Marine biodiversity in Colombia: Achievements, status of knowledge, and challenges Biodiversidad marina en Colombia: Estado actual del conocimiento y desafios futuros

Colombia is recognized as a megadiverse country on the basis of the number of terrestrial animal and plant species occurring within its boundaries. However, due to the circumstance that it possesses coasts on both the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, each of them exhibiting distinct geological, oceanographic, and climatic features, Colombia is perhaps the country with the highest marine biological diversity in South America and one of the most biodiverse in the New World. Although scientific research concerning marine biodiversity of Colombia has a very short history, considerable knowledge has been achieved in the last 10 years, particularly in regard to species inventories and ecosystem characterizations, including thematic mapping. Relatively accurate estimates about the numbers of species of fishes, birds, mammals, reptiles, and some marine invertebrate groups occurring in Colombian waters are now available, as well as the location, extent, and structure of the major coastal-marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass meadows. According to their geologic, hydrographic, climatic, and biological features, the coastal and oceanic realms of Colombia have been subdivided into 18 natural ecoregions, nine in the Caribbean and nine in the Pacific. Considering the current scientific capacity of Colombia, including financial and logistic limitations, short and mid-term research plans and programs have been designed in order to orient marine biodiversity studies toward prioritary issues and geographic areas according to the responsibilities imposed by the Biodiversity Convention and the National Biodiversity Plan. Colombia es reconocido como un país megadiverso con base en la cantidad de especies de plantas y animales terrestres que posee. Esto, debido, entre otras cosas, a que tiene costas sobre el mar Caribe y el océano Pacífico, con características geológicas, oceanográficas y climáticas muy contrastantes, Colombia es seguramente el país con mayor diversidad biológica marina de Sudamérica y uno de los más biodiversos del Nuevo Mundo. Aunque la investigación científica sobre la biodiversidad marina de Colombia tiene una historia muy corta y reciente, en los últimos 10 a os se han realizado grandes avances en la generación de conocimiento, particularmente en cuanto a inventarios de especies y caracterización de ecosistemas, incluyendo mapas temáticos. Se dispone actualmente de estimativos relativamente confiables sobre la cantidad de especies de peces, aves, mamíferos, reptiles y de algunos grupos de invertebrados marinos que habitan