With ocean life facing unprecedented threat from climate
change, overfishing, pollution, invasive species and habitat destruction, a
University of Florida researcher is helping coordinate national efforts to
monitor marine biodiversity.
Humans depend on the ocean for food, medicine,
transportation and recreation, yet little is known about how these vast
ecosystems spanning 70 percent of the Earth’s surface are functioning and
changing. Following a workshop sponsored by U.S. federal agencies in 2010,
researchers at eight institutions have proposed a blueprint for establishing a
cooperative marine biodiversity observation network to monitor trends in marine
ecosystem health and the distribution and abundance of oceanic life. The
research will appear online in BioScience Thursday and in the journal’s May
print issue.