sarce_rockyshores

The South American Research Group on Coastal Ecosystems was established to assess marine diversity and biomass along both coasts of South America through an international collaboration. The main goals of SARCE are to:

Test hypotheses about latitudinal gradients and patterns of local and regional biodiversity
Identify the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning
Assess the effect of environmental gradients and anthropogenic stressors
Carry out capacity building and training activities aimed to solve environmental problems for the benefit of society

The SARCE network includes more than 30 researchers from 9 South American coastal countries and has sampled with a standardized protocol in more than 50 sites around the continent.
The SARCE network was established in 2010 in order to continue the legacy of the Census of Marine Life – NaGISA project in South America. NaGISA conducted a large scale survey of the nearshore using a standardized protocol having inventoried nearly 4000 species and providing more than 60,000 diversity and distribution records to the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS). NaGISA also built a network of nearshore researchers in 28 countries and included community members, students, and citizen scientists. NaGISA sampling revealed new large scale patterns in nearshore diversity for many taxa/community types, some of which challenged the existing paradigms on latitudinal marine biodiversity patterns, at least for the nearshore.