The Galapagos Islands (GI) are on top of a compositionally heterogeneous mantle plume. GI presents unique ecosystems of rich biodiversity critical for understanding ecological and evolutionary processes within a highly dynamic geologic setting. The governing paradigm suggests that GI biodiversity is consequent to its remote location, at a confluence of four ocean currents and subjected to upwelling. However, this is a controversial dogma because the currents that converge at GI are iron-limited (a key element for primary production), and other remote volcanic islands do not exhibit GI-equivalent biodiversity. GLOBE aims to study if GI's unique rich ecosystems are driven by localized lithosphere-biosphere interactions, such as mantle plume upwelling, submarine freshwater influx, and marine habitat variability, rather than isolation and converging oceanic currents.