Arctic Census of Marine Life (ArcCoML)
The Arctic Ocean is unique on Earth in its physical and biological properties. It is the most extreme ocean in regard to the seasonality of light and its year-round existing ice cover. It is also the ocean, where changes related to climate change might be strongest expressed. The tremendous on-going...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2004
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.619.1750 http://www.coml.org/comlfiles/press/Arctic_CoML_public.pdf |
| Summary: | The Arctic Ocean is unique on Earth in its physical and biological properties. It is the most extreme ocean in regard to the seasonality of light and its year-round existing ice cover. It is also the ocean, where changes related to climate change might be strongest expressed. The tremendous on-going changes make the effort to identify the diversity of life in the major three realms (sea ice, water column and sea floor) an urgent issue. Current knowledge indicates that the Arctic seas hold a multitude of unique life forms adapted to the extremes. This proposal aims at documenting the present Arctic biodiversity using an international Pan-Arctic view. This program will consolidate what is known and fill remaining gaps in our knowledge, to a large extent through dedicated efforts in the International Polar Year 2007/2008. 2. The study area The Arctic Ocean is a mediterranean sea (total area: about 107 km2), which covers the region between Bering Strait on the Pacific and Fram Strait on the Atlantic side (Carmack 1990; Fig. 1). Continental shelves represent ~50 % of the Arctic |
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