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Abstract We investigated the biogeography of benthic foraminifera in a highly urbanized tropical seascape, i.e. Hong Kong, in order to assess their utility as bioindicators relative to other marine fauna. Hong Kong is one of the largest coastal cities on the planet and studies of other benthic fauna in the region are available for comparison. We found that: (1) turbid, muddy habitats host a unique foraminiferal fauna; (2) areas with intermediate levels of eutrophication have the highest foraminiferal species diversity; (3) semi-enclosed and heavily polluted environments host a distinct foraminiferal fauna, characterized by low taxonomic diversity and/or high dominance, and that is acclimated to stressful marine conditions. Biodiversity patterns of foraminifera in Hong Kong are generally consistent with those of other soft-sediment macro- and meio-fauna (e.g. polychaetes, molluscs and ostracods); however, foraminifera may be more sensitive than these other groups to eutrophication and associated changes in coastal food webs. The tolerance of some, but not other, species to eutrophic and hypoxic conditions means that foraminiferal faunas can serve as bioindicators across a wide array of environmental conditions, in contrast with corals whose sensitivity to eutrophication results in their absence from eutrophied settings. The well-known autoecology of foraminifera taxa can help to characterize environmental conditions of different habitats and regional environmental gradients. Although the use of fauna as bioindicators may be most robust when data are compared for multiple taxonomic groups, when such broad sampling is not available, benthic foraminifera are particularly well suited for environmental assessments due to their ubiquity, interspecific environmental breadth, and the well-understood environmental preference of individual taxa. 

In this paper, we outline the need for a coordinated international effort toward the building of an open-access Global Ocean Oxygen Database and ATlas (GO 2 DAT) complying with the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable). GO 2 DAT will combine data from the coastal and open ocean, as measured by the chemical Winkler titration method or by sensors (e.g., optodes, electrodes) from Eulerian and Lagrangian platforms (e.g., ships, moorings, profiling floats, gliders, ships of opportunities, marine mammals, cabled observatories). GO 2 DAT will further adopt a community-agreed, fully documented metadata format and a consistent quality control (QC) procedure and quality flagging (QF) system. GO 2 DAT will serve to support the development of advanced data analysis and biogeochemical models for improving our mapping, understanding and forecasting capabilities for ocean O 2 changes and deoxygenation trends. It will offer the opportunity to develop quality-controlled data synthesis products with unprecedented spatial (vertical and horizontal) and temporal (sub-seasonal to multi-decadal) resolution. These products will support model assessment, improvement and evaluation as well as the development of climate and ocean health indicators. They will further support the decision-making processes associated with the emerging blue economy, the conservation of marine resources and their associated ecosystem services and the development of management tools required by a diverse community of users (e.g., environmental agencies, aquaculture, and fishing sectors). A better knowledge base of the spatial and temporal variations of marine O 2 will improve our understanding of the ocean O 2 budget, and allow better quantification of the Earth’s carbon and heat budgets. With the ever-increasing need to protect and sustainably manage ocean services, GO 2 DAT will allow scientists to fully harness the increasing volumes of O 2 data already delivered by the expanding global ocean observing system and enable smooth incorporation of much higher quantities of data from autonomous platforms in the open ocean and coastal areas into comprehensive data products in the years to come. This paper aims at engaging the community (e.g., scientists, data managers, policy makers, service users) toward the development of GO 2 DAT within the framework of the UN Global Ocean Oxygen Decade (GOOD) program recently endorsed by IOC-UNESCO. A roadmap toward GO 2 DAT is proposed highlighting the efforts needed (e.g., in terms of human resources). 

We have little understanding of how communities respond to varying magnitudes and rates of environmental perturbations across temporal scales. BioDeepTime harmonizes assemblage time series of presence and abundance data to help facilitate investigations of community dynamics across timescales and the response of communities to natural and anthropogenic stressors. BioDeepTime includes time series of terrestrial and aquatic assemblages of varying spatial and temporal grain and extent from the present‐day to millions of years ago.

BioDeepTime currently contains 7,437,847 taxon records from 10,062 assemblage time series, each with a minimum of 10 time steps. Age constraints, sampling method, environment and taxonomic scope are provided for each time series.

The database includes 8752 unique sampling locations from freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Spatial grain represented by individual samples varies from quadrats on the order of several cm²to grid cells of ~100 km².

BioDeepTime in aggregate currently spans the last 451 million years, with the 10,062 modern and fossil assemblage time series ranging in extent from years to millions of years. The median extent of modern time series is 18.7 years and for fossil series is 54,872 years. Temporal grain, the time encompassed by individual samples, ranges from days to tens of thousands of years.

The database contains information on 28,777 unique taxa with 4,769,789 records at the species level and another 271,218 records known to the genus level, including time series of benthic and planktonic foraminifera, coccolithophores, diatoms, ostracods, plants (pollen), radiolarians and other invertebrates and vertebrates. There are to date 7012 modern and 3050 fossil time series in BioDeepTime.

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Climate change manifestation in the ocean, through warming, oxygen loss, increasing acidification, and changing particulate organic carbon flux (one metric of altered food supply), is projected to affect most deep‐ocean ecosystems concomitantly with increasing direct human disturbance. Climate drivers will alter deep‐sea biodiversity and associated ecosystem services, and may interact with disturbance from resource extraction activities or even climate geoengineering. We suggest that to ensure the effective management of increasing use of the deep ocean (e.g., for bottom fishing, oil and gas extraction, and deep‐seabed mining), environmental management and developing regulations must consider climate change. Strategic planning, impact assessment and monitoring, spatial management, application of the precautionary approach, and full‐cost accounting of extraction activities should embrace climate consciousness. Coupled climate and biological modeling approaches applied in the water and on the seafloor can help accomplish this goal. For example, Earth‐System Model projections of climate‐change parameters at the seafloor reveal heterogeneity in projected climate hazard and time of emergence (beyond natural variability) in regions targeted for deep‐seabed mining. Models that combine climate‐induced changes in ocean circulation with particle tracking predict altered transport of early life stages (larvae) under climate change. Habitat suitability models can help assess the consequences of altered larval dispersal, predict climate refugia, and identify vulnerable regions for multiple species under climate change. Engaging the deep observing community can support the necessary data provisioning to mainstream climate into the development of environmental management plans. To illustrate this approach, we focus on deep‐seabed mining and the International Seabed Authority, whose mandates include regulation of all mineral‐related activities in international waters and protecting the marine environment from the harmful effects of mining. However, achieving deep‐ocean sustainability under the UN Sustainable Development Goals will require integration of climate consideration across all policy sectors.