Fwd: Marine Biodiversity Networking Fridays | Animal Movement | Friday, February 13 at 1 pm UTC
Mathew Biddle - NOAA Federal
From: Neil Hammerschlag <neilhamm...@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Feb 1, 2026 at 5:19 PM
Subject: Marine Biodiversity Networking Fridays | Animal Movement | Friday, February 13 at 1 pm UTC
Description: Movements of animals play a key role in the connectivity and health of ecosystems and represent causes and consequences of changes in biodiversity. However, they remain under-recognized in multilateral conservation frameworks, largely due to a real or perceived lack of accessible information about these movements. In this session, we will introduce the Animal Movement Biodiversity Observation Network (Move BON), a thematic BON that was endorsed in fall 2025. Incorporating movement into biodiversity policy offers opportunities to enhance metrics of connectivity and ranges and reveal overlooked components of biodiversity. In this session, we will describe the current activities of the BON, plans for the first year, and how to get involved. Marine BON and efforts to mobilize marine tracking and bio-logging data that are already impacting global conservation policy offer successful examples for Move BON to learn from. In the second half of the session we will also discuss the continued growth of acoustic telemetry to track animals through the ocean, and how the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) is a global centralizing force bringing together independent ocean observing projects into a global observatory that can answer marine conservation and policy questions at spatial and temporal scales beyond the scope of any individual tracking study. We will describe in detail how data mobilization adds value and secondary utility for the animal movement data aggregated through OTN and the array of intercompatible research network infrastructures it supports. We will also showcase how marine telemetry data are being mobilized through coordinated infrastructures such as the U.S. Animal Telemetry Network (ATN), briefly outlining how satellite telemetry data are archived at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information and transformed into Darwin Core–compliant products for sharing through OBIS and GBIF, demonstrating how standardized data pipelines increase the long-term value, accessibility, and policy relevance of animal movement data.
Hosted by: AIR Centre – Atlantic International Research Centre and the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network
Register: https://www.aircentre.org/marine-biodiversity-networking-friday-on-animal-movement/
Executive Director, Shark Research Foundation
Courtesy Faculty, Oregon State University
e: neilhamm...@gmail.com | c: 902.943.6139 |
t/IG: @drneilhammer | BioSketch
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