OBIS

OBIS, the Ocean Biodiversity Information System, is a global open-access database of marine species occurrence records operated under the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO as part of its International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) program. Renamed from the Ocean Biogeographic Information System, it aggregates over a hundred million records from thousands of datasets contributed by research institutions worldwide, standardized to the Darwin Core schema. Researchers query it to map species distributions, identify biodiversity hotspots, model range shifts under climate change, and support marine spatial planning and protected-area design. OBIS underpins biodiversity indicators feeding global assessments and the Convention on Biological Diversity.