Biodiversity in the Marine Environment

Acknowledgements.- Foreword.- Introduction.- The importance of marine biodiversity.- Key features.- Hierarchical components.- The impacts of human activities on marine biodiversity.- The strategic values of research.- Status and trends.- How many marine species are there?.- Taxonomic records.- Cryptic species.- The DNA barcode.- The drive to identify new species.- The "taxonomic impediment".- Species under pressure.- Extinct species.- Endangered species.- Ecosystems under pressure: the deep sea.- Spatial patterning of characteristics.- Temporal patterns.- Conceptualising biodiversity.- Conceptual frameworks for relationships between biodiversity and human societies.- Choice of model framework.- Measuring biodiversity.- Biodiversity as a macroscopic descriptor in the European Union Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).- Drivers of changes in biodiversity and its uses.- Environmental drivers: a working framework.- Integrated scenarios and policies.- Policies and decision support.- Developing scenarios.- Quantitative methods, models and integrated assessment.- Research needs.- The framework: environmental research.- Naturalistic dimensions.- Human dimensions of research.- Developing modelling: a summarising approach.- Sources.- References.- Databases.- Abbreviations and acronyms.- Group of experts.