Like many land animals, lots of zooplankton prefer to work at night. Some of them like to feed near the surface and then they descend more than 500 meters, farther than the elevators of the world's tallest buildings, a journey that lasts for about an hour.

This is how huge volumes of carbon are transported to the ocean depths. Scientists are now working to see whether this process is disrupted by global warming.

By one rough estimate, 10 000 kilograms of phytoplankton is needed to feed 1,000 kilograms of small zooplankton, which in turn support 100 kilograms of larger zooplankton, which supports 10 kilograms of small fish species (like herring or anchovies), which support 1 kilogram of larger fish species such as those harvested for human consumption. Several bird and whale species also depend directly on zooplankton; others rely on zooplankton-eating fish higher in the food chain.

Nearly 7,000 zooplankton species in 15 phyla (the major groups of animals) are described now. After the taxonomic analysis of newly discovered creatures it is estimated that the number of known species is about to double.

Dr. Wiebe explains the goal of CMarZ: "We are charting the plankton in the sea like astronomers chart the stars in the sky. With the zooplankton chart, we can assess what changes - man-made and natural - are taking place in the largest habitat on earth. Without it, no assessment is really possible."

"The growing number of snapshots from different parts of the world ocean have rarely been merged together, in part because the complicated and time-consuming task of compiling information from numerous individual publications is undervalued," says Dr. Ann Bucklin, lead scientist for CMarZ and head of the University of Connecticut Marine Sciences Department. "The zooplankton Census is enlarging human understanding of the pattern, flow, and development of life in the sea. We are exploring and sampling unique marine environments and those likely to be inhabited by unknown and undescribed species, including the seabed, the waters around hydrothermal vents and seeps, and deep-sea coral beds.

The work of CMarZ will contribute to the improved management of fisheries and oceans, guided by comprehensive understanding of the ecosystem, accurate estimates of species biodiversity, recognition of introduced and invasive species, and rapid assessment of ecosystem health," she adds.



Photo credit: NOAA, Census of Marine Life

The Amazing Life in the Bermuda Triangle (Part 1)