Project: Census of Marine Zooplankton-2004-2010

The Census of Marine Zooplankton (CMarZ) is a field project of the Census of Marine Life (see www.CoML.org). CMarZ is working toward a taxonomically comprehensive assessment of biodiversity of animal plankton throughout the world ocean. The project goal is to produce accurate and complete information on zooplankton species diversity, biomass, biogeographical distribution, genetic diversity, and community structure by 2010. Our taxonomic focus is the animals that drift with ocean currents throughout their lives (i.e., the holozooplankton, Fig. 1). This assemblage currently includes ~6,800 described species in fifteen phyla; our expectation is that at least that many new species will be discovered as a result of our efforts. The census encompasses unique marine environments and those likely to be inhabited by endemic and undescribed zooplankton species.