Series contains research files, correspondence, conference meeting minutes and notes compiled by Ron O'Dor and other members of the Census of Marine Life steering committee and subcommittees.
Subseries contains correspondence, research data, and conference minutes and notes related to the Census of Marine Life subcommittee Census of Marine Zooplankton (CMarZ). The Census of Marine Zooplankton project examined the diversity and distribution of ocean current-residing invertebrates. The project, led by American scientist Ann Bucklin, Japanese scientist Shuhei Nishida and German scientist Sigrid Schiels, collected more than 10,000 samples from locations around the world’s oceans, discovering nearly 100 new species.
Subseries contains correspondence, research data, and conference minutes and notes related to the Census of Marine Life subcommittee Patterns and Processes of the Ecosystem of the Northern Mid-Atlantic (MAR-ECO). The Patterns and Processes of the Ecosystems of the Northern Mid-Atlantic project documented marine life along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The project, led by Norwegian scientist Odd Aksel Bergstad, documented about a thousand species, from the smallest invertebrates to various species of whales, in deep basins and along the slopes of the underwater mountains.
Subseries contains correspondence, research data, and conference minutes and notes related to the Census of Marine Life affiliate program, the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS). The Ocean Biogeographic Information System project, compiled alongside the Census of Marine Life, serves as the world's largest online repository of spatially referenced marine life data, containing millions of records created from hundreds of CoML datasets. The project, led by American scientists Edward Vanden Berghe and J. Frederick Grassle (previously by New Zealander Mark J. Costello), locates all oceanic species in a permanent, evolving repository, identifying oceanic points of high diversity, tracking species dispersion, and integrating species locales with variables such as temperature, salinity, and depth.
Series comprises records related to Ron O'Dor's published articles, papers and conference presentations, including manuscripts, correspondence, publishing agreements and conference materials. Other manuscripts and related correspondence and papers are found within the general and named research series.
Subseries contains correspondence, research data, and conference minutes and notes related to the Census of Marine Life subcommittee History of Marine Animal Populations (HMAP). The History of Marine Animal Populations project traces evidence of how human activity and nature have changed marine life in recent years. The project, led by Irish scientist Paul Holm, Danish scientists Brian MacKenzie, Anne Husum Marboe and Bo Poulsen, and American Andrew Rosenberg, examined the prevalence of shell jewellery, evidence found in whaling logs, fishing boats' taxation logs, historical storm records, and numerous other primary and secondary sources, documenting humanity’s destruction of marine habitats, fish stocks and invertebrate populations.
Subseries contains correspondence, research data, and conference minutes and notes related to the Census of Marine Life subcommittee Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking Project (POST). The Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking project provided the first continent-wide research to acoustically track the migratory patterns of 18 species of marine life familiar to the Pacific coast. The project, led by American-Canadian scientist James Bolger, examined the migratory patterns of salmon, jumbo squid, sturgeon, and other coastal marine life, gathering data on roughly 16,000 individuals. The project served as a smaller-scale precursor of the Ocean Tracking Network.
Subseries contains correspondence, research data, and conference minutes and notes related to the Census of Marine Life subcommittee Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP). The Tagging of Pacific Predators project electronically tagged and tracked 4300 different marine predators, including sharks, seals and seabirds, tracing routes taken by these species in their search for ocean prey. The project, headed by American scientists Barbara Black, Steven Bograd, Daniel Costa and Randy Kochevar, discovered that many animals travel entire oceans at a variety of depths, from the poles to the tropics, continent to continent, in the search for food. It was also discovered that many predatory marine creatures migrate along the same oceanic corridors, congregating along their feeding routes.
Subseries contains correspondence, conference notes, and research articles related to regional subcommittees operating under the Census of Marine Life umbrella.
Subseries contains records related to the management of the Census of Marine Life in general. File includes membership rolls, general budgeting information, Loan applications, meeting minutes, and CoML-related news and promotional information.
Series contains notes, speeches, and correspondence relating to presentations by Budge Wilson at workshops, conferences, arts festivals, libraries, and universities.
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.
Subseries contains correspondence, research data, and conference minutes and notes related to the Census of Marine Life subcommittee Natural Geography in Shore Areas (NaGISA). The Natural Geography in Shore Areas project sought to produce a worldwide near-shore biodiversity inventory, examining marine life in seagrass beds and along rock shores. The project, led by an international contingent of scientists from Japan (Yoshihisa Shirayama), United States (Brenda Konar and Katrin Iken), Venezuela (Patricia Miloslavich and Juan José Cruz Motta), Italy (Lisandro Benedetti-Cecchi), Kenya (Edward Kimani) and Canada (Gerhard Pohle), sampled data from 200 short-term sites and 40 long-terms sites, discovering new species and recording the habits and habitats of other species in new areas.
