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PRESS KIT
Planktonic world: the new frontier
First scientific results from the Tara Oceans expedition
Contact information
Tara Expéditions - Eloïse Fontaine - [email protected] / +33 1 42 01 38 57
CNRS - Lucie Debroux - [email protected] / +33 1 44 96 43 09
EMBL - Isabelle Kling - [email protected] / +49 6221 387 8355
Press invitation
Embargoed until Thursday, 21 May 2015 at 8:00pm, Paris time
Press conference
Tara Oceans: first scientific findings
Thursday 21 May 2015 at 9:00am
At the CNRS headquarters - 3 rue Michel-Ange - 75016 Paris
Métro: Michel-Ange Auteuil (lines 9 and 10)
After three years gathering samples in the world's oceans and at least as many analyzing the data, the researchers
who took part in the Tara Oceans expedition will present the work carried out on the thousands of samples collected.
The first results from these international and interdisciplinary teams provide a detailed map of plankton biodiversity,
explore the interactions between the microorganisms observed, and focus on the impact of environmental conditions
on this microscopic ecosystem. They also confirm that the collected data represents an unprecedented resource for
studying and understanding the oceans. This work will be the subject of five articles published in a special issue of
the journal Science dated 22 May 2015.
We invite you to meet the researchers involved in the project at a press conference to be held on 21 May 2015 at 9:00
am at the CNRS headquarters. They will present the work published in the five articles, together with an overview of
the first findings from the Tara Oceans expedition.
Speakers:
> Romain Troublé, Secretary General of Tara Expeditions
> Eric Karsenti, CNRS and EMBL senior researcher, co-director of Tara Oceans
> Chris Bowler, CNRS senior researcher at the Institut de Biologie, École Normale Supérieure (CNRS/ENS/Inserm)
> Patrick Wincker, CEA senior researcher at the Genoscope (CNRS/CEA/Université d’Evry-Val-d’Essonne)
> Colomban de Vargas, CNRS senior researcher at the Laboratoire Adaptation et Diversité en Milieu Marin (CNRS/UPMC)
> Samuel Chaffron, researcher at VIB
> Daniele Iudicone, researcher at the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station (Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn - Napoli)
Other researchers and members of the Tara Oceans team will also be on hand to answer questions at the end of the press
conference: Shinichi Sunagawa (EMBL), Gipsi Lima-Mendez (VIB), Emilie Villar (CNRS) and Stefanie Kandels-Lewis (EMBL).
Information and registration: Lucie Debroux ([email protected]) and Eloïse Fontaine ([email protected])
If you wish to attend the press conference, please confirm your presence by 19 May 2015
NB! Due to the Vigipirate security alert system in force in the Paris region, you will be asked to show an identity document (identity card,
passport or driving license) upon entering the CNRS. Press cards will not be accepted as proof of identity.
Press contacts
CNRS : Lucie Debroux
T +33 1 44 96 43 09 / [email protected]
Tara Oceans : Eloïse Fontaine
T +33 1 42 01 38 57 / [email protected]
18 May 2015
Press release
Embargoed until 21 May 2015, 2:00pm US EDT
Planktonic world: the new frontier
First scientific results from the Tara Oceans expedition
On May 22, in a special issue of Science, an international, interdisciplinary, team of scientists maps the biodiversity of
a wide range of planktonic organisms, exploring their interactions - mainly parasitic, and how they impact and are
affected by their environment, primarily the temperature. Based on a portion of the 35000 samples collected from all
the world’s oceans during the 2009-2013 expedition on board the schooner TARA, this data provides the scientific
community with unprecedented resources, including a catalogue of several million new genes, that will transform how
we study the oceans and assess climate change.
When you mention rich ecosystems that are vital for life on Earth, people tend to think of rainforests, but ocean plankton are
actually just as crucial. The microscopic beings that drift on the upper layer of the oceans are globally referred to as “plankton”;
together they produce half of our oxygen, act as carbon sinks, influence our weather, and serve as the base of the ocean food
web that sustains the larger fish and marine mammals that we depend upon or draw delight from.
