Affiliated Projects
Affiliated Projects
Gulf of Mexico Biodiversity Project (GoMx)
John W. Tunnell, Jr. (Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, USA), Darryl L. Felder (University of Louisiana-Layfayette, USA)
Great Barrier Reef Seabed Biodiversity Project
Roland Pitcher (CSIRO Marine Research, Australia)
The Ocean Tracking Network (OTN)
Ron O’Dor (Dalhousie University, Canada)
The Census of Marine Life sought to affiliate with other marine biodiversity projects to help meet its goal to construct a representative picture of global marine biodiversity by 2010. The affiliation of projects increased its capacity for sampling coverage and helped the Census National and Regional Implementation Committees (NRICs) address science priorities in their nations and regions that were not addressed by one of the 14 global Census Ocean Realm Field Projects. The affiliated project benefitted from the recognition that it was part of a larger program that brought access to information, other scientists and organizations, and provided a larger global context.
Benefits included:
- Opportunities to leverage funding and shiptime
- Access to scientific expertise and information
- Access to technologies and software developed by CoML and Affiliated Projects
- Increased visibility through website links and other communications
- Facilitation of access to the Consortium for the Barcode of Life and its facilities for barcoding of marine samples
Criteria for Affiliation
A project could affiliate with the Census of Marine Life program if it:
- Met a number of the criteria for Census Affiliated Projects (Table 1). Appropriate affiliated projects will meet many of them but it is unlikely that a project will meet all criteria.
- Fell within the scope of a Census NRIC
- Did not fit within the context of an existing global CoML global Ocean Realm Field Project (Note: if it didn’t fit with an Ocean Realm Field Project, then partnership with that project was a better option for participation in the Census of Marine Life.)
- Was synoptic or integrative in scope or approach
- Successfully completed the endorsement and approval process
