Series contains correspondence, field notes, meeting minutes, presentation slides, and photographs related to Ron O'Dor's early-career research into cephalopoda behaviour, feeding practices of bivalve larvae in zero gravity environments, and other mollusca and marine biology projects.
Subseries includes Ron O'Dor's research on cephalopods in the South Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Mediterranean, predating the Census of Marine Life research. Subseries includes field notes, correspondence, articles, and data sets.
Subseries contains correspondence, research data, and conference minutes and notes related to the Census of Marine Life subcommittee, Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML). The Census of Antarctic Marine Life project was designed to monitor changes in marine fish and invertebrate populations as a result of depletion in the ice shelves. The project was led by Australian scientists Michael Stoddart and Victoria Wadley, who documented more than 16,000 species, of which several hundred were previously unknown.
Subseries contains correspondence, research data, and conference minutes and notes related to the Census of Marine Life subcommittee, Census of the Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life (CeDAMar). The Census of the Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life examined the feeding patterns and distribution ranges of life in the abyssal plains and larger oceanic basins in the Southern Atlantic and Southern Pacific oceans, ranging from single-celled organisms to larger cephalopods. The project, led by scientists Pedro Martinez Arbizu and Craig Smith, catalogued more than 500 new species and examined the causes of change to abyssal life far removed from the ocean floor (in the form of climate change, pollution and mining efforts).
Subseries contains correspondence, research data, and conference minutes and notes related to the Census of Marine Life subcommittee Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts (CenSeam). The Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts project examined life on more than 100,000 seamounts that rose more than 1000 metres from the ocean floor, discovering new species and ecosystems similar to those on neighbouring slopes. The project, led by New Zealanders Malcolm Clark, Mireille Consalvey and Ashley Rowden, and American Karen Stocks, examined the perilous nature of these isolated communities when subject to changes such as damage caused by nearby fishing.
Subseries contains correspondence, research data, and conference minutes and notes related to the Census of Marine Life subcommittee Gulf of Maine Area (GOMA). The GOMA project involved creating a species register of the diverse Gulf of Maine, examining tidal pools, slopes, seamounts, and other underwater landforms. The project, headed by Canadian and American scientists Sara Ellis, Lewis Incze and Peter Lawton, assembled more than 4000 species and microbes native to the area (more than twice the amount previously determined to live in the Gulf). The project used sonar as a means of examining the overall marine ecosystem and species’ interactions, rather than focusing on individual species.
Subseries contains correspondence, research data, and conference minutes and notes related to the Census of Marine Life subcommittee International Census of Marine Microbes (ICoMM). The International Census of Marine Microbes project sought to determine the diversity and distribution of microscopic sea life from hundreds of locations around the world. The project, led by Americans Mitchell Sogin and Linda Amaral-Zettler and Dutch scientist Jan de Leeuw, discovered that initial estimates of ocean-residing microbe species was vastly under previously predicted levels, with numbers of species being at least ten times greater than previous estimates, and many more widely distributed than predicted. They also discovered that thousands of different microbe species live within a single litre of seawater.
