A.V. Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology

This last week we have had a visitor from the A.V. Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology, Far East Branch of the Academy of Sciences in Vladivostok. Konstantin A. Lutaenko, who is specialized into mollusks, has heard about us when researching about biodiversity databases in the internet. Of course the Dive Shop's instructor and divemasters helped to collect material and we hope to do our part in pushing research in Cambodia forward.

"During the last decades, biodiversity in the in the marine and coastal zones has experienced considerable pressure. This situation is absolutely novel in the history of life on Earth and can be regarded at the Sixth Mass Extinction [Loreau, 2010]. The main causes of biodiversity loss are habitat change, climate change, invasive species (the introduction of invasive exotic species), overexploitation of biological resources, and pollution. ... Mollusks are the second largest group in terms of the number of species in marine environments, and they play an important role in communities and ecosystems. The first step for conservation of this regional biodiversity is preparing an inventory..." [Lutaenko, 2012; Catalogue of the living Bivalvia]