Who are we?

Laboratory of Biodiversity,

Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and

Aquaculture (IMBBA),

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

(HCMR)

Blue Hackathon, HCMR, Crete, 1-2 July, 2013

What do we do?We perform research on marine biodiversity,

that is, research at all (possible) levels of biological organization

and at all (possible scales) of observation;

Scientific fields: (cyber-)taxonomy, population dynamics and

ecology, community ecology, functional ecology, community

genetics,microbial ecology, microbial genetics, environmental

monitoring, biogeography, bioinformatics and biodiversity

informatics;

Blue Hackathon, HCMR, Crete, 1-2 July, 2013

What is marine biodiversity?

The term marine biodiversity includes the overall

biological diversity of the Seas and Oceans. It refers to

all levels of the biological organization and all scales of

observation.

Traditionally, it is recognized in three levels: genetic,

species and ecosystem diversity.

Blue Hackathon, HCMR, Crete, 1-2 July, 2013

Why marine biodiversity IS important?

Marine biodiversity provides human kind with a series of

goods (e.g. minerals, fuel, food, pharmaceuticals, etc.)

and services (e.g. carbon sequestration,

biogeochemical cycles, oxygen production, biomass

production, etc.), which are not only important for

human survival but they also make the planet a

habitable place to live on.

Blue Hackathon, HCMR, Crete, 1-2 July, 2013

What is the value of what we do?

We create knowledge, data, information, tools and services for the study of marine biodiversity.

This is very important in order to understand, protect and

sustainably exploit our biodiversity resources in the

Mediterranean.

Blue Hackathon, HCMR, Crete, 1-2 July, 2013

Human potential, current projects and budget

- ViBRANT, VECTORS, MARBIGEN, MAPMED, EMBOS, EUROMARINE,

CIGESMED, SYNTHESYS3, EOL, EMODNET, LifeWatchGreece, ….and

others to come...

-Overall 12 people, including students (to be 20 in a month)

- More than 5 MEuros

- Collaboration with more than 100 labs and institutions all over

Blue Hackathon, HCMR, Crete, 1-2 July, 2013

Our challenges for Blue Hackathon

- Two on citizen science

- One on literature data mining

- Multiple on the environmental quality monitoring tools

Blue Hackathon, HCMR, Crete, 1-2 July, 2013