Chinese Census of Marine Life (CoML-China)

National Implementation Committee

December 20, 2005

Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, China

Minutes

  1. ATTENDEES

Committee Members

Song SUN (Chair) Institute of Oceanology, ChineseAcademy of Sciences

Ruiyu LIU (J. Y. Liu) Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Lizhe CAI XiamenUniversity

Bangqin HUANG XiamenUniversity

Kedong YIN South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, ChineseAcademy of Sciences

Guangxing LIU OceanUniversity of China

Zhinan ZHANG OceanUniversity of China

Xiuren NING Second Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration

Xianyong ZHAO Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fisheries Sciences

Xiaoxia SUN Institute of Oceanology, ChineseAcademy of Sciences

Guests

Jianguo REN National Natural Science Foundation of China

Yong WANG Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration

Kunshan GAO ShantouUniversity

Youshao WANG South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, ChineseAcademy of Sciences

Hui HUANG South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, ChineseAcademy of Sciences

Mao LIN Third Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration

Ruixiang LI First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration

Zongling WANG First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration

Tian XIAO Institute of Oceanology, ChineseAcademy of Sciences

Junbin ZHANG South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, ChineseAcademy of Sciences

Others

Researchers from Institute of Oceanology, ChineseAcademy of Sciences

  1. INTRODUCTION
  1. Welcome

The meeting was convened at 9 AM in Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. More than 30 participants attended the meeting, and the 2005 CoML highlight report was distributed on the meeting. The meeting in the morning was presided by Academician J. Y. Liu. Dr. Jianguo REN from National Natural Science Foudation of China (NSFC) gave a speech first. He introduced the origin and development of CoML in China, and the supporting policies and priorities of NSFC in the field of marine ecology.

  1. Chairman’s report

Chairman SUN gave a detailed introduction on the progress of the international CoML program. The presentation mainly focused on the current projects of CoML, the new methods and technology developed by CoML, the latest progress of CoML research and the plan for CoML in the second phase.He also introduced the progress of CoML China in the past one year and put forward the plan that CoML China will do in the near future.

  1. PRESENTATIONS

Five presentations were given in the morning. The first one titled by ‘Biodiversity of the benthos along the lattitude gradients’was given by Prof. Zhinan ZHANG from Ocean University of China. Prof. Bangqin HUANG introduced the biodiversity of pico-plankton in Chinese typical sea area. Prof. Hui HUANG introduced the status, distribution and biodiversity of coral reefs in Chinese sea. Prof. Lizhe CAI from Xiamen University introduced the status of research on the distribution and ecological habits ofNassarius.Prof. Xiuren NING gave a presentation titled Some Considerations on China CoML.

  1. DISCUSSION

The discussion in the afternoon was presided by Chairman SUN. The topics were focused on:

A. The work of China CoML that is being done and will be done

(1) The work of ChinaCoML secretariat

(2) The construction and development of China-CoML website

(3) The exchange of database

(4) Training plan (the establishment of ChineseMarineBiodiversitySortingCenter)

(5)Strategies on pushing taxonomy research

(6) Establishment of new subjects

B. How to push China-CoML?

(1) Infrastructure construction, including establishment of database, expert database, hardware, scientific methods, training courses, etc.

(2) Building of ChineseMarine Biodiversity Sorting Center

(3) Equipment and utilization of new observing facilities

(4) Set-up of long-term observing transects

(5) Regional research plan

  1. Scientific significance

(1)The sustainable utilization of marine biodiversity resource

(2)The fluctuation of marine ecosystems under the global environmental changes

(3)Impact of human activities on marine ecosystems; the change of functional groups

(4)Invasion of species

(5)Conservation of marine biodiversity

(6)Technical support from other related national programs

  1. Current status---Scientific problems and infrastructure

(1)Biodiversity, abundant, distribution of marine species in Chinese sea----OBIS, and how to use the information?

(2)Characteristics of biodiversity in Chinese sea, the relativity between biodiversity and quantity fluctuation

(3)The hotspot areas of Chinese biodiversity research, and how to determine? What is the effect on ecology and resource?

(4)How to insure the reliability of marine biodiversity research? i.e. the technical guarantee forChinese marine biodiversity research, including methods, facilities and standardization.

(5)The present and future of marine biodiversity research

(6)The organization of taxonomy experts committee

  1. Regional Plan

The participants have interests on:

Marine algae (macroalgae, phytoplankton)

Microbes

Zooplankton-hotspot area, Barcoding

Benthos

Nektons (fish, cephalopod)

Coral reefs

Establishment of molecular method, standardization, quality control, establishment of database

Share on database

  1. NEXT STEPS

The organizers for each topicwere nominated at the meeting. They were committed to the development of a scientific plan or strategy for the regional research plan within the next 2-3 months. In order to structure the plan, an outline should first be developed. The first draft of each plan will be circulated to the members of the committee and discussed and approved at the next meeting.

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