www.ecomar.org/invertebrates

The term "marine" encompasses all oceanic and coastal environments, including estuaries, brackish or saltwater coastal lagoons, mangrove and saltmarsh habitats.

Marine ecosystems comprise the largest habitable environments on our planet. Invertebrates refer to all members of the kingdom Animalia, encompassing approximately 33 different Phyla. Phyla are conceptual units of biological organization (arbitrary categories) that denote a basic unity of characteristics.

By comparison, Vertebrates represent only a single subphylum amongst those same 33 Phyla.

That is to say, invertebrates consist of many groups of vastly different organisms, and although not necessarily a natural phylogenetic grouping, they comprise in excess of 95% of all animal species.

Very simply, invertebrates account for most of the animal diversity in marine ecosystems.

Even though invertebrates represent such a significant proportion of marine biodiversity, efforts to conserve invertebrate species have been few to non-existent.

Lawmakers and resource managers have given invertebrate fauna little or no priority, probably because they are widely viewed [erroneously] as insignificant organisms of no importance, and are sometimes [erroneously, again] perceived to be too difficult to study.

EcoMar is dedicated to study the marine biodiversity of invertebrate fauna, and how this biological diversity relates to ecosystem functioning.

rveronica [at] ecomar.org [or] veronica [at] wormlab.com

Polychaete Taxonomy and other Invertebrate Fauna
Taxonomia de Poliquetos y de otros Invertebrados
Marine Environmental Impact assesment studies
Estudios de Impacto Ambiental Marino
Marine Ecological Benthic Biodiversity field Surveys
Estudios Benticos Ecologicos Marinos de Biodiversidad
Ecotourism feasability studies
Estudios de viabilidad Ecológica de Turismo
Natural Resource Management and Damage Assessment
Manejo de Recursos Naturales
Marine Environmental effects auditing and monitoring
Auditoria Ecologica y Monitoreo Marino

EcoMar Lab's research focuses on / Las Líneas de investigación fundamentales de EcoMar son:

San Diego, CA. USA / Ensenada, Baja California. México
http://www.ecomar.org
Webcurator: ricardo [at] ecomar.org