“Beyond the cutting-edge science that was developed thanks to our collaborative work with the Tara Expéditions Foundation,
this adventure is also about showing people all over the world how important the ocean is for our own well-being,” says Eric
Karsenti, director of Tara Oceans, from EMBL and CNRS.
What’s in the plankton?
The scientists captured viruses, microbes and microscopic eukaryotes – organisms with complex cells, from single-cell algae to
fish larvae – from major oceanic regions. They compiled their genetic material into comprehensive resources that are now
available to the scientific community for further studies.
“This is the largest DNA sequencing effort ever done for ocean science: analyses revealed around 40 million genes, the vast
majority of which are new to science, thus hinting towards a much broader biodiversity of plankton than previously known,“
explains Patrick Wincker, from Genoscope, CEA.
EMBL's high performance computing was essential in compiling this comprehensive catalogue, which is estimated to be derived
from more than 35 000 different species whose genomic content had been mostly unknown to mankind until now.
“In terms of eukaryotes, we sequenced nearly a billion genetic barcodes, and found that there is a greater variety of single-cell
eukaryotes in plankton than was thought,” says Colomban de Vargas, from CNRS. “They appear to be much more diverse than
bacteria or animals, and most belong to little-known groups.”
How do planktonic organisms interact?
Thanks to novel computer models, the researchers were able to predict how these diverse planktonic organisms interact.
Predictions were confirmed via selective microscopy observations.
“When we mapped how planktonic organisms – from viruses to small animal larvae – interact with each other, we discovered
that most of those interactions are parasitic, recycling nutrients back down the food chain,” says Jeroen Raes from VIB, KU
Leuven, and Vrije Universiteit Brussel. This map is a first step towards a better understanding of the dynamics and structure of
the global marine ecosystem.
Are planktonic organisms distributed evenly in the oceans?
In addition to biotic interactions, the scientists studied how environmental factors – such as temperature, pH, and nutrients
(amongst others) – influence the microscopic organisms floating in the ocean.
“We found that, at depths still reached by sunlight, temperature was the main factor that influences the composition of
prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) communities,” says Peer Bork from EMBL. “Different sets of organisms come together
depending on the water temperature.”
The scientists also showed that the Agulhas “rings” - a natural barrier that draws the line between the Indian Ocean and the
South Atlantic - separate plankton communities. “It’s like plankton goes through a cold wash cycle at the tip of South Africa,”
says Daniele Iudicone from the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn. “The current forms huge swirls that drastically mix and cool
the plankton riding it, thus limiting the number of species that manage to cross.”
“In addition, we now also have a global picture of marine virus communities, which allows us to confirm an idea that had been
proposed a decade ago, but never proven,” explains Matthew Sullivan from the University of Arizona. “Viruses are produced in
local ‘seed banks’ and then ride the ocean currents, so you end up with different cocktails of viruses in different places, even
though the overall diversity of viruses in the oceans appears quite limited.”
Understanding the distribution and the interactions of the plankton across the oceans will be very useful for predictive models
necessary to study climate change.
Is plankton affected by climate change?
The uniqueness of the Tara Oceans ‘eco-systems biology’ approach is to have sampled the world’s oceans systematically
across all domains of life, from viruses to animals, and including a rich variety of environmental data. The data generated sets a
baseline, on a global scale, to evaluate the impact of climate changes on oceanic ecosystems in the future.
“The finding that temperature shapes which species are present, for instance, is especially relevant in the context of climate
change, but to some extent this is just the beginning,” says Chris Bowler, from CNRS. “The resources we’ve generated will
allow us and others to delve even deeper, and finally begin to really understand the workings of this invisible world.”
References
Sunagawa, Coelho, Chaffron, et al. Structure and function of the global ocean microbiome.
