The ICES Working Group on Integrated Morphological and Molecular Taxonomy (WGIMT) met in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, on 15 March 2019. The meeting was chaired by Naiara Rodriguez-Ezpeleta (Spain) and Elaine Fileman (UK) and attended by 17 scientists representing 7 countries. During the meeting, WGIMT members reviewed progress on multi-annual ToRs, reports, and recommendations; evaluated progress on existing ToRs and sought opportunities for partnerships in the ICES science community.
WGIMT membership currently totals 50 members from 18 countries; new members were added again this year, continuing the steady increase in membership numbers each year since 2013. This trend is consistent with WGIMT goals to recruit and welcome new members (ToR A), in order to enhance our capacity for developing and using molecular and morphological ap-proaches to taxonomic analysis of zooplankton.
Initial development of the WGIMT web platform has been completed (ToR B), it will continue to be updated and expanded as WGIMT continues into the future.
WGIMT continued work to initiate and support provision of standards, preparation of training materials, and organization of formal workshops (ToR C).
WGIMT members have been involved as expert instructors and/or organizers for two workshops this year. WGIMT promoted and encouraged the continuing integration of molecular and mor-phological taxonomy by organizing special sessions at national and international conferences, including 2018 ICES Annual Science Conference and 2019 Ocean Science meeting and the up-coming 2019 ICES Annual Science Conference (ToR D).
WGIMT is seeking avenues via the Ecosystem Processes and Dynamics Steering Group and other science expert groups to advise on implications and applications of integrative taxonomy for marine science and management (ToR E).
During 2018–2019, WGIMT members published at least 10 relevant peer-reviewed articles di-rectly related to the core mission and goals of the EG (ToR F).
WGIMT collaborated with the Working Group on Zooplankton Ecology (WGZE) and the Work-ing Group on Phytoplankton and Microbial Ecology (WGPME) on a joint ToR to determine the status of microzooplankton time-series data collection within the ICES area, which assessed pro-gress made in this area over the last ten years (ToR G).
Discussions were undertaken with WGZE and WGPME on gap analysis and taxonomic con-sistency of molecular databases to identify where taxonomists and geneticists should work to-gether (ToR H).