Integrating multiple data streams to monitor biodiversity in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Bight

Biodiversity affords resilience to populations, species, and ecosystems in the face of environmental disturbances. As the Earth’s climate continues to change rapidly, it is imperative that we understand how biodiversity is affected. In the eastern United States, a natural break in tropical and temperate climates occurs in the Mid-Atlantic Bight due to the Gulf Stream Current, which carries warm waters along the eastern Continental Shelf of the United States from the Gulf of Mexico. However, the Gulf Stream is shifting towards the coast, and the surface is warming, which will likely cause this climate delineation, and subsequently animal distributions, to shift. To establish a baseline of biodiversity in this region, we deployed 9 stations longitudinally from the coast that all monitor for animals that are tagged with acoustic transmitters and 6 of which monitor for cetacean vocalizations. In addition, we collect environmental DNA at these stations on a quarterly basis and utilize high frequency radar, gliders, oceanographic models, and remote sensing to pair environmental variables to biological observations. Through the integration of these disparate data streams, we model migration phenology of multiple species, determine biodiversity hot spots, and uncover longitudinal variation in migratory pathways, thereby increasing our understanding of patterns and changes in biodiversity on multiple temporal and spatial scales. We will make these data and modeling results available on the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network Portal, Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System Oceansmap, Atlantic Cooperative Telemetry Network, Ocean Biodiversity Information System, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Centers for Environmental Information. We are developing education materials that will be distributed through the Smithsonian Institution’s Ocean Portal. Consistent monitoring in key regions like the U.S. Mid-Atlantic Bight using these diverse collection methods and public endpoints enables managers to minimize the impacts of climate change on biodiversity and build resilience, manage wild species sustainability, enhance biodiversity and sustainability in fisheries, share benefits from genetic resources and digital sequence information, integrate biodiversity in decision-making, and ensure that data and knowledge are available and accessible to guide biodiversity action, all of which are targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.