DOI: 10.1126/science.1261359
De Vargas, Audic, Henry, et al. Eukaryotic plankton diversity in the sunlit ocean.
DOI: 10.1126/science.1261605
Lima-Mendez, Faust, Henry et al. Determinants of community structure in the global plankton interactome.
DOI: 10.1126/science.1262073
Villar, Farrant, Follows et al. Environmental characteristics of Agulhas rings affect inter-ocean plankton transport.
DOI: 10.1126/science.1261447
Brum, Ignacio-Espinosa, Roux et al. Patterns and ecological drivers of ocean viral communities.
DOI: 10.1126/science.1261498
Contact information
Tara Expéditions – Eloïse Fontaine - [email protected] / +33 1 42 01 38 57
CNRS - Lucie Debroux - [email protected] / +33 1 44 96 43 09
EMBL - Isabelle Kling - [email protected] / +49 6221 387 8355
Contact List
Speakers (Press conference in Paris)
Romain Troublé - Secretary General of Tara Expeditions
[email protected]
Eric Karsenti - CNRS and EMBL senior researcher, co-director of Tara Oceans
[email protected]
Chris Bowler - CNRS senior researcher at the Institut de Biologie, École Normale Supérieure (CNRS/ENS/Inserm)
[email protected] / +33 1 44 32 35 25
Patrick Wincker - CEA senior researcher at the Genoscope (CNRS/CEA/Université d’Evry-Val-d’Essonne)
[email protected] / +33 1 60 87 25 66
Colomban de Vargas - CNRS senior researcher at the Laboratoire Adaptation et Diversité en Milieu Marin
(CNRS/UPMC)
[email protected] / [email protected] / +33 2 98 29 25 28
Samuel Chaffron - Researcher at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) and at VIB
[email protected] - 0032 163 725 41
Daniele Iudicone - Researcher at the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station (Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn - Napoli)
[email protected] - 0039 081 58 33 23
Other researchers and members of Tara Oceans team
Stefanie Kandels-Lewis - Project Manager of Tara Oceans (EMBL)
[email protected] / +49 6221 387 323
Gipsi Lima-Mendez - Researcher at VIB
First author of the paper “Determinants of community structure in the global plankton interactome”
[email protected] / 00321 637 2222
Shinichi Sunagawa - Researcher at EMBL
First author of the paper “Structure and function of the global ocean microbiome”
[email protected] / +49 6221 387 84 56
Petra Ten Hoopen - Scientific Database Curator at EMBL-EBI
[email protected] / + 44 (0) 1223 492 565
Emilie Villar - Researcher at the laboratoire Information Génomique et Structurale (CNRS/AMU)
First author of the paper “Environmental characteristics of Agulhas rings affect inter-ocean plankton transport”
[email protected]
Eukaryotic plankton diversity in the sunlit ocean
C. de Vargas, S. Audic, N. Henry et al., Science, May 22, 2015
Discovery of more than 100,000 types of protists in the world plankton greatly expands understanding of ocean
life
After three years of sailing and studying the sunlit areas of the world oceans, scientists from the Tara Oceans
consortium unveiled a hidden diversity of unicellular organisms, known as protists. Sequencing of nearly a billion
genetic barcodes shows that this group of organisms is vastly more diverse than bacteria or animals, and most
belong to little-known groups of parasites, symbionts, and predators of various types. These results, published in
the journal Science, radically alter our vision of the biological and functional diversity of the world ocean plankton,
a key ecosystem for the functioning of our biosphere.
The marine planktonic realm is the largest ecosystem on Earth. Marine plankton generated atmospheric oxygen
long before the appearance of land plants and still produces as much oxygen as forests, while also being key
actors in the major biogeochemical cycles and climatic equilibrium of the planet. Sequencing of nearly a billion
ribosomal DNA sequences (genetic barcodes) from 334 sunlit zone1 samples from the Tara Oceans circum-global
expedition allowed the first extensive characterization of the biodiversity of planktonic eukaryotes2, from the
smallest unicellular organisms (<1 micron) to animals measuring a few millimeters.
