1. CMarZ Overarching question
The Census of Marine Zooplankton (CMarZ) will address the overarching question:
“What are the patterns of zooplankton biodiversity throughout the world ocean, and how are they generated and maintained?”

2. CMarZ Hypotheses
The hypotheses that will guide the design, development, and implementation of CMarZ include:
H1. Zooplankton biodiversity differs among biogeographical regimes and provinces, and is related to ecosystem stability and productivity.
H2. Population genetic continuity among geographic regions is more extensive for deep-sea species than for surface dwelling ones.
H3. Environmental heterogeneity increases the frequency of endemic and cryptic species.
H4. High zooplankton biodiversity results in foodwebs with more complex biotic relationships.
H5. Natural and anthropogenic changes are decreasing endemism and significantly altering biogeographical distributions of marine zooplankton.
H6. Many zooplankton species occur at low abundances over broad geographical distributions, crossing geological and oceanographic dispersal barriers.

3. Taxonomic information is essential to analysis of zooplankton (and ocean) ecology
Community structure and energy flow are not defined by biomass alone
Species function differently and have different effects on how ecosystems work
Species are the units of adaptation – the intersection of genome and environment
Changes in species diversity signal changes in environment
Baseline biodiversity data needed to asses effects of anthropogenic and global climate change.

4. Functional importance of taxonomic structure for marine ecosystems:
Marine bioinvasions:
Global elemental cycles – carbon pump:
Food web efficiency and stability:
Pelagic speciation models:
Phylogenetic relationships:
Patterns of endemism:
Molecular clocks:
Management of marine ecosystems:
Indicators of ecosystem health:
Fisheries oceanography:

5. Ecological Analysis: Progress to Date
Majority of CMARZ related projects presented here are ecological in nature
Biodiversity relative to environment:
Cruise to Sargasso Sea (Wiebe)
Benguela current communities (Verheye)
MAR-ECO (Melle)
Japanese time-series (Sugisaki)
Chinese coastal surveys (Sun)

6. Adaptation to seasonal changes…
Trophic structure or
Human interactions…..
Black & Caspian Seas (Kideys)
Indonesian reef communities (Cornils)
Japanese time-series
Adaptation to seasonal changes…
Antarctic zooplankton life cycles (Schiel)
Longer term changes…
Benguela current
Japanese time-series
Inner-space speciation in Celebes Sea (Madin)

7. Should CMARZ have a formal role in ecological analysis?
Are taxonomic goals enough?
Should CMARZ broaden its role? How?