Census of marine life mapping and visualization team. The worlds first comprehensive census of marine lifepast, present, and futurewill be released in 2010. View marrus orthocanna, a sea creature biologically similar to a jellyfish, photographed during noaas hidden ocean expedition, part of the international census of marine life. The effort used state of the art tracking technology to catalog the movements of macrofauna like seals, sharks, and salmon in the pacific ocean. Census of marine life 2020 life in a changing ocean looking. The census of marine life coml is a growing global network of researchers in more than 50 nations engaged in a tenyear initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life in the oceans past, present and future. Presenting the results from the first census of marine life. Census of marine life definition of census of marine. Learn more about what wwf is doing to address these threats and what you can do to help.
Layers and resources census of marine life maps and. The census of marine life was a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. Census of marine life video release smithsonian ocean. The census of marine life grew out of a series of global concept meetings, following a 1995 u. Research from this program will contribute to the development of ecosystembased management ebm in the gulf of maine and around the world. Aggregated more than 30 million of specieslevel records obtained before and outside the census and added millions more from its own field work, including 1,200 newly. Oct 05, 2010 breathe in produced by national geographic for the release of results of the first census of marine life 4 october 2010 royal institution of great britain, london, uk. One ocean, many worlds of life 3 creams, sauces, and pastes, are mixed into paint and used to make paper and even in skin lotion and toothpaste. National research council report indicating that no nation in the world could list the species that. Aug 03, 2010 the latest collection of papers relating to the census of marine life coml, posted on plos one, contains the most comprehensive record of marine biodiversity ever, says senior project scientist.
Ocean life going farther, census of marine life maps and. Creatures from the census of marine life live science. We are scientists, students and others interested in zooplankton from around the world who are working toward a taxonomically comprehensive assessment of biodiversity of animal plankton throughout the world ocean, a field project of the census of marine life see. For scientists and policy makers for educators and the public for the census community. A ted talk from paul snelgrove about synthesizing the information from the census. Toward a census of marine life the rockefeller university. Leadership through a merger with the joint oceanographic. The census of marine life provides a glimpse into a vast and diverse marine world that we rarely see.
Coml field projects will extend our understanding of ocean diversity, distribution and abundance from the. First census of marine life reveals thousands of new species. Resources for educators and the public census of marine life. As 10 years of intensive research draw to a close, the census of marine life has released the most comprehensive inventory of life in the ocean to date. Poem, the census of marine life is about the total richness of the sea pdf. Thus, the international initiative census of marine life 1 was launched to assess and explain the changing diversity, distribution and abundance of marine species from the past to the present, and to project future ocean life.
The world of the census census of marine life maps and. For context, let me say a few words each about diversity, distribution, and abundance. This publication was prepared by the harte research institute, gulf of mexico, an affiliated project of the census of marine life, under the direction of census us national committee chair, wes tunnell. Neritic zone the neritic zone is the pelagic environment or the region of water that lies above the continental shelf, it is fewer than 200 meters in depth. During the 10year project more than 38,000 marine species were inventoried from ocean habitats ranging from coastal waters to the deep sea. Combining historical and paleoecological research with modeling may go far to. In 2016 the project was renamed to the marine life census.
Please let us know and we can add it to our marine life census page with all the other unique marine life sightings are presented. A global network of researchers engaged in a scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. Census of marine life simple english wikipedia, the free. The gulf of maine area program is the regional ecosystem project of the global census of marine life, which seeks to explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the ocean. Tiny marine plants called phytoplankton release half of all. The census of marine life, a tenyear project to catalog all life in the sea, discovered more than 6,000 new species during its decade of discovery, scientists reported as they unveiled its. Marine migration research, continued go to the census of marine life tagging of pacific predators project website. Resources for educators and the public the first census of marine life reported its findings of its tenyear investigation of diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life on october 4, 2010. Oct 07, 2010 the census of marine life, a tenyear project to catalog all life in the sea, discovered more than 6,000 new species during its decade of discovery, scientists reported as they unveiled its. Using everything from oldfashioned nets to underwater robots, this global network of researchers engaged in a tenyear 20002010 mission to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life in the oceans. The census of marine life program is committed to taking what is learned about biodiversity at all scales within species, within communities, and between communities, integrating this knowledge, and applying it to improving management of human activities in the ocean. Census of marine life, an international program 20012010 to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of living organisms in the oceans. The worlds first comprehensive census of marine life past, present, and future was released in 2010 in london. In 1995 the national research council of the american national academy of sciences issued a report calling for a comprehensive analysis of marine biodiversity.
