Current challenges and future prospects for biobanking marine zooplankton

Abstract

Knowledge of the structure of the zooplankton allows characterizing marine ecosystems and knowing the interactions (connectance and nestedness) that occur in them. Zooplankton responses to environmental variability bring about fundamental changes in the dynamics of marine ecosystems, causing fluctuation in primary production. Many species of zooplankton within the marine environment has also a key role in the transmission of parasites to higher trophic levels. Since 2004, as a part of a large sampling plan for mesozooplankton in a seasonal upwelling system carried out by the lnstitute of Marine Research (IIM-CSIC), a large number of samples were collected for further research projects. The matter raised was if the Fish Parasite Biobank (FPB) Service already established at the IIM-CSIC would turn the challenge posed by monitoring these samples over time into an opportunity to preserve traceable zooplankton samples and their associated data