More than 230,000 known species representing 31 metazoan phyla populate the world's
oceans. Perhaps another 1,000,000 or more species remain to be discovered. There is …

DNA barcoding is a system designed to provide species identification by using standardized
gene regions as internal species tag. Foreseen since its earlier development as a solution to …

Coral reefs are often called the rainforests of the sea, but not because of their vastness.
Being largely limited to warm shallow waters, their extent is surprisingly small–in total only …

Background Decapods are the most recognizable of all crustaceans and comprise a
dominant group of benthic invertebrates of the continental shelf and slope, including many …

We present a large-scale molecular phylogeny that includes 320 of the 761 recognized valid
species of the cone snails (Conus), one of the most diverse groups of marine molluscs …

More than two third area of our planet is covered by oceans and assessment of marine
biodiversity is a challenging task. With the increasing global population, there is a tendency …

'Biodiversity'means the variety of life and it can be studied at different levels (genetic,
species, ecosystem) and scales (spatial and temporal). Last decades showed that marine …

The 5′ region of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) gene cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) is the
standard marker for DNA barcoding. However, because COI tends to be highly variable in …

Environmental DNA (eDNA), genetic material recovered from an environmental medium
such as soil, water, or feces, reflects the membership of the ecological community present in …

The global transhipment of ballast water and associated flora and fauna by cargo vessels
has increased dramatically in recent decades. Invertebrate species are frequently carried in …