Biologging has been employed on a large scale and in an operational mode showing that it can play an important role in a global ocean observing system. The tagging of pacific pelagics topp, a field program of the census of marine life, has proven the. The following is an outline of what you might find and where. The need for a global approach was a guiding principle from the inception of the census. The study of marine life is called marine biology, and a person that studies marine life is called a marine biologist. The results of their research, which included 540 marine expeditions, werereported at the royal society, london, in october.
Gulf of maine census partners at the huntsman marine science center are featured in the 2010 summer gulf of maine times 29 jun 2010. The census of marine life was developed in this context, using new. Using historic databases some of which are centuriesold, new ocean exploration technologies, and the communications power of the worldwide web, comls mission is to assess and. Census of marine life publishes historic roll call of species. The global census of marine life publishes a landmark series of papers in plos one that detail biodiversity in 25 key world ocean areas on all seven continents. Learn more about what wwf is doing to address these threats and what you can do to. Unfortunately much of this marine life is increasingly threatened by pollution, bycatch, development and climate change. Pdf in this paper, we report on three interrelated activities. Looking to find out what the census of marine life is. Oct 04, 2010 the census of marine life, which announced its full findings monday, has taken 10 years to complete, employing 2,700 scientists from 80 nations. The history of marine animal populations hmap is an international, interdisciplinary research initiative. Gulf of maine scientists featured in new article, the census under the sea historic 10year tally gives new insight into the planets astonishing array of marine life.
Its head is ron odor of dalhousie university in halifax, nova scotia, canada. The census of marine life engaged over 2,000 scientists from 80 countries in an investigation of every ocean life form from microbes to large predators. It comprises the historical component of the census of marine life and is designed to measure and explain patterns of longterm change in the diversity, distribution and abundance of life in the oceans. Census of marine life publishes historic roll call of. Pdf the census of marine life, the ocean biogeographic. According to a recent open access census of marine life paper in zootaxa by us expert bill eschmeyer and colleagues, the number of marine fish species in. Use the information you find to answer the questions below about the natural history and migratory habits of your assigned species. This landmark collection of scientific papers describes and documents marine life in 25 key ocean areas from the tropics to the poles, and will serve as a baseline for measuring future changes. Breathe in produced by national geographic for the release of results of the first census of marine life 4 october 2010 royal institution of great britain, london, uk. More than 70 nations are involved and over a billion us dollars will be spent on it. The first census of marine life, completed in 2010, brought together 2,700 scientists from more than 80 nations to establish a baseline of the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the global ocean against which future change can be measured. Census of marine life lists 122,500 known species, over.
The worlds first comprehensive census of the past, present, and future of life in the oceans was released in october 2010. Marine migration research national geographic society. Exploring the inner space of the celebes sea grades 912 biology focus. Discoveries of the census of marine life is the richly illustrated story of how the census of marine life has transformed the way we see and understand life in the global ocean.
The census of marine life, a global network of researchers from more than 80 countries engaged in a 10 years initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution and abundance of life in the oceans, has reported that every second specimen collected from abyssal waters deeper than 3,000 meters belonged to a previously undescribed specie. The results of their research, which included 540 marine expeditions, werereported at the royal society, london, in october 2010. Only by leveraging global resources and experts could the goals be met. More than 2,700 scientists from 80 nations contributed to the census. This daunting featcounting all the critters in the seais the goal of a project called the census of marine life. The stated purpose slide 2 of the census of marine life is to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life. Those results and a decade of resources can be found on this website. The census of marine lifeevolution of worldwide marine. We are studying the 7,000 described species in 15 phyla that comprise the holozooplankton animals that drift. About the author paul snelgrove is a professor in memorial university of newfoundlands ocean sciences centre and biology department. More than 70 nations are involved and over a billion us dollars will be spent on it it is a major work of marine ecology.
The census of marine life was an international project spanning 10 years that recorded the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the ocean. Many marine plants and animals contain a multitude of substances being used, or identified as being of potential use, in medicines. Census of marine life article about census of marine life. Census of marine life, international collaborative research project, undertaken 200010, that catalogued the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the worlds seas and oceans. May 05, 2010 although humans have pursued pelagic animals for hundreds indeed thousands of years, our understanding of their complex lives remains fragmentary. The oceans encompass almost 10 times as much deep sea averaging 4,000 meters as shallow shelf up to 200 meters.
At the top of the page, click on the photo of your groups assigned species. For more information on the census of marine life, the official homepage of the. Census of marine life lists 122,500 known species, over halfway to complete inventory by oct. Pdf the census of marine lifeevolution of worldwide marine. The census of marine life is a tenyear survey of life in the oceans, starting in 2000. The first of its kind, the census involved 17 discrete projects and 2,700 scientists. Completed daniel costa, university of california santa cruz cc byncsa 2. Marine biologists may have many different jobs, including working with marine mammals e. Jun 25, 2018 the census of marine life was an international project spanning 10 years that recorded the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the ocean.