The Census of Marine Zooplankton (CMarZ) is a field project of the Census of Marine Life (see http://www.CoML.org ). CMarZ will work 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. Our taxonomic focus is the animals that drift with ocean currents throughout their lives. 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 will encompass unique marine environments and those likely to be inhabited by endemic and undescribed zooplankton species.
A distributed database - fully integrated with and searchable from the Ocean Biogeographical Information System (OBIS) portal - contains species-level, specimen-based, geo-referenced entries.
Molecular analysis will include determining a DNA barcode (i.e., reference DNA sequence) for each species describing genetic diversity and structure of populations and species, identifying cryptic species, and reconstructing their evolutionary histories.
