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| | | Biology |
Maintained by CoML
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| | The oceans contain the origins of biodiversity on Earth, with 75% of the major taxa (kinds) being exclusively or primarily marine. The physical and chemical properties of our oceans make them excellent hosts for an abundance and diversity of marine life. We must understand the biological and ecological factors controlling the marine environment before we can successfully develop global strategies for sustainable use. As ocean policy-makers satisfy the socioeconomic aspirations of expanding human populations, they must also ensure the long-term viability of marine species, resources and habitats. Partnerships among the Census of Marine Life, the Encyclopaedia of Life and the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) will go far towards documenting all 230,000 known marine species in time for the first Census of Marine Life - past, present and future - in 2010, explained in the short videoclip Counting Creatures. Note the progress made by the Census 2007/2008 Highlights Report, in English with text translations into Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese and Indonesian. |  | | Photo title: aboutmacridge | | Photo credit: Census of Marine Life | | | | Census of Marine Life - Making Ocean Life Count | | |  What are they? How many are there? How many were there? How many will there be?
The Census of Marine Life is a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. The world's first comprehensive Census of Marine Life - past, present, and future - will be released in 2010. The emphasis of the program is on field studies, which are being carried out in poorly known habitats like the deep-sea (CeDAMar) as well as those assumed to be well-known eg coral reefs (CReefs). Through field studies and other projects, ranging from analyzing historical documents (HMAP) to modeling future ecosystems (FMAP), the Census will enable scientists to compare what once lived in the oceans to current populations, as well as to project what will inhabit the oceans of the future. To learn more about CoML field projects, click this link! | | | | OBIS - Marine Biodiversity Database | | |  Where are they found?
Adding new data, standardizing them in a database, and opening them to computer search multiplies the knowledge that can enlighten people and guide decisions. In the spirit of sharing knowledge, Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) formerly part of the Census of Marine Life (CoML), has expanded to provide identification and location information on more than 106,000 marine species from 660 databases. OBIS now has 19.3 million records from 13 regional nodes around the globe, and three more will soon join the network. OBIS is a globally integrated, geo-referenced quantitative information system.
During the last General Assembly of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)in June 2009, OBIS was formally adopted as an activity of its International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange programme. OBIS will remain operating as a distributed network, but management will be under the aegis of IOC. More details on this are available on the IODE site.
To begin creating your own data tables, maps and predict distribution using environmental information, please visit the OBIS Portal.
See More... | | | | Ecology | | |  In the ocean, a certain interdependency exists between its living things. Ocean inhabitants enjoy a deep and intricate relationship between each other, as well as with their marine environment. To explore the relationship between Biology and Ecology in more depth, please visit the Ecology section of the UN Atlas!
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| Scum's Big Break
by Crooks, E., Financial Times (Asia Edition) pg.4 16 September 2008 | |
| | On a scenic Hawaiian coastline Royal Dutch Shell, Europe’s biggest oil company, is filling six acres of ponds with algae. With increasing concerns for future fuel supplies, one of the most exotic but most appealing proposals is the production of biodiesel from algae. Unlike crops such as corn, algae do not need fresh water or fertile land, thus posing no threat to food supplies. Algal ponds could yield 10 times as much oil per hectare as jatropha plants, which do not require agricultural land. A full-scale facility would cover 50,000 acres, but Shell will only move to that if both the initial pilot plant and a 2,500-acre demonstration plant perform to expectations. Graeme Sweeney, Shell’s head of future fuels is well aware of the constraints of developing advanced biofuels. “The timetable for achieving this is around 2015 for significant production,” he says. “We are looking at five to 10 years or so.” | |
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