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Over the 10-year course of the recently completed Census of Marine Life, a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations has collaborated to improve our understanding of marine biodiversity - past, present, and future. Providing insight into this remarkable project, this book explains the rationale behind the Census and highlights some of its most important and dramatic findings, illustrated with full-color photographs throughout. It explores how new technologies and partnerships have contributed to greater knowledge of marine life, from unknown species and habitats, to migration routes and distribution patterns, and to a better appreciation of how the oceans are changing. Looking to the future, it identifies what needs to be done to close the remaining gaps in our knowledge and provide information that will enable us to better manage resources, conserve diversity, reverse habitat losses, and respond to global climate change.
Chronicles the world's first complete census of biodiversity in the world's oceans, providing the reader with an insight into this remarkable project • Coverage of the whole range of marine habitats - from shoreline to deep abyss and from the Arctic to the Antarctic - providing data from areas of the world that have never before been studied • Looks to the future, considering how we can close the remaining knowledge gaps and work towards sustainable ocean use
Contents
Foreword; Preface; Introduction; Part I. The Unknown. Why a Census?: 1. Planet Ocean; 2. The ocean environments; 3. A riot of species from microbes to whales; Part II. The Known. What has the Census Learned?: 4. New ways of seeing deeper and farther; 5. Around the ocean rim; 6. At the ends of the Earth; 7. Ocean life in motion; 8. Into the deep; 9. Changing ocean; Part III. From Unknown to Unknowable: 10. Planet Ocean beyond 2010; Index.
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