Indonesian Archipelago is characterized with long coastline and thousands small islands and high marine biodiversity. These resources are amongst attractions to be offered as Indonesia targets tourism as one of country's main economic sector. Marine ecotourism in Indonesia is developing and becoming more popular for travellers, and marine protected areas are amongst places being more visited as ecotourism sites. Indonesia established marine protected areas throughout the country; many are...

During the 9th session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, a set of criteria were approved to assist in the identification of ‘Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas' (EBSAs; Annex I of CBD Decision IX/20). These criteria were later consolidated during the Expert Workshop on EBSAs held in the Azores, in October 2007. OBIS and OBIS SEAMAP data have obvious relevance to several of the criteria.

Broadhaven Bay (c.70km2) in northwest Ireland has, since 2002, been the focus of a marine mammal monitoring programme surrounding a gas pipeline development. The bay's Special Area of Conservation designation is due to the presence of habitats listed on Annex I of the EU Habitats Directive. Communities of high species richness and rare marine invertebrate species have been recorded in the bay's cave and reef habitats.

 Polar environments are unique habitats which feature year round low temperatures and extreme seasonality. Both the Arctic Ocean and the Southern ocean feature a high level of isolation and this combined with the environmental challenges this has given rise to a high degree of specialisation and endemism of benthic flora and fauna.  
This study reviews the comparative diversity of bryozoans in the Polar Regions and assesses patterns in endemism, distribution and morphology.

 
  

Over the last few decades, marine ecosistems are not inmune to global warming and mass mortalities have been reported in a broad range of marine taxa. In the North-western Mediterranean region, for example, white gorgonian populations have experienced recent mass mortalities resulting in the loss of more than 50% in density and biomass. The white gorgonian, Eunicella singularis, is a colonial, sessile cnidarian which displays large long-lived structures that significantly shapes the habitat.

Few places on earth exhibit the abundance of natural wonders found in marine waters of Alaska’s Pribilof  Domain, thus the Pribilof Archipelago  has been called the “Galapagos of the North”.  The idyllic Bering Sea oceanography mixes Pacific currents upwelled through canyons meeting the Arctic cold pool – creating a uniquely enriched, protected habitat for the northern hemisphere’s largest seabird colonies.  More than two million seabirds nest on the towering volcanic cliffs of...

Experimental approach is widely recognized to be the most effective method in science teaching, but luck of time and funds sometimes prevent its application.

Marine zooplankton populations have the potential to respond to and reflect event-scale as well as seasonal changes in marine environmental conditions. Thus these extremely diverse organisms represent excellent "model organisms" for monitoring aquatic ecosystems. In order to understand shifts in the North Sea zooplankton community, valid species identification is indispensable. However, until now, the study of zooplankton is a demanding and time-consuming work and the traditional way of...

The aim of the R/V Sonne cruise SO-205 in April/May 2010 was the eastern part of the German license area for exploration of polymetallic nodules in the northeast equatorial Pacific Ocean (Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone). Within the scope of the multidisciplinary project MANGAN the research institute Senckenberg am Meer aims to characterize the benthic community in terms of community composition, standing crops and biodiversity.