Research and Exploration

• Assess biodiversity and better understand its functional roles in maintaining ecosystems.
• Foster the development, adaptation, and application of biosensor technologies that identify the abundance, distribution, movement, and diversity of marine species.
• Improve public understanding of ocean exploration as a driver of discovery, technology, and scientific collaboration.

Tools and Technologies for Monitoring and Projecting Ecosystem Change

• Establish and maintain a marine biodiversity data management system that is geo- and time-referenced and interoperable with ocean observing systems.
• Develop improved tools to apply marine species data to marine biodiversity research.
• Use historical records, baseline information, and predictive models to explain long-term and future changes in marine ecosystems through retrospective analyses.

Educational Information

• Increase public awareness about the oceans by incorporating marine biodiversity information into formal and informal education.
• Engage the scientific community to advance ocean literacy.
• Disseminate information on marine species to support resource management and policy development.