Tittensor, D. P., Mora, C., Jetz, W., Lotze, H. K., Ricard, D., Berghe, E. V., & Worm, B. (2010). Global patterns and predictors of marine biodiversity across taxa. Nature, 466(7310), 1098-101. Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.books.redlands.edu/docview/749726179?accountid=14729

Researchers Derek P. Tittensor, Camilo Mora, Walter Jetz, Heike K. Lotze, Daniel Ricard, Edward Vanden Berghe, and Boris Worm all worked on the journal titled “Global Patterns and Predictors of Marine Biodiversity Across Taxa.  Their topic and research question was to figure out how marine biodiversity varies on a global scale in patterns and predictors.  They chose to work with marine biodiversity because not much in known about it compared to land biodiversity.  They studied thirteen different taxonomic that ranged from zooplankton marine mammals in order to get a wide variety of information; 11,567 species were observed.  The type of information that they would need was species richness, different regions of the ocean, and major impacts that could affect the biodiversity of certain areas.  This information would be observational and records of acts and behaviors.  The researchers used spatial modeling  and observational patterns.  They got a lot of their data from the Census of Marine Life that was in the Ocean Biogeographic Information System.  There are several figures that display the patterns of species richness according to individual taxa.  The researchers used qualitative and quantitative analysis with their findings.  They modelled relationships between species richness and environmental predictors.  The other figured displayed species richness compared to human impact.  All of these figures were easy to read and understand.  I find their research extremely well thought out.  They had to analysis vast amounts of space and species.  This would be difficult and take a large amount of time.  I want to use the Ocean Biogeographic Information System for my research project as well.