| Summary: | This chapter provides a summary of currently assessed marine biodiversity in terms ofits coverage for the most conspicuous and well known taxonomic groups, particularecosystems, and large geographic regions. Assessments will be focused on theevaluation of the state of knowledge of marine biodiversity; however, for some groups,such evaluations are provided indirectly by studies aimed to establish threat and or riskstatus. The groups that have been summarized globally are the sea mammals (cetaceansand pinnipeds), seabirds, sea turtles, sharks, tunas, billfish, corals, and plankton. Thespecial ecosystems are seamounts, vents, and seeps. Regional summaries of coverage ofassessments are provided whenever possible for large basins, such as North Atlantic,South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian Ocean, Arctic Ocean, and SouthernOcean. However, in some cases, information is compiled by countries (e.g., Canada)when these have more than one basin, or by large continents (e.g., South America)which share a history of surveys and exploration. After each of the sections, a globalanalysis of the status of knowledge of marine biodiversity is summarized within a fewsynthesis graphs. About 40 scientists contributed to this effort, each within their area ofexpertise and specified for each subsection. Supplementary material providing a list ofassessments with date, special area, habitat, taxonomic groups, and web informationhas also been compiled for a few of the regions (Caribbean, Europe, Gulf of Mexico, theSouthern Ocean and Sub-Saharan Africa) and States (China, India and Japan), as well asfor vents and seeps ecosystems and for turtles (Appendix I). In addition, a completereference list for further reading for each of the taxonomic groups and regions isprovided (Appendix II).
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