Marine Biodiversity

Two thirds of our planet are marine environments whose record and scientific exploration are aided by natural history museums.  Israel is situated at the shores of two seas – the Mediterranean and the Red Sea – whose study is crucial for the management and conservation of their natural capital. The Steinhardt Museum team includes marine ecologists and the largest group of marine taxonomists in Israel, with expertise in fishes, echinoderms, ascidians, nematodes, sponges, mollusks, crustaceans, and soft and stony corals, bryozoans, and worms.  These scientists lead ecological, biogeographical, and taxonomic studies of marine organisms in the sea and in the laboratory; they record and study the dramatic changes in the eastern Mediterranean ecological communities in the past century; they take an active part in surveying marine nature reserves; they provide crucial taxonomic expertise to scientists and professionals who work in the Mediterranean Sea; they produce a digitized database for the marine organisms of these environments.