View source for Biological valuation

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===Biological valuation method===

The [[Defining marine biological value|marine biological valuation]] methodology is able to integrate all available biological information on an area into one indicator of intrinsic value of marine biodiversity, without reference to [[anthropogenic]] use. This methodology can be used in every marine environment, independent of the amount and quality of the available biological data or the habitat type. 

For environments for which data are available, subzones within a study area are [[Scoring system for marine evaluation|scored]] against two biological valuation criteria: [[Rarity criterion in marine biological evaluation|rarity]] and [[Aggregation and marine biological value|aggregation]] or [[Fitness consequence criterion in marine biological valuation|fitness consequences]].<ref name="ma">[http://www.marbef.org/documents/glossybook/MarBEFbooklet.pdf Heip, C., Hummel, H., van Avesaath, P., Appeltans, W., Arvanitidis, C., Aspden, R., Austen, M., Boero, F., Bouma, TJ., Boxshall, G., Buchholz, F., Crowe, T., Delaney, A., Deprez, T., Emblow, C., Feral, JP., Gasol, JM., Gooday, A., Harder, J., Ianora, A., Kraberg, A., Mackenzie, B., Ojaveer, H., Paterson, D., Rumohr, H., Schiedek, D., Sokolowski, A., Somerfield, P., Sousa Pinto, I., Vincx, M., Węsławski, JM., Nash, R. (2009). Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning. Printbase, Dublin, Ireland ISSN 2009-2539]</ref>


===Biological valuation maps===

Biological value is not a direct measure of ecosystem health, although areas regarded as of high biological value are often considered to be valuable providers of [[Economic valuation of goods and services|socio-economic goods and services]] and are of high quality in terms of environmental health. The main difference is, however, that biological valuation focuses on the features of [[species]] and communities themselves, and not on the contamination or the extractable/usable part of the ecosystem. 

Therefore marine biological valuation provides a comprehensive concept for assessing the intrinsic value of the subzones within a study area. It is a tool for calling attention to subzones that have particularly high ecological or biological significance. The [[Introduction to marine biological valuation maps|biological valuation maps]] can also be used as [[baseline]] maps for future [[spatial planning]] in the marine environment. <ref name="ma">[http://www.marbef.org/documents/glossybook/MarBEFbooklet.pdf Heip, C., Hummel, H., van Avesaath, P., Appeltans, W., Arvanitidis, C., Aspden, R., Austen, M., Boero, F., Bouma, TJ., Boxshall, G., Buchholz, F., Crowe, T., Delaney, A., Deprez, T., Emblow, C., Feral, JP., Gasol, JM., Gooday, A., Harder, J., Ianora, A., Kraberg, A., Mackenzie, B., Ojaveer, H., Paterson, D., Rumohr, H., Schiedek, D., Sokolowski, A., Somerfield, P., Sousa Pinto, I., Vincx, M., Węsławski, JM., Nash, R. (2009). Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning. Printbase, Dublin, Ireland ISSN 2009-2539]</ref>


[[Image:val1.jpg|thumb|centre|650px|Biological valuation of seabed communities in Polish Exclusive Economic Zone ]]

== See also ==

*[[Aggregation and marine biological value]]
*[[Biodiversity as a marine valuation concept]]
*[[Marine biological valuation - conclusions from a workshop|Conclusions from the MarBEF and Encora workshop on marine biological valuation]]
*[[Marine biological valuation maps - an example from Belgium]]
*[[Potential application of the concept of marine biological valuation]]
*[http://www.marbef.org/documents/Theme3/GhentWS/report.pdf Rapport of the MarBEF and Encora workshop on marine biological valuation]
*[[Rarity criterion in marine biological evaluation]]
*[[Resilience as a criterion in marine biological evaluation]]
*[[Selected marine biological valuation criteria]]
*[[The importance of geographical scale in marine biological evaluation]]
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== References ==
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