THE NEED FOR A MARINE BIODIVERSITY OBSERVATION NETWORK (MBON) WAS SUMMARIZED BY DUFFY ET AL (2013) WHO CONCLUDED THAT AN MBON SHOULD INTEGRATE BIOLOGICAL LEVELS FROM GENES TO HABITATS LINK BIODIVERSITY OBSERVATIONS TO ABIOTIC VARIABLES SITE PROJECTS TO INCORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL FORCING AND BIOGEOGRAPHY AND MONITOR ADAPTIVELY TO ADDRESS EMERGING ISSUES. OUR DEMONSTRATION MBON PROJECT IN THE SANTA BARBARA CHANNEL NOW IN ITS FIFTH YEAR HAS ENDEAVORED TO MEET THESE GOALS. OUR MBON INCLUDES ALL LEVELS OF BIODIVERSITY AND HAS DEVELOPED NEW TOOLS TO EXPAND THE SCALES OF PRESENT OBSERVATION AND A DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO INTEGRATE DATA SOURCES. HERE WE PROPOSE TO MOVE TOWARD AN OPERATIONAL MODE AND EXPAND INTO A FULL REGIONAL MBON COVERING THE ENTIRE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BIGHT (SCB). SCB MBON HAS TWO BROAD OBJECTIVES DESCRIBED BELOW. 1. INTEGRATE BIODIVERSITY DATA TO ENABLE INFERENCES ABOUT REGIONAL BIODIVERSITY. SYNTHESIZING INFORMATION RELEVANT TO BIODIVERSITY REQUIRES INTEGRATING HIGHLY HETEROGENEOUS DATA COLLECTED AT WIDELY DIFFERENT TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL SCALES. WE WILL CONTINUE TO PRODUCE EXISTING MBON DATASETS WHILE ADDING NEW DATA TO EXPAND OUR GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE. 2. DEVELOP ADVANCED METHODS IN OPTICAL AND ACOUSTIC IMAGING AND GENOMICS FOR MONITORING BIODIVERSITY TO FILL GAPS IN OUR KNOWLEDGE OF MARINE BIODIVERSITY USING TWO CLASSES OF METHODS: REMOTE SENSING OPTICAL AND ACOUSTIC IMAGERY FROM THE ECOSYSTEM SCALE DOWN TO THE SPECIES LEVEL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY FROM THE GENETIC SCALE UP THROUGH COMMUNITY LEVEL. THE APPROACH WE OUTLINE BELOW CONTINUES OUR EFFORT TO BUILD AN INTEGRATED MBON ADDING DATA ON ECOSYSTEM COMPONENTS (E.G. PHYTOPLANKTON BIODIVERSITY) AS STEPPING STONES. PRODUCTS WILL BE PRIORITIZED WITH INPUT FROM PARTNERS AND STAKEHOLDERS INCLUDING THE BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NOAA S OFFICE OF NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARIES AND NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY AND THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COASTAL WATER RESOURCES PROGRAM.