At Living Data 2025, experts from across the biodiversity community explored new ways of collecting, sharing, and using biodiversity data. Here, we share highlights from the conference, focusing on ocean observing gaps, biases, and the pathways for improving global ocean biodiversity monitoring.
The Living Data 2025 conference, held on 21-24 October in Bogotá, Colombia, brought together global experts working at the intersection of biodiversity observation, data management, and decision-making. The event served as a platform to advance the conversation on how biodiversity information can better support sustainable management, conservation, and policy.
For the ocean community, it was a valuable opportunity to connect marine biodiversity observations to broader global biodiversity monitoring frameworks, and to highlight the contributions of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) in this effort.
Despite the conference’s cross-domain focus, the topic of ocean data was highly visible throughout the programme. The engagement of the ocean community was strong, reflecting the growing recognition that marine biodiversity information and sustained ocean observations are essential for a holistic understanding of life on Earth.
Key takeaways for ocean observing: Biases and gaps in biodiversity data
Discussions throughout the conference revealed important lessons relevant to the ocean observing community. A recurring theme was the persistence of biases and gaps in biodiversity data, both on land and in the ocean.
One major gap is the reliance on single-species occurrence records rather than multiple-species surveys for a given location. This limitation provides an incomplete picture of ecosystem composition and makes it difficult to assess interactions among species or evaluate ecosystem health accurately.
Another challenge is that the movement of marine organisms is often not accounted for in observations. Many species are highly mobile, and without incorporating movement patterns, abundance estimates can be misleading or fail to capture seasonal and spatial dynamics that are critical for management and conservation.
There is also a pronounced inequality in observing effort across species and habitats. Large, charismatic or economically important species tend to dominate datasets, while small or less-appealing species remain largely unobserved. This bias reduces the representativeness of biodiversity indicators and can obscure declines in less-visible species, which are nevertheless essential for ecosystem functioning.
Gaps in geographic coverage are another major concern for the ocean. Observations are particularly sparse in the open ocean and at depths below 200 metres, leaving vast portions of the marine realm poorly understood. These under-sampled areas are critical for understanding global biodiversity patterns and ocean functioning. Addressing these gaps – and improving the spatial and temporal coverage of data in coastal areas – is essential for developing effective conservation strategies.
Finally, the integration of data across Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) remains insufficient. Coordinated, multi-EOV observing approaches are urgently required to capture the full complexity of marine ecosystems. Strengthening this integration will enable a more comprehensive understanding of ecological processes and of the role of biodiversity in shaping them, while enhancing the capacity of ocean science to deliver actionable information to decisionmakers.
These conversations resonated strongly with the GOOS mission to build a coordinated, fit-for-purpose ocean observing system that delivers the information needed for both a healthy ocean and thriving communities.
Towards an integrated global biodiversity observing system
Living Data 2025 provided GOOS with the chance to engage directly with leading biodiversity data experts. These exchanges will help strengthen the data flows between GOOS and OBIS, inform the observing system design, and enhance coordination across the EOV observing communities.
The insights gained during the conference will support ongoing efforts to ensure that the ocean component of the global biodiversity observing system is robust, interoperable, and responsive to the information needs of nations working to manage and protect biodiversity at all scales, from local to global.
GOOS extends its appreciation to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), and OBIS for organizing this important event, and to the conference hosts in Colombia for their hospitality.
Watch the recording of the joint GOOS, OBIS and MBON session “A Global Ocean Biodiversity Observing System supporting governance framework implementation” here.