Sustainable Oceans for Future

Biotech Opportunities

Dr. Paul Snelgrove Memorial University of Newfoundland

Canada Research Chair in

Boreal and Cold Ocean Systems

E. S

ala

• What and where are marine biodiversity resources?

• What are the threats?

• Why must we sustain biodiversity?

Sustainable Oceans for Future

Biotech Opportunities

4-5 new species every day

New Tools for Better Cataloging

213,000 species so far

•Misnamed

•Double names

•Misspelled names

•Shared names

www.marinespecies.org

56 names for

Halichondria

panacea

Bouchet 2006

A riot of species ~1654 new ones every year

•4-5 new marine species

daily

•Every two weeks for

hydrothermal vents

•Every two weeks for hydrothermal vents

Mora et al. 2008

Global fishes

16,475 known, 4000 more to go!

How Many Fishes in the Sea?

After Ramirez-Llodra et al. 2010

Year

1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

Cum

ula

tive n

um

ber

of

new

specie

s

500

600

700

800

900

Deep-sea nematodes

100,000+ more to go?

2 million species of marine animals

9% known

Known and unknown life

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Land

Sea

1.6-1.7 million

described species

245,000 marine

Webb et al. 2010

Making the most of what we have – standardize, integrate

Ocean Biogeographic Information System 30 million records +

Big geographic gaps in….

coral reefs, deep sea midwater and seafloor, poles

(assumes same species area relationship)

Estimate based on rainforests

CReefs

# Coral reef species = constant * reef area

(From Reaka- Kudla 1997)

Use rain forest constant (34,052 species/km2)

947,721 species

Top Down Approach

(assumes linear species area relationship)

Estimate based on scaling up Caribbean reef

CReefs

216,135 Caribbean reef species and 2,593,624 global reef

(From Small et al. 1998)

Assume 20% died in aquarium, 30% missed

532 species in 5 m2 mesocosm of 23,000 km reef

Bottom up Approach

Assume 1-3 million reef species

But….

• Biotech potential unequal among habitats and phyla

• This estimate covers just invertebrates

Assume 1 in 5000 critters with biotech potential

200-600 coral reef critters with biotech potential

• only 260,000- 600,000 km2

• ~5% that of rainforests

• ~<0.1% of Earth’s surface, (~0.2% of ocean’s)

• About 95,000 known reef species

(35% of known marine)

Coral Reefs

Threats to Marine Biodiversity

• fisheries operations

• chemical pollution

• physical alteration of habitat

• invasion of exotic species

• global climate change

From Understanding Marine Biodiversity

National Research Council (1995)

3

5

Good news/bad news - The inconvenience of breathing

Species Loss

R.I.P. 1929 R.I.P. 1861 R.I.P. <1840 R.I.P. 1935

Species Loss

LOTS of Local Extirpations (think antifreeze genes)

Possibly Lots of Hidden Extinctions

Genetic Diversity Loss

The Valuation of Biodiversity

Rutherford’s stamp collecting analogy?

Ecosystem Functions and Services

(C, P, O2, CO2)

Benefits

Sustaining the other 4999/5000 species

1. Gas regulation

2. Climate regulation

3. Disturbance regulation

4. Water regulation

5. Water supply

6. Erosion control

7. Soil formation

8. Nutrient cycling

9. Waste treatment

10. Pollination

11. Biological control

12. Habitat / Refugia

13. Food production

14. Raw materials

15. Genetic resources

16. Recreation

17. Cultural

Ecosystem Services

From Costanza et al. (1997)

$33 trillion, 21 from oceans

Every second breath we take

comes from a marine microbe

…utilization of CO2 and release

of O2, ozone production

marshes, swamps, wetlands, open ocean

1. Gas regulation

2. Climate regulation Dimethylsulphide Production

H2SO4

PK Quinn & TS Bates Nature 480, 51-56 (2011)

3. Disturbance regulation

Flood control, storm protection Swamps, floodplains, wetlands, coral reefs, estuaries

8. Nutrient cycles…

• Carbon

• Phosphorus

• Nitrogen

• Sulfur

• Oxygen

Larger Consumers

Herbivores

Phytoplankton

DOC & POC

Bacteria

Microconsumers

(primarily Protozoa)

Dissolved inorganic carbon,

Nitrogen, phosphorus, etc.

The water column and microbial loop

Seafloor

aerobic

respiration

anaerobic

respiration

CHO + O2 CO2+ H20

CHO + NO3- CO2+ NH3

N2 (denitrification)

CHO + SO4-2 CO2

+ H2S

CHO + CO2 CO2 + CH4

glucose lactate

Bacterial heterotrophic carbon transformation

(respiration, methanogenesis, fermentation)

aerobic

nitrate reduction

nitrite reduction

sulfate reduction

methanogenesis

fermentation

12. Refugia

Coastal wetlands, reefs, seagrasses, deepwater corals

Age 0

cod

Age 2 cod

predator

Danovaro et al., 2008

Exponential relationship between trophic

diversity and bacterial production

Single Species vs Biodiversity

1. Protect biodiversity hotspots

2. Protect biodiversity by protecting habitat

3. Protect spawners

4. Protect subsets of population

5. Protect source populations

6. Protect all life history stages

Sustaining Biodiversity

Areas with some degree of

protection

How are we doing globally in developing MPAs?

After Roberts & Hawkins (2000)

MPA (all types) < 0.5%

No fishing whatsoever <0.0001%

Theme Biodiversity

Theme Ecosystem Function

Theme Population Connectivity

The NSERC Canadian Healthy Oceans Network

Biodiversity science for sustainable oceans

The Strategy

Hudson Bay

James Bay Victoria

Frobisher Bay

Davis

Beaufort-McKenzie

942

60 m2 Area

Archambault et al. in prep

Arctic

Baseline

Examples – Theme 1

Energy &

Minerals Fisheries

Biodiversity Military

Climate

Change

Coastal

Development

Tourism

Shipping &

Transport

Governance

(e.g. bioprospecting)

• not one known species-level barcode sequence from Northern

Line Islands and Moorea crustaceans (Plaisance et al. 2009),

(i.e. GenBank)

22 small dead coral heads from 5 islands (total 2 m2)

• 789 individual crustaceans

• 500 sequenced…135 distinct OTUs

• included 65 brachyuran crab species

(~30% of known European, ~1% global)

• most species rare and local

(44% singletons, another 33% only on one of five islands)

CReefs