The U.S. MBON projects are integrating independent historical and current biology and ecosystem surveys with new observations, and expanding application of remote sensing methods, novel molecular (eDNA) technologies, traditional environmental research tools, and coordinated experiments.

Benefits of MBON

MBON projects, partners and data play an important role in enabling the scientific community to describe the relationships between biodiversity, organism abundance, system productivity, ecosystem health and ecosystem services. Visit the Join MBON section for more information about the benefits of MBON.

U.S. MBON projects

Sponsors

U.S. MBON projects have been funded since 2013 under the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (FY14 RFP NOAA-NOS-IOOS-2014-2003803 and FY19 ONR Announcement # N00014-18-S-B007). U.S. MBON represents a partnership among NOAA, NASA, BOEM, and ONR, with coordination provided by the U.S. Integrated Ocean Observing System (U.S. IOOS) Program Office.

In this region
OBIS 3,121 records
Dataset
Benthic Genomics Traditional U.S.

Marine zooplankton community structure through environmental DNA metabarcoding in the Florida Keys, collected by the South Florida Program (NOAA/AOML) and the Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON)

This data consists of counts of putative zooplankton OTUs, revealed through metabarcoding of the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene extracted from filtered water samples in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary during 2016.

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MBON Data Portal
Tool
Portal Global Data publishing Interoperability

MBON Data Portal

Search, download, visualize, and analyze real-time, delayed-mode, and historical MBON biological observations alongside physical and chemical data.

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Genomics & eDNA
Method
Genomics EOV Standards eDNA

Genomics & eDNA

Environmental DNA extracted from water and sediment samples reveals the full community of organisms present — from bacteria to whales — with a speed and breadth impossible through visual surveys alone.

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MBON Pole to Pole Data Atlas
Tool
Protocol Benthic Americas OBIS

MBON Pole to Pole Data Atlas

Harmonized rocky-shore and sandy-beach biodiversity observations from Canada to Patagonia, standardized for cross-regional comparison and open access via OBIS.

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eDNA Visualization
Tool
App Genomics eDNA

eDNA Visualization

Interactive visualization of environmental DNA (eDNA) detections across taxa and sites.

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User Story: Bringing Steinbeck & Ricketts into the MBON Era
Feb 2026
News
Americas

User Story: Bringing Steinbeck & Ricketts into the MBON Era

Over 85 years after Steinbeck and Ricketts documented life in the Sea of Cortez tidepools, a binational team retraces their expedition using MBON Pole-to-Pole protocols and eDNA to measure decades of biodiversity change.

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