The enormous quantity of genetic barcodes generated allowed assessment of eukaryotic plankton genetic
diversity close to saturation3, both locally in each community and globally across the world oceans. Analyses
revealed ~150,000 genetic types4 of eukaryotic plankton, a far greater diversity than the ~11,000 species that
have previously been described. The vast majority of genetic types discovered in this study did not have a close
match in existing reference databases, demonstrating that most of these organisms have never been cultured or
characterized. About one third of the genetic diversity discovered could not even be associated to any of the
currently known eukaryotic super-groups!
Amongst the genetic types that could be classified within the reference eukaryotic tree-of-life, most
corresponded to unicellular eukaryotes (also known as protists), with a phenomenal diversity of parasites,
symbiotic species, and predators of various types. Photosynthetic organisms, which transform solar energy into
living matter, were found to be much less diverse and smaller, and would represent significantly less overall
biomass. The most diverse and abundant groups corresponded to lineages of organisms that interact amongst
themselves (interactions ranging from parasitism to mutualism) and together form super-organisms and complex
ecosystems likely regulated mainly by relationships between species rather than competition for resources or
space.
Now that the biological and ecological basis of photic-zone marine plankton is becoming established, the next
step is to understand how planktonic communities, with diversity covering the totality of the tree-of-life in each
liter of seawater, react to the physical and chemical environment of seawater, and acclimatize or adapt to rapid
environmental change. This is essential to predict future changes in the productivity of the oceans, and the effects
of changes in plankton communities on the biogeoclimatic equilibriums of our biosphere.
1
The layer of oceans into which light penetrates, from the surface to several tens of meters depth, at most ±200m in the centre of the
main ocean basins.
2
All organisms, uni- or multi-cellular, that have genetic material contained in a nucleus (as opposed to bacteria and archeae)
3
Meaning that less and less new barcodes are observed, because they have been sequenced previously
4
Each of these genetic types can contain several biological species, so that the total number of eukaryotic species in the world sunlit
plankton could well be above 1 million.
Structure and function of the global ocean microbiome
S. Sunagawa, L.P. Coelho, S. Chaffron, et al., Science, May 22, 2015
Structure and function of the global ocean microbiome
Microorganisms and viruses (<3 micron) dominate the marine environment with 10 4 to 106 cells in each milliliter
of seawater. They are well recognized for their role in driving major global biogeochemical processes and given
their importance, it is of fundamental interest to answer basic questions, such as: who are they? What do they
do? and how are they affected by their environment? The researchers tackled such questions for the first time at
planetary scale by metagenomics, which is the large-scale sequencing of the genetic material of marine
microorganisms of various sizes at several depth layers in all major oceans in the context of many
physicochemical parameters.
Tara Ocean’s broad sampling coverage of the marine environment facilitated the analysis of vast amounts of DNA
sequencing data in the order of 2,000 human or 2 million bacterial genomes. The derived ocean microbial
reference gene catalog comprising 40 million, mostly novel genes from viruses, prokaryotes and picoeukaryotes,
is a blueprint for the diverse functionality of these organisms and represents a rich resource for various follow-up
studies.
In an initial analysis, the scientists could, for example, disentangle partly co-correlated, and thus confounding
environmental parameters that influence the formation of microbial communities and identified temperature as
the main driving force in the sunlit ocean. This implies that global warming will also have a large impact on
microbial communities that are invisible to the naked eye, but forming the basis for photosynthesis and marine
food webs.
Furthermore, a comparison between gene families that are core to the functioning of ocean microbial
communities and those in the human gut revealed that more than half of them are shared, indicating common
principles of microbial life in these very distinct ecosystems.
Taken together the establishment of the ocean microbial reference gene catalog and the demonstration of its
utility represent important steps towards capturing microbial biodiversity and their function on the planet in the
context of climate change.
