Corresponding author: Salomé Fabri-Ruiz (
Academic editor: Yves Samyn
This database includes over 7,100 georeferenced occurrence records of sea urchins (
Environmental descriptors that are relevant to echinoid ecology are also made available for the study area (-180°W/+180°E; -45°/-78°S) and for the following decades: 1955–1964, 1965–1974, 1975–1984, 1985–1994 and 1995–2012. They were compiled from different sources and transformed to the same grid cell resolution of 0.1° per pixel. We also provide future projections for environmental descriptors established based on the Bio-Oracle database (
Fabri-Ruiz S, Saucède T, Danis B, David B (2017) Southern Ocean Echinoids database – An updated version of Antarctic, Sub-Antarctic and cold temperate echinoid database. ZooKeys 697: 1–20.
SF-R’s work is supported by a PhD grant from French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. The project is a contribution to Biogeosciences laboratory (CNRS UMR6292) and contribution #15 to the vERSO project (
The study area extends from the Antarctic continent in the south to 35° S latitude to the north; it comprises the sub-Polar, Antarctic, Polar Frontal, and sub-Antarctic zones. The Southern Ocean is characterized by unique oceanographic features mainly including an unusually deep continental shelf ranging from 450 m to 1000 m depth (
One of these major fronts is the Polar Front that acts as a biogeographic barrier to the dispersal of many invertebrates between sub-Antarctic and Antarctic waters (
Nowadays, ecological niche modelling is commonly used in macroecological and biogeographic studies to enhance mapping and understanding of species distribution patterns. Models also constitute useful tools for marine area management purposes (
Objectives of our project are to produce robust and reliable species distribution models at the scale of the Southern Ocean, an area where distribution data are very heterogeneous and sampling gaps frequent.
This requires consistent and comprehensive datasets. For this purpose, an extensive echinoid occurrence dataset was compiled, updated, and checked for accuracy. This dataset is presented here.
Taxonomic information was updated according to the most recent literature. For example,
The dataset includes historical data sampled in the Southern Ocean over a century and a half from the Challenger expedition to the most recent oceanographic campaigns led on the Kerguelen Plateau, in Adelie Land and around the Antarctic Peninsula (Figure
Echinoid occurrence records in the Southern Ocean with major marine fronts
In order to quantify sampling effort, a 3° by 3° cell grid was shaped (
We also provide oceanographic features as environmental maps for physical and abiotic parameters that are relevant to echinoid ecology. Environmental data come from the World Ocean Circulation Experiment 2013 database and depth data come from ETOPO1 (
The database includes more than 7,100 georeferenced records (Figure
Sampling effort has long been heterogeneous in the Southern Ocean. It has been the highest along the Antarctic Peninsula and off New Zealand (>200 samples), two areas characterized by a high species number (25–30) (Figure
Number of species recorded per grid cell
Number of samples recorded per grid cell
Our knowledge of genus and species distributions is strongly biased by the quality of sampling effort. Figure
Number of recorded samples against species (blue dots) and genus (red dots) richness per grid cell in the Southern Ocean.
Several areas have been little sampled including the waters close to the sea ice margin and deep oceanic basins, most records being concentrated in the first 400 meters (Figure
Number of occurrences according to depth (m)
Main biogeographic features of Southern Ocean echinoids is a constant decrease of genus richness southward whereas species richness decreases from 35°S to 60°S, increases from 60°s to 65°S, then decreases again southward until 70°S (Figure
Species (blue) and genus (red) richness against latitude
Environmental data were compiled from the following sources:
The database includes occurrence records of all echinoid species reported in the Southern Ocean from the Antarctic continent to 35°S latitude. Echinoids are common organisms of Southern Ocean benthic communities. They have contrasting depth ranges and distribution patterns across austral provinces and bioregions, ranging from coastal areas to the abyssal zone. Echinoid species show various ecological traits including different nutrition and reproductive strategies. In total, 201 species belonging to 31 families were recorded. Many of them are endemic to the Southern Ocean.
Temporal coverage: 1872–2015
Occurrence of echinoids in the Southern Ocean from 1872 to 2015.
Environmental descriptors for the Southern Ocean were compiled from various sources but most of them come from the World Ocean Atlas (
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