ecosystem process and interactions that workshop participants identified include: very sparse interactive studies; limited understanding of trophic interactions; gaps in population dynamics and recruitment studies;incomplete information on ocean currents; and ignorance about the history of marine processes and floral/faunal composition, particularly how the environment has changed since human settlement.
Workshop participants voiced a high level of concern about the scarcity of specialists with taxonomic expertise in New Zealand. Taxonomy is the integrative basis for understanding, use, and management of marine biological resources. Fundamentally, taxonomic capacity dictates the speed at which organisms can be identified and classified. The taxonomic deficiency is particularly severe for the benthic environment. Amelioration of the taxonomic specialist shortage is not foreseen in the near future because the subject is not a fundamental component of the biology curriculum at tertiary institutions. The shrinking level of taxonomic expertise has implications for New Zealand at a national level because taxonomy has wide application in areas such as biosecurity, biotechnology, fishing impacts, and conservation.