The sustainable use of marine ecosystems depends a great deal on our capacity to understand the changes in them from an integral point of view, including biodiversity and trophic structure. In Northwest Mexico, and particularly in the State of Baja California Sur, we have a large variety of ecosystems on which diverse coastal communities depend, each one with its attributes that confer them with a particular resilience. In this sense, it is a priority to characterize the structure and function of the marine ecosystems in our region, assess their vulnerability in view of ecological disturbances and human pressures, including extractive activity. However, we have detected there is a great uncertainty on the capacity of these ecosystems to respond to such pressures, and our capability to timely identify and evaluate them.

With this background, starting from 2009, the work group of this strategic line will apply different techniques, in different times of the year, and in different types of systems in Baja California Sur to detect and assess the widest array of physical, climate, and ecological events, including hidden diversity; in other words, that which is not detected by traditional methods. With the information obtained, we intend to evaluate variability and vulnerability of the marine ecosystems in Northwest Mexico.

Estimating biodiversity in two dimensions and integrating the diversity of taxonomic and trophic domains will be the main tools to assess ecosystem vulnerability. The strategic objective of the Line of Research is to:

• Generate adequate and sufficient databases to correctly assess and monitor health of the coastal marine ecosystems of Baja California Sur by identifying the real biodiversity proportion measured traditionally, up to the point where we can use it as a marker of the whole system, and by identifying the role biodiversity plays in two dimensions (species diversity and tropic complexity) in the good working order and vulnerability of coastal ecosystems. On the other hand, we will perform liaison and management activities to promote sustainable use of these marine ecosystems, particularly as to their interaction with fisheries.

We will therefore deal with the following key questions:

• What is the capacity of these ecosystems to respond to climate and ecologic pressures and to those caused by human activities?
• What is our capacity to timely identify and assess such responses?
• Are we measuring the adequate variables to assess the state of our ecosystems, or should we direct our efforts to monitor other variables?
• Can we innovate and generate markers that will inform the state of the ecosystems starting from simple measurements?

To accomplish the strategic objective and find answers to these key questions,of the strategic line, the specific objectives for 2010 are to:

• Generate bases to measure biodiversity by traditional (taxonomy) and molecular (biotechnology) techniques to estimate the levels of hidden biodiversity components (difference between molecular and taxonomic) in plankton samples obtained in different months of the year.

• Start developing observation tools that will allow us to measure the health of coastal ecosystems relatively easily and at low cost. We include techniques for direct observation of biodiversity (i.e. a genetic probe to estimate richness and diversity, and isotopic and biochemical markers for trophic analysis) and the good working order and health of the ecosystems (primary production and pollutant detection parameters, and a genetic probe to rapidly identify non-native and priority harmful species, starting from water or sediment samplings.)