Biological diversity has been changing and continues to change in nearly all habitats on earth and it is now well-recognized nationally and internationally that there is an urgent need for research programs specifically on issues of biological diversity. This projects supports the workshop on a Special Research Initiative on Marine Biological Diversity and Systematics. The objective of the workshop is to bring together leading biological oceanographers and marine biologists to discuss whether there is an urgent need for this program in Ocean Sciences and to define the nature and substance of such a program. The ultimate goal is to include this research in the Long-Range Plan for Ocean Sciences. Biological diversity, its causes, and the potential fragility of biotic systems in the face of knowledge of the species comprising a system, and rigorous species identifications require a healthy science of systematics.
