Marine biodiversity in Venezuela: Status and perspectives

Venezuela is among the ten countries with the highest biodiversity in the world, both in the terrestrial and the marine environment. Due to its biogeographical position, Venezuelan marine flora and fauna are composed of species from very different marine bioregions such as the Caribbean and the Orin...

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Autores principales:	Miloslavich,Patricia, Klein,Eduardo, Yerena,Edgard, Martin,Alberto
Lenguaje:	English
Publicado:	Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción 2003
Materias:	Venezuela marine biodiversity conservation protected areas biological collections
Acceso en línea:	http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-65382003000200012
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spelling	oai:scielo:S0717-653820030002000122005-04-22Marine biodiversity in Venezuela: Status and perspectivesMiloslavich,PatriciaKlein,EduardoYerena,EdgardMartin,Alberto Venezuela marine biodiversity conservation protected areas biological collections Venezuela is among the ten countries with the highest biodiversity in the world, both in the terrestrial and the marine environment. Due to its biogeographical position, Venezuelan marine flora and fauna are composed of species from very different marine bioregions such as the Caribbean and the Orinoco Delta. The ecosystems in the Caribbean have received considerable attention but now, due to the tremendous impact of human activities such as tourism, over-exploitation of marine resources, physical alteration, the oil industry, and pollution, these environments are under great risk and their biodiversity highly threatened. The most representative ecosystems of this region include sandy beaches, rocky shores, seagrass beds, coral reefs, soft bottom communities, and mangrove forests. The Orinoco Delta is a complex group of freshwater, estuarine, and marine ecosystems; the habitats are very diverse but poorly known. This paper summarizes the known, which is all of the information available in Venezuela about research into biodiversity, the different ecosystems and the knowledge that has become available in different types of publications, biological collections, the importance and extents of the Protected Areas as biodiversity reserves, and the legal institutional framework aimed at their protection and sustainable use. As the unknown, research priorities are proposed: a complete survey of the area, the completion of a species list, and an assessment of the health status of the main ecosystems on a broad national scale. This new information must be integrated and summarized in nationwide Geographic Information Systems (GIS) databases, accessible to the scientific community as well as to the management agencies. In the long term, a genetic inventory must be included in order to provide more detailed knowledge of the biological resources. Future projects at the local (Venezuela), regional (Southern Caribbean: Colombia, Venezuela, and the Netherlands Antilles), and global (South America) scales are recommended.info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessFacultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de ConcepciónGayana (Concepción) v.67 n.2 20032003-01-01text/htmlhttp://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-65382003000200012en10.4067/S0717-65382003000200012
institution	Scielo Chile
collection	Scielo Chile
language	English
topic	Venezuela marine biodiversity conservation protected areas biological collections
spellingShingle	Venezuela marine biodiversity conservation protected areas biological collections Miloslavich,Patricia Klein,Eduardo Yerena,Edgard Martin,Alberto Marine biodiversity in Venezuela: Status and perspectives
description	Venezuela is among the ten countries with the highest biodiversity in the world, both in the terrestrial and the marine environment. Due to its biogeographical position, Venezuelan marine flora and fauna are composed of species from very different marine bioregions such as the Caribbean and the Orinoco Delta. The ecosystems in the Caribbean have received considerable attention but now, due to the tremendous impact of human activities such as tourism, over-exploitation of marine resources, physical alteration, the oil industry, and pollution, these environments are under great risk and their biodiversity highly threatened. The most representative ecosystems of this region include sandy beaches, rocky shores, seagrass beds, coral reefs, soft bottom communities, and mangrove forests. The Orinoco Delta is a complex group of freshwater, estuarine, and marine ecosystems; the habitats are very diverse but poorly known. This paper summarizes the known, which is all of the information available in Venezuela about research into biodiversity, the different ecosystems and the knowledge that has become available in different types of publications, biological collections, the importance and extents of the Protected Areas as biodiversity reserves, and the legal institutional framework aimed at their protection and sustainable use. As the unknown, research priorities are proposed: a complete survey of the area, the completion of a species list, and an assessment of the health status of the main ecosystems on a broad national scale. This new information must be integrated and summarized in nationwide Geographic Information Systems (GIS) databases, accessible to the scientific community as well as to the management agencies. In the long term, a genetic inventory must be included in order to provide more detailed knowledge of the biological resources. Future projects at the local (Venezuela), regional (Southern Caribbean: Colombia, Venezuela, and the Netherlands Antilles), and global (South America) scales are recommended.
author	Miloslavich,Patricia Klein,Eduardo Yerena,Edgard Martin,Alberto
author_facet	Miloslavich,Patricia Klein,Eduardo Yerena,Edgard Martin,Alberto
author_sort	Miloslavich,Patricia
title	Marine biodiversity in Venezuela: Status and perspectives
title_short	Marine biodiversity in Venezuela: Status and perspectives
title_full	Marine biodiversity in Venezuela: Status and perspectives
title_fullStr	Marine biodiversity in Venezuela: Status and perspectives
title_full_unstemmed	Marine biodiversity in Venezuela: Status and perspectives
title_sort	marine biodiversity in venezuela: status and perspectives
publisher	Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción
publishDate	2003
url	http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-65382003000200012
work_keys_str_mv	AT miloslavichpatricia marinebiodiversityinvenezuelastatusandperspectives AT kleineduardo marinebiodiversityinvenezuelastatusandperspectives AT yerenaedgard marinebiodiversityinvenezuelastatusandperspectives AT martinalberto marinebiodiversityinvenezuelastatusandperspectives
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Marine biodiversity in Venezuela: Status and perspectives

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