Introduction: Marine biodiversity: current understanding and future research

Human activity extensively, and often irreversibly, alters marine biodiversity andecosystems on a global scale. Notwithstanding a substantial research effort on the ecosystem consequences of altered biodiversity, it is vital that the marine community summarise and communicate itsknowledge to policy makers. This Theme Section celebrates the establishment of the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity as a vehicle for integrating marine biodiversity science and co-ordinating future research efforts