Patterns and ecological drivers of ocean viral communities
J.R. Brum, J.C. Ignacio-Espinosa, S. Roux et al., Science, May 22, 2015
Global patterns and ecological drivers of ocean viral communities
Viruses have major impacts on Earth’s ecosystem processes through their modulation of population size,
diversity, metabolic outputs, and gene flow of the most dominant organisms on Earth – microbes. In this study,
the researchers establish the first global, quantitative dataset of marine viral community genomics and
morphology from 43 Tara Oceans expedition samples to investigate upper-ocean marine viral community
patterns and structure.
Analysis of global viral gene content through the use of protein cluster (PC) cataloging suggested that pelagic
upper-ocean viral community sequence space is now well-sampled and approaches a limit of ca. 1 million PCs.
Furthermore the most abundant and widespread viral populations observed in the samples lack cultured
representatives, which suggests that most upper ocean viruses remain to be characterized.
This global-scale analysis of multiple parameters of marine viral communities (PCs, populations, and morphology)
revealed biogeographic patterns that support a long-posited ‘seed-bank’ hypothesis whereby viral communities
are passively transported on oceanic currents and structured by local environmental conditions such as
temperature and oxygen concentration. Together these investigations explain how oceanic viral communities
maintain high local diversity that is consistent with limited global diversity.
This study provides a picture of global upper-ocean viral communities. Improving sequencing and experimental
methods are transforming the investigation of viruses in nature. Those progresses, coupled to sampling
opportunities from the Tara Oceans voyage, are advancing viral ecology towards the quantitative science needed
to model the nano- (viruses) and micro- (microbes) scale entities driving Earth’s ecosystems.
Determinants of community structure in the global plankton interactome
G. Lima-Mendez, K. Faust, N. Henry et al., Science, May 22, 2015
Plankton interactome determined – major role for parasites
The oceans are full of microscopic life influencing the structure and dynamics of the oceanic ecosystem. These
ocean communities form the basis of all ocean life and present a bewildering diversity but the functioning of this
ecosystem is poorly known. It is still a black box, despite its importance. The planktonic microbes (bacteria,
viruses, and other plankton) interact with each other in different ways – they compete, collaborate, infect and eat
each other; they form huge food webs that are also influenced by the environment and affect major processes
such as carbon sequestration and photosynthesis. But all these interactions were mostly unknown - until now.
The researchers studied biotic (interactions between species: grazing, pathogenicity and parasitism) and abiotic
(environmental conditions and nutrient availability) factors shaping ocean plankton communities, and
constructed an interactome that described the network of interactions among plankton groups in the photic
zone. They developed and applied novel computer programs to predict interactions between the planktonic
microbes (symbiosis leading to mutual advantages, competition, parasitism…). Through advanced microscopy on
the samples they confirmed that the computer-predicted interactions were actually occurring in nature.
Analysis of the network showed that the interactions between species were non-randomly distributed and
suggested that abiotic factors have a more limited effect on community structure than previously assumed. The
results emphasize the role of top-down biotic interactions in the epipelagic zone and especially of parasitism.
Parasitic interactions are the most abundant pattern present in the network, which is also eminent by repeated
microscopic observation of parasitic interactions from the Tara samples. The high prevalence of parasitism in the
ocean was one of the most important observations of this study and seems to indicate that parasites play a major
role in marine plankton ecology.
By unraveling the global ocean plankton interactome this study provides a rich first resource towards
understanding the dynamics and structure of the oceanic ecosystem. The interactome reported here spans all
three organismal domains and viruses. This data will inform future research to understand how symbionts,
pathogens, predators and parasites interact with their target organisms, and ultimately help elucidate the
structure of the global food webs that drive nutrient and energy flow in the ocean.
