Census of Marine Life

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Census of Marine Life

• To assess explain the diversity, distribution
  abundance of marine life

CoML network Over 70 countries participating
Examples of potential CoML contributions to
Ocean Observing

• Standardized nearshore sample sites and protocols
• Biological and physical data integration
• Sampling from vessels of opportunity
• BioProbes reveal ocean physics at biological
  hotspots
• Sampling from vessels of opportunity
• In situ DNA sequencing?
• Biological and physical data integration

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Realms to Explore
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Realms to Explore
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Nearshore NaGISA15,000km Biodiversity Baseline
Intertidal zone and scuba to 10m
The CoML nearshore project has commitments on six
continents to involve local people in standard
sampling protocols for biodiversity and physics
at protected sites, some once, some for 50 years.

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Gulf of Maine Census

• Technology calibration
• Benthic/pelagic coupling
• Integrated ecosystem study
• CoML/GOOS integration test-bed

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POST
Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking Baja to Bering
2003
POST receivers will provide real time biological
species distributions via the Neptune North
cables
256,000 Codes Has been used to track salmon,
sturgeon, lobster, squid, octopus and more
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TOPPTagged animals act as oceanographers
Black-foot Albatross Blue Shark Bluefin
Tuna Elephant Seal Laysan Albatross Salmon Shark
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Continuous Plankton Recorders Samples 1958-2000
First tow 1931
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CoMML
A Census of Marine Microbial Life Getting to
the bottom of the tree of life with automated
sequencing
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Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS)

• Species-level, geo-referenced marine biological
  data
• Biological/physical interface

Geographical coverage of species records in OBIS

Sampling need 90 of records in top 100m of ocean
www.iobis.org