Ecological Marine Units: GIS provides better understanding of the Ocean Ecosystem

Ecological Marine Units (EMU) was created by ESRI and USGS in collaboration with other public and private organizations including NatureServe, The Marine Conservation Institute, University of Auckland, Duke University, GRID-Arendal, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, NIWA, NOAA, and NASA (ESRI, 2017). EMU was released in 2016 which establishes 3D point mesh framework with 52 million points and six variables of global measurement of the oceans column collected over 50-year period (ESRI, 2017).

EMU is a 3D marine ecological map that can be used to analyze the ocean floor features and ocean depth along with the ocean parameters such as salinity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, nitrate, phosphate, silicate, and sediment thickness (ESRI, 2017). These parameters can be used to understand niche for species, species distribution, seabed habitat and marine communities within an ecosystem and how it responds to changes in their environment.

EMU is especially important for the marine ecosystem conservation and management organizations. This map can help these organizations identify locations that will be best used for Marine Protected Areas by understanding the ocean depth, ocean floor sedimentation, temperature at different depth, physical and chemical components of the ocean setting. UMU is also available for the ArcGis desktop and could be a useful tool for analysis and basemap along with other layers of interest when construction maps such as MPA’s.

ESRI. (2017). Ecological Marine Units. Retrieved from esri: http://www.esri.com/ecological-marine-units