Environmental characteristics of Agulhas rings affect inter-ocean plankton transport
E. Villar, G. Farrant, M. Follows et al., Science, May 22, 2015
An oceanic "cold wash cycle” impacts plankton at a key choke point of global ocean circulation
Oceanic currents continuously transport vast quantities of seawater which distributes heat and salt around the
world, thus regulating the Earth’s climate. These massive water displacements also influence marine life,
especially plankton which drifts in currents against which they cannot swim. Indeed, such planetary wide stirring
mixes plankton, favoring its diversity and ultimately the planet’s health (atmospheric carbon and oxygen, food,
water quality).
One of the mightiest is the Agulhas current in the Southwestern Indian Ocean, roughly equivalent to 500 Amazon
Rivers. At the tip of South Africa, this current occasionally buds off as monumental anticlockwise swirls (up to 300
km across), called Agulhas rings, which slowly drift across the entire South Atlantic towards the coast of Brazil.
Surprisingly steady, these marine Whirling Dervishes or ocean Black Holes can even be seen from space as sea
water height anomalies that keep rotating for years. The fate of the entrapped Indian Ocean water they transport
is the Atlantic and the Southern Ocean. Because of this so called Agulhas leakage, plankton communities across
these well-connected systems was expected to be relatively similar.
An international interdisciplinary team of scientists (lead by CNRS and SZN) gathered around the Tara Oceans
expedition to compare the physical and plankton properties of the three oceanic basins which converge at the
Agulhas choke point. Using classical optical marine ecology tools, plankton looked very similar between the Indian
and Atlantic Oceans, suggesting like other expeditions before it, that the Agulhas choke point was not a barrier to
plankton dispersal. However, using high resolution genetic tools to zoom deeper into plankton cells, the Tara
Oceans team discovered that plankton diversity had in fact shifted between the two oceans. They also directly
observed the inside of an Agulhas ring, finding that the harsh environmental conditions created by the Roaring
Forties induced a strong unexpected modification of the plankton payload during its travel from the Indian Ocean
to the Brazilian coast. Indeed, the metabolism of the ecosystem as a whole was found to be altered as a result of
unusually high concentrations of nitrates, the ocean’s fertilizer. This phenomenon, supported by MIT computer
simulations, is likely explained by the exceptional cooling and deep mixing that take place inside Agulhas rings,
dubbed the plankton “cold wash cycle” by the study authors.
These results provide the first genomics-enabled comprehensive plankton description of Agulhas rings at a
sensitive choke point central to predictive models necessary to anticipate global change.
For more information on data and analysis:
OCEANOMICS : http://www.oceanomics.eu
Eukaryotic plankton diversity in the sunlit ocean (de Vargas et al.)
http://taraoceans.sb-roscoff.fr/EukDiv
Structure and Function of the Global Ocean Microbiome (Sunagawa et al.)
http://ocean-microbiome.embl.de/companion.html
Determinants of community structure in the global plankton interactome (Lima-Mendez et al.)
http://www.raeslab.org/companion/ocean-interactome.html
Environmental characteristics of Agulhas rings affect inter-ocean plankton transport (E. Villar et al.)
http://www.igs.cnrs-mrs.fr/Tara_Agulhas/
Tara Oceans Expedition in numbers
September 2009 – December 2013
1140 days of expedition
60 stopovers
35 visited countries
250 people and 40 different nationalities have embarked
(160 scientists, 90 sailors, artists or journalists)
60 sponsors and partners
Sailing
140 000 kilometers
5 captains: Hervé Bourmaud, Olivier Marien, Loïc Valette, Samuel Audrain and Martin Herteau
The most northern position: Franz Josef Archipelago (Russia) N 080° 48’ – E 047° 41’
Science
20 scientific coordinators and 140 contributors
200 sampling stations down to 1000 meters deep
23 scientific instruments
35 000 plankton and water samples collected and packed
Education / Communication / Art
20 000 pupils followed the adventures of Tara through Tara Junior
150 000 educational cards have been downloaded at www.tarajunior.org
10 000 children visited the boat during the stopovers
5 000 pictures and videos uploaded at www.taraexpeditions.org
3 books have been published
4 Tara Expeditions journals have been published in French and in English
5 documentaries broadcast on France 5 and Planète Thalassa
1 DVD (FR/ENG)
2 000 papers in the national press
France 3 followed Tara for 9 months on the show Thalassa
10 artists in residence
Tara Expeditions – An Engagement with the Ocean
The legendary schooner Tara – designed as a platform for high-level scientific research – has been sailing the globe
since 2003, trying to understand how climate change and ecological crises are impacting the world Ocean. Our
project arose from a passion for the sea, a humanist vision and the sincere commitment of Etienne Bourgois and
Agnes b. who together founded Tara Expeditions. Romain Troublé is the director/coordinator.
