Navigating the Zooplankton Realm: Oceans of Diversity Beneath the Sea Surface

This review provides a comprehensive summary of the current knowledge on marine zooplankton diversity and distribution, highlighting key advancements and future directions in the field. While the approach used in this review is necessarily broad, focusing on overarching trends and drivers of zooplankton diversity, it emphasizes recent methodological innovations. The review begins with an introduction to zooplankton, tracing the historical development of their research. It then explores the critical roles zooplankton play in ocean ecosystems, climate change, and the global economy. Next, the review examines the environmental and anthropogenic factors influencing marine zooplankton. Finally, it presents a comparison between marine and freshwater zooplankton and concludes with a discussion of the challenges facing current zooplankton diversity research and the presentation of possible directions and implementation strategies for advancing the understanding of zooplankton biodiversity and ecology.