Understanding Marine Biodiversity (1995) / Chapter Skim
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1 INTRODUCTION
1 INTRODUCTION
Pages 5-13
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From page 5... ...
Because humans rely on the oceans for food, mineral resources, and recreation, and because marine life offers potential future benefits to society, such as in the area of biomedical products, it is critical to develop conservation and management strategies that facilitate the long-term sustained use of the sea by humans while m~n~m~z~ng impacts on nature. Yet to be determined is the ultimate impact of a growing human population on marine biota from the smallest plankton to the largest whales, living on the bottom or in suspension, at depths ranging from the highest intertidal shores to the abyss (e.g., Boxes 1 and 21.
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From page 6... ...
Whale skeleton-associated species are similar, and in some cases identical, to organisms previously thought to be restricted to the chemosynthetic-based bydrothermal vents and other deep-sea microbial reducing habitats. Whale skele tons scattered like islands in the deep sea may thus provide some of the critical ::: :: stepping stones for organisms between hydrothermal-vent communities, themselves insular and temporary habitats.
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From page 7... ...
The elimination of large consumers from a broad region is an example of how early historic alterations at one trophic level can markedly impact modern assurnptions~and interpretations of both natural biodiversity patterns at other trophic levels and overall ecosystem function. The need for an appropriate retrospective context is clear and further argues for the use of human exclusion experiments (see Box 13)
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From page 8... ...
In this research plan, biodiversity is defined as the collection of genomes, species, and ecosystems occurring in a geographically defined region. This agenda focuses on a novel program where ecological and oceanographic research would be integrated at all relevant spatial scales, from local to regional, and over appropriate time scales for distinguishing changes in biodiversity due to effects of human activities from natural phenomena.
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From page 9... ...
for rapidly evolving concepts of marine microbial diversity and the role of microbes in global geochemical cycles (Box 3~. · What was once thought to be a single species of algal symbiont in the Caribbean star coral (that is in fact at least three coral species, as discussed later)
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From page 10... ...
Indeed, in some cases these organisms are known solely from their DNA sequences. The application of molecular techniques to discover new microbial groups in the ocean, supplementing traditional microbiological techniques, throws open a ,~, ~ ``, , ~ , ~ em, door to the unknown: for example, fundamentally new types of organisms apt peered in only the first few plankton samples examined with molecular genetic techniques from one small site in the open ocean off of San Diego, California.
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From page 11... ...
Rather, sufficient knowledge of the breadth and depth of the diversity of animals, plants, microbes, and other life present at a site or in a region is needed to understand the ecological roles of abundant and critical species and the functioning of the ecosystem. These considerations are not limited to ecological interest; as with the discovery of previously newly described terrestrial species which proved to be of biomedical value, the next newly described organism in the sea could prove to be a key species in the rapidly developing field of marine biotechnology (see Box 14~.
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From page 12... ...
analysis has shown, for example, that the last remaining and highly restricted population of several hundred Kemp's ridley sea turtles is, in fact, genetically distinct from the closely related sister species, the olive ridley, that is more widespread, thus confirming the need to protect the former species (Bowen et al., 1991~. Recent mtDNA analysis of humpback whales has shown genetic differences over surprisingly short distances with important implications for conservation (see Box 11~.
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From page 13... ...
. Cryptic sibling species have now been discovered in important commercial species, including the oyster Crassostrea, the shrimp Penaeus, and the stone crab Menippe, with important implications for conservation and management (Knowlton, 1993~.
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