The missions of Tara Expeditions are divided into 3 themes: Ocean and Man, Ocean and Biodiversity, Ocean and
Climate. For the past 10 years, Tara has been constantly at work: the schooner made 10 expeditions, traveling
300,000 kilometers across all the oceans of the globe. Our 3 most recent missions were Tara Arctic (2006-2008),
Tara Oceans (2009-2013) and Tara Mediterranean (2014) devoted to studying (respectively) the climate, biodiversity,
and marine pollution. These scientific expeditions were conducted in collaboration with renowned laboratories and
scientific institutions where resulting data are currently being analyzed and made available to researchers all over the
world.
Tara Expeditions also works to enhance the general public and young people's environmental awareness, especially
through the Tara Junior Journal. Finally, Tara Expeditions has developed a program of actions for advocacy –
mobilizing people and encouraging decision-makers to take concrete steps towards the solutions we all need for the
planet.
In 2015 Tara wishes especially to highlight the relationships between Ocean and Climate. In December of this year,
Paris will host the major international Climate Conference, COP21. Tara Expeditions is a member of the Ocean and
Climate Platform organizing team. With the support of UNESCO, this group brings together nearly 40 scientific and
nonprofit organizations, universities, foundations, science centers, public institutions, and associations. Our mutual
goal is to put the world Ocean at the very heart of the climate negotiations. The highlight of this year will be Tara's
stopover in Paris during November and December, 2015.
Between 2016 and 2018, Tara will undertake an expedition to the Pacific coral reefs, in collaboration with Asian
laboratories. Our research area will extend from Colombia, Indonesia, via Polynesia, Japan, New Caledonia, Papua,
Palau and Taiwan.
Last but not least, a highly ambitious Arctic mission is being planned for the year 2019. The schooner – especially
designed 25 years ago for polar missions – will return to the Arctic! The Tara team is currently designing a new
concept for a polar base, and a new boat.
www.taraexpeditions.org
Photos and videos
Several pictures of Tara Oceans expedition (including the photos below, infographics and the map at the end of
the press kit) as well as videos are available online:
http://cloud.taraexpeditions.org
ID: Taracloud
Password: bKicbIi4QOtGz8V4YlPH
Photos of plankton are also available here (CNRS photo library): http://bit.ly/1ySmveF
Those images are copyright free. Captions and credits are specified.
© Tara Expéditions
©M.Ormestad/Kahikai/Tara Oceans
© John Dolan/CNRS/Tara Expéditions
This apparatus contains 10 Niskin
bottles to collect water from different
depths, as well as instruments to
measure many parameters including
pressure, temperature, conductivity,
nitrogen, oxygen, fluorescence, etc.
Hyperiid amphipod of the Phronima
genus. These parasitoid crustaceans
eat salps and use the empty gelatinous
husks as protective shells.
Antarctic Microplankton.
A tintinnid (Cymatocylis convallaria),
a
heterotrophic
dinoflagellate
(Protoperidinium) and diatoms from
the Tara Oceans Expedition station
84.
