This book draws its contents from the first in a series of debates organised jointly by the BBVA Foundation and the Cap Salines Lighthouse Coastal Research Station-Scientific Research Council (CSIC). In its pages, leading European scientists undertake a comprehensive review of our current state of knowledge concerning the biodiversity of marine ecosystems, whose study has become a major enterprise involving the whole marine scientific community and society at large, with global climate change and unsustainable fisheries threatening the future of many marine species. Starting from a comparison between marine and terrestrial biodiversity, the book provides a concise description of the questto secure a complete inventory of our planet’s marine species, speculating about the surprises it may still have in store.

It also looks at the technological developments that are facilitating deep-sea exploration and some of the challenges that lie ahead, with reference to European scientific programmes such as CoML, MarBEF and HERMES. Finally, the authors emphasise the need to apply genome models to the study of marine biology, so our understanding of biosystems is not just descriptive but also functional.

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• Index
• Introduction: Carlos M. Duarte
• Chapter 1: Damià Jaume y Carlos M. Duarte
• Chapter 2: Philippe Bouchet
• Chapter 3: Eva Ramírez Llodra y David S.M. Billett
• Chapter 4: Geoff Boxshall
• Chapter 5: J. Mark Cock et al.
• About the autor