Biodiversity and Marine Ecosystems Biodiversity and Marine Ecosystems

Biodiversity and Marine Ecosystems Research Program

This research program is responsible for the advance of the inventory of national marine biodiversity, as well as characterizing the structure and function of biodiversity at different levels of biological organization (from genes to ecosystems). It establishes the technical basis to define, measure and stablish strategies for the conservation of threatened or vulnerable species as well as ecosystems, identifying and analyzing the potential risk of invasive marine species as a threat to the health of the country's biodiversity.

 

The Programme is responsible for Museum of Marine Natural History of Colombia - MAKURIWA which aims to preserve and maintain biological collections of the marine and coastal biological diversity of the country, for the education and knowledge of the society and the scientific community, in order to safeguard the country's biological heritage.

 

Lines of research and Laboratories

 

Inventories, Taxonomy and Biology of Species – ITE

Is the line of research in charge of carrying out the inventory of the marine and coastal biodiversity of the country and strengthening of the National capacity in the topic of taxonomy and systematics. It´s also the responsible for the research on  reference collections of the MAKURIWA museum as well as for the Marine Biodiversity Information System - SIBM as a node of the Biodiversity Information System of Colombia.

 

Organization and Dynamics of Ecosystems –ODI

Is the line of research responsible to describe the structure and functioning of biodiversity along different levels of biological organization and identify changes (monitoring) as well as their relationships within natural and anthropogenic factors over time.

 

Biology and Conservation Strategies - BEC

This line of research studies what factors affect populations, provides conservation status on taxa and ecosystems that are facing a high risk of global extinction, offers information on invasive marine and coastal species and understanding of their ecological processes to establish restoration, prevention and control tools.

 

BEM-MHNMC Program Laboratory

The Biodiversity and Marine Ecosystems programme relays on the following laboratories within the area of work:

  • Laboratory of Molecular Biology
  • Optical Laboratory
  • Wet Laboratory
  • Humid and dry biological collections