©V.Hilaire/Tara Expéditions
© S.Bollet/Tara Expéditions
Tara deployed 7 different types of nets, with mesh sizes ranging from 5 to 690 microns, and towed
horizontally and/or vertically between the surface and a depth of 1,000 meters.
TARA
length: 36 meters
width: 10 meters
height of mast: 27 meters
FROM VIRUSES
TO SAMPLE ZOOPLANKTON:
2
THE
Reviving the tradition of the great expeditions
of the 19th century, Tara sailed the world's oceans
for three and a half years.
For the first time, marine plankton in its entirety
was collected and studied – from viruses and
bacteria to fish larvae and jellyfish.
WHY THIS EXPEDITION?
CARBON
TO FISH L ARVAE
WE NEED 1 000 000 LITERS OF SEA WATER.
2013
1
Tara crossed the Northeast (Russian) and Northwest (Canadian)
passages. Scientists aboard accomplished a complete sampling
of marine organisms at the edge of the ice cap.
OCTOBER 2011
EXPEDITION 2009-2013
OXYGEN
3
september 2009 – december 2013
60 S TOPOVERS, 35 COUN TRIES
140,000 KILOME TERS AROUND THE WORLD
THE OCEANS regulate the climate and atmosphere
of our planet. Plankton produce half of the oxygen
generated globally each year by photosynthesis,
and absorb atmospheric CO2. Affected by pollution,
over-fishing, and rising temperatures, will plankton
continue to efficiently absorb carbon and regulate
the climate?
PLANKTON designates all the organisms drifting
with the currents. These microscopic organisms are
the foundation of the marine food chain, ensuring
the survival of fish, marine mammals, and billions
of humans beings. They react quickly to climate
changes and to ocean acidification. We must learn
more about this complex, dynamic ecosystem
and its role in global equilibrium.
CORAL REEFS are privileged places for aquatic
biodiversity, but they are suffering from climate
change, marine pollution, and over-fishing. Tara was
the ideal platform for exploring 5 rarely- studied
coral sites: Djibouti, Saint-Brandon, Mayotte, and
the islands of Gambier and Kiribati.
A CONCEN TR ATION
OF HIGH TECH
A unique space for microscopic imagery
set up aboard Tara – the dry lab – where
researchers characterize the organisms collected,
their functional diversity and their complexity.
Tara crossed the “Plastic
Continent”– a calm region
where marine currents
concentrate floating debris that
accumulates in masses.
THREE ME THODS OF
COLLEC TION AND OBSERVATION.
MORE THAN 35,000 SAMPLES
San Diego
observes plankton during
sampling.
THE FLOWCAM
is used to count and identify
organisms as they pass through
a laser beam at high speed.
Nice
New York
Savannah
Doudinka
Beyrouth
Bermudes
Abu
Dhabi
2 Peristaltic pump
Water is pumped from a
depth of 10 to 120 meters,
then passes through a series
of strainers and filters to
separate organisms by size.
3 The “rosette” CTD
and the UVP
This apparatus contains 10
Niskin bottles to collect water
from different depths, as well
as instruments to characterize
many parameters including
pressure, temperature,
conductivity, nitrogen,
oxygen, fluorescence,
etc. The bottles are
programmed to collect
water at different depths.
The UVP (Underwater
Vision Profiler)
deployed down to a depth of
2,000 meters allowed us to record
about 20 physico- chemical
parameters, and image particles
and organisms.
Maldives
Galapagos
1 TO 10,000 IN A LITER
OF SEA WATER
PROTISTS, INCLUDING
PHYTOPLANKTON
1 TO 100 MILLION
IN A LITER OF SEA WATER
The principal ocean
biodiversity consists
of multitudes of species
of unicellular organisms
with a nucleus: the protists.
Certain of them (diatoms,
dinoflagellates, etc.) are
photosynthetic. Along with
cyanobacteria, they constitute
phytoplankton, and are the
base of the food chain.
Phytoplankton produces