Scientists are creating a massive global database of marine creatures, revealing tremendous biodiversity ranging from the ocean's shallows to its cold, dark depths
We are no longer completely at sea when it comes to the creatures that thrive beneath the ocean's surface, thanks to a decadelong effort to document marine diversity. The Census of Marine Life, an ambitious project to catalogue sea life, was prompted by estimates that science had sampled marine biota in only 0.1 percent of the volume of the world's oceans. The results compiled from this global collaboration of more than 2,700 scientists from 80 nations will be released in October, although some findings have been published in advance in a series of 12 papers available online August 2 in PLoS One.
The latest findings profile the diversity and distribution of known species in 25 important marine areas, including temperate, tropical and polar oceanic waters such as the Caribbean, Baltic and Mediterranean Seas as well as the Gulf of Mexico. The data provide a baseline for marine diversity that will be useful when assessing the future impacts of humans and nature on pelagic life.
To read the full, original article click on this link: All (Submerged) Creatures Big and Small: A Census Catalogues the World's Marine Species [Slide Show]: Scientific American
Author: Nicholette Zeliadt
