DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6q573n6bg
title: Data and outputs from: Achieving full representativity of seafloor biodiversity with minimal expansion: Exploring a strategy for New Zealand marine conservation

description: The New Zealand Seafloor Community Classification (NZSCC), which was
 developed to inform marine spatial planning processes at a national scale,
 depicts compositional turnover of 1,716 taxa (demersal fish, reef fish,
 benthic invertebrates, and macroalgae) classified in 75 groups
 representing seafloor communities. Here, we use the NZSCC and the
 conservation planning software Zonation to explore how representativity of
 benthic communities could be enhanced across spatial management areas
 (including protected areas) in New Zealand’s marine environment. Estimates
 of within- and between- NZSCC group similarity/dissimilarity
 (incorporating measures of uncertainty) and taxonomic richness,
 representing beta and alpha diversity respectively, are used to (1)
 identify a baseline spatial management scenario that ignores any existing
 spatial management measures; and (2) a scenario that prioritises optimal
 expansion of the current network of spatial management areas. Results
 indicate that a relatively small increase in spatial protection (1.5 %)
 can result in large increases in the representativity of all NZSCC groups
 within spatial management areas, including those groups currently not
 represented. The use of within- and between-group similarity/dissimilarity
 is an improvement on spatial prioritisation processes that consider groups
 within benthic classifications to be homogenous. These results provide a
 solid base for informing the development of improved future protection
 measures within New Zealand that can meaningfully contribute to the
 representativity element of the Global Biodiversity Framework Target 3.
description: # Data and outputs from: Achieving full representativity of seafloor
 biodiversity with minimal expansion: Exploring a strategy for New Zealand
 marine conservation Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.6q573n6bg](10.5061/dryad.6q573n6bg) ## Description of the
 data and file structure Here we provide all settings and outputs for two
 Zonation scenarios and their post-analysis in R: * Scenario 1:
 prioritisation of seafloor communities using NZSCC-derived layers and
 current spatial management areas. * Scenario 2: prioritisation of seafloor
 communities using NZSCC-derived layers without any existing spatial
 management area (optimal scenario). ### Files and variables #### File:
 data.zip **Description:** all the datasets used by Zonation and by the
 main R script analysis. #### File: main.R **Description:** code to
 evaluate the outputs from the Zonation scenarios using data derived from
 the NZSCC. #### File: output.zip **Description:** all the written outputs
 by the main R script. Description of variables available in
 'Post.Acc_SC1_Zonation_Summary.csv' (Scenario 1) and
 'Post.Acc_SC2_Zonation_Summary.csv' (Scenario 2): *
 'Within.Group' within-group similarity layers (n=75) *
 'Between.Group' between-group similarity layers (n=75) *
 'Richness' taxonomic richness layers (n=4) *
 'Min.Prop_0.XX' % minimum proportion (individual feature) at the
 'XX' threshold (i.e., 95 %) of the Zonation ranked solution *
 'Mean.Prop_0.XX' % mean proportion (across features) at the
 'XX' threshold (i.e., 95 %) of the Zonation ranked solution -
 'Max.Prop_0.XX' % maximum proportion (individual feature) at the
 'XX' threshold (i.e., 95 %) of the Zonation ranked solution
 Description of variables available in
 'Post.Acc_SC1_Zonation.csv' (Scenario 1) and
 'Post.Acc_SC2_Zonation.csv' (Scenario 2): * 'Intra_X'
 within-group similarity for group 'X' [1 - 75] *
 'Inter0_X' between-group similarity for group 'X' [1 -
 75] * 'Prop_0.X' % proportion of the layer (feature) at the
 'X' threshold (i.e., 95 %) of the Zonation ranked solution *
 Category: either between- or within- group similarity Description of
 variables available in 'NZSCC_groups_extent.csv': *
 'GF.grp' NZSCC Group [1 - 75] * 'Extent' spatial
 extent of the NZSCC Group (in square km) Description of variables
 available in 'NZSCC_SC2_top30_overlap.csv': * 'GF.grp'
 NZSCC Group [1 - 75] * 'Extent' spatial extent in square km *
 'Prop': % proportion of the NZSCC group (see 'GF.grp'
 ) at the top 30 % of Scenario 2 Zonation ranked solution #### File:
 sc1.zip **Description:** Zonation config, setting files and outputs for
 Scenario 1. #### File: sc2.zip **Description:** Zonation config, setting
 files and outputs for Scenario 2. ## Code/software INSTRUCTIONS: unzip all
 zipped files. The structure should be: ./main.R\ ./README.txt\
 ./data/masks/\ ./data/richness/\ ./data/similarity\ ./data/uncertainty/\
 ./output/\ ./sc1/\ ./sc2/ If you want to re-run the scenarios you need to
 install Zonation (we used v5.1 which was the latest stable release at the
 time the analysis was conducted):
 [https://github.com/zonationteam/Zonation5](&lt;
 https://github.com/zonationteam/Zonation5&gt;) **IMPORTANT**: If you want
 to re-run the scenarios, Zonation scenario files './sc1/sc1' and
 './sc2/sc2' may need to be updated as they include the following
 hard-coded filepaths: \- Zonation exe file\ \- Zonation settings file\ \-
 Zonation output folder ## Access information Data was derived from the
 following sources: * Spatial management area layers used in this research
 are publicly available in the Department of Conservation Marine Data
 Portal
 [https://doc-marine-data-deptconservation.hub.arcgis.com/](https://doc-marine-data-deptconservation.hub.arcgis.com/) and the Ministry for Primary Industries Open Geospatial Data Portal [https://data-mpi.opendata.arcgis.com/](https://data-mpi.opendata.arcgis.com/) * Benthic invertebrates’ richness was sourced from Brough et al (2025): Brough, T., Stephenson, F., Leunissen, E. and Lundquist, C. (2025), Spatial Modelling Approaches for Estimating Richness of Benthic Invertebrates Throughout New Zealand Waters. Divers Distrib, 31: e70006. [https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.70006](https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.70006)