Israel

The Israeli territorial waters and its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) are delimited by a rectangular polygon parallel to the shore and spans the depth range of 0-2000 m and an area of ~26,000 square Km. In 2023, The Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research (IOLR) opened a publicly available database, designated ISRAMARBIO, which is aimed at including all the biotic data collected in the last ~130 years along the Mediterranean waters of Israel as well as selected adjacent interesting sites located in the South Eastern part of the Mediterranean. A substantial part of this data, detailed below, was already deposited in our database, but not all of it. The database is aimed at providing data and research tools for long-term bio-geographic and ecological studies as well as background data for assisting governmental policymakers to establish educated environmental policy. The east edge of the Mediterranean was less documented than its west part and introducing this database to EMODnet biology and eventually to the Digital Twin Ocean (DTO) system would improve the digital ocean model and our knowledge of the Mediterranean biodiversity. Data sources for ISRAMARBIO are peer-reviewed publications in international languages but also samples that were obtained in the framework of dissertations and local monitoring programs written in Hebrew or English and are not internationally available. Detailed description of ISRAMARBIO was published in “Tom, M., Lubinevsky, H., Kanari, M. 2023. Integrative data system for monitoring biota and natural habitats in the Israeli Eastern Mediterranean marine environment. Environ. Monit. Assess. 195, 1068,”
The database is built on a publicly accessed Geographic Information System-Based (GIS) online platform (ESRI, USA) supported by a virtual Windows server 2012R2 which stores a variety of textual and pictorial documents. The link to the public site is: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/40e86605ff4d4e5096ed2c901fec2a2f. Each biotic data item is termed a record and every record is composed of sampled taxon which is part of a single sample. The taxon name is accompanied by ~50 descriptive items divided into taxonomy information with the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) as a reference, quantitative information if exists, documentation and formal information, sampling location, time and date, processing information and bio-geographic origin. Due to GIS limitations, the records are
arranged in three assemblies devoted to point, line and polygon samples. In addition to the biotic information, the database includes habitats’ map of the Israeli waters and several auxiliary GIS map layers including hill-shade, nature reserves and protected marine areas, human interference areas and sites and contour layer.
The aim of the present project is to integrate ISRAMARBIO biotic data with EMODnet biology and consequently with DTO, establishing flow of biotic data deposited in ISRAMARBIO to the EU system. Definition of east Mediterranean marine habitats is not yet established in the European system (EUNIS) and their integration into it could be also a potential goal of the project, depending on EUNIS consent. IOLR is already a member of EMODnet, continuously providing oceanographic and bathymetric data to its depositories.