Plankton Biodiversity and Biovariability in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans

The macroscale variability of biodiversity of the ocean are the most poorly studied ranges in the ecological conituum of spatial-temporal scales. There is a need to understand and quantify changes of biodiversity in marine ecosystems, throughout a wide range of spatial-temporal scales.

The project has set up co-operation between the 5 institutes to rescue and compile oceanographic data sets and release them on CD-ROM. It aims to focus international attention on the biodiversity and biovariability of the tropical zones of the world's oceans and improve the information base at the genus and species levels. The project focus' on providing archival data for further analysis where it may have wider impact.