Data
We enthusiastically support the use of our data, but please cite our work!
Global Ocean Health Index assessments require synthesizing highly heterogeneous information from nearly one hundred sources. Data from each source are formatted and used to calculate Index scores using freely available coding and version control software. One of our goals is to make all our data and methods available to anyone who wants to further explore our results or use the data for other projects. One exception to our policy of providing data is that we do not provide unaltered data obtained from other sources, you will need to go the original data sources, described in our data preparation files, to obtain those data.
Here we direct you to the data and methods from the global Ocean Health Index as well as other related projects.
Global OHI assessments
Download index scores, goal models, data, and methods from the most recent assessment. Assessments have been conducted annually since 2012.
Cumulative human impacts
Most recent project
We recently mapped the cumulative impact of human activities on global oceans from 2003 to 2013 to describe the rate of change due to expanding and increasing human activities. We found that most of the ocean (59%) is experiencing increasing cumulative impact, in particular due to climate change but also from fishing, land-based pollution, and shipping. The data from this analysis are available from KNB, with a package for each stressor (link to the KNB package by clicking the “Data package name”):
| Category | Data package name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Cumulative impact | Cumulative impacts | The cumulative impact of all 14 stressors on 21 marine habitats |
| Land-based | Organic chemical pollution | The organic chemical pollution stressor describes relative intensity of organic pollution due to pesticide runoff from land-based applications |
| Land-based | Nutrient pollution | The nutrient pollution stressor describes relative intensity of nutrient pollution due to fertilizer runoff from land-based applications |
| Land-based | Light pollution | This stressor estimates the magnitude of light pollution in coastal environments |
| Land-based | Direct human disturbance | This stressor estimates the magnitude of direct human interactions on coastal and near-coastal habitats, such as trampling |
| Climate | Sea level rise | The sea level rise stressor describes the magnitude of increasing sea level due to increasing atmospheric CO2 levels from human influences |
| Climate | Ocean acidification | The ocean acidification stressor describes the magnitude of decreasing aragonite saturation state due to increasing atmospheric CO2 levels from human influences |
| Climate | Sea surface temperature | The sea surface temperature (SST) stressor describes the increased frequency of extreme temperature events relative to a historical baseline period |
| Fisheries | Commercial fishing - pelagic low-bycatch | This stressor describes tonnes of pelagic fisheries catch using low bycatch gear types, standardized by Net Primary Productivity |
| Fisheries | Commercial fishing - pelagic high-bycatch | This stressor describes tonnes of pelagic fisheries catch using high bycatch gear types, standardized by Net Primary Productivity |
| Fisheries | Commercial fishing - demersal non-destructive high-bycatch | This stressor describes tonnes of demersal fisheries catch using nondestructive, but high bycatch, gear types, standardized by Net Primary Productivity |
| Fisheries | Commercial fishing - demersal non-desctructive low-bycatch | This stressor describes tonnes of demersal fisheries catch using nondestructive and low bycatch gear types, standardized by Net Primary Productivity |
| Fisheries | Commercial fishing - demersal destructive | The demersal destructive fishing stressor describes tonnes of catch using demersal destructive gear types, standardized by Net Primary Productivity |
| Fisheries | Artisanal fishing | The artisanal fishing stressor describes the magnitude of artisanal fisheries catch standardized by Net Primary Productivity |
| Shipping | Shipping | This pressure describes intensity of global shipping traffic |
Each data package includes:
- Raw stressor intensity rasters for 2003 to 2013. These rasters are created using scripts located in the ‘stressors’ folder of the ‘impact_acceleration’ Github repository.
- Rescaled stressor intensity rasters for 2003 to 2013. Raw stressor intensities are rescaled to values between 0 and 1, using either known or estimated ecosystem thresholds or upper quantile values from the distribution of global stressor intensity values across years. These rasters are created using scripts located in the ‘stressors’ folder of the ‘impact_acceleration’ Github repository.
- Impact rasters for 2003 to 2013 which describe the impact of the stressor based on the vulnerability of 21 marine ecosystems to the stressor. The impact of the stressor is estimated by multiplying the stressor’s intensity by the corresponding ecosystem vulnerability where the ecosystem occurs. The average impact of each stressor, across all ecosystems, is estimated by summing the stressor-by-ecosystem vulnerability combinations and dividing by the number of ecosystems within each cell. These rasters are created using scripts located in the ‘impacts’ folder of the ‘impact_acceleration’ Github repository.
- A trend raster describing the average annual change in impact from 2003 to 2013. This raster is created using scripts located in the ‘trend’ folder of the ‘impact_acceleration’ Github repository.
The Cumulative impact package also includes:
- Ecosystem rasters describing the location (1 if present, otherwise NA) of 21 global marine ecosystems. These rasters are the same as used in previous years, with the exception of seaice. The seaice raster was created using a script located in the ‘habitats’ folder of the ‘impact_acceleration’ Github repository.
- A vulnerability matrix describing the vulnerability of each ecosystem to each stressor, with values ranging from 0-4.
- The impact_acceleration-1.0.zip GitHub repository with the code used to generate, analyze, and visualize data.
The code to create and analyze these data is available from Github: https://github.com/OHI-Science/impact_acceleration
Earlier projects
We mapped the change, using 2008 and 2013 data, in cumulative impacts to global marine ecosystems from fishing, climate change, and ocean- and land-based stressors (Halpern et al. 2015). Seven data packages are available from KNB:
- supplementary data (habitat data and other files);
- raw stressor data (2008 and 2013);
- stressor data rescaled by one time period (2008 and 2013, scaled from 0-1);
- stressor data rescaled by two time periods (2008 and 2013, scaled from 0-1);
- pressure and cumulative impacts data (2013, all pressures);
- pressure and cumulative impacts data (2008 and 2013, subset of pressures updated for both time periods);
- change in pressures and cumulative impact (2008 to 2013)
Here is an overview of the calculations: Raw stressor data -> rescaled stressor data (values rescaled to be between 0-1) -> pressure data (stressor data after adjusting for habitat/pressure vulnerability) -> cumulative impact (sum of pressure data) -> difference between 2008 and 2013 pressure and cumulative impact data.
All raster files are .tif format and coordinate reference system is mollweide wgs84.
Additionally, you can download data from the Mediterrean Sea cumulative human impacts assessment from an interactive website made by our collaborators here.
Original Cumulative Human Impact Data
The original project for mapping the cumulative human impact to marine ecosystems (Halpern et al. 2008) additionally has 4 packages of data, with the main cumulative impact data available along with several nested datasets available within that page.