Dr. Tunnell is the TAMU-CC campus lead PI, currently in year four of this five year project led by Florida A&M University with eight other partner universities in the southeast. TAMU-CC CoPIs include Dr. Liz Smith in the Center for Coastal Studies and Dr. Philippe Tissot in the Physical and Environmental Science Department.

This multiyear project is divided into four phases. Phase I, consisted of a six year effort to compile an all-taxa inventory of all species in the Gulf of Mexico. This phase culminated in the publication of Volume 1 of Gulf of Mexico Origin, Waters, and Biota: Biodiversity, a 1393 book published by Texas A&M University Press in July 2009. It involved 140 authors from 80 institutions in 15 different countries. Phase II includes conversion of the book to a database and placement on the Internet on Gulfbase and OBIS (Ocean Biogeographic Information System) in early 2010. Phase III will be database analysis, and Phase IV will be expeditions to fill data gaps. Click here to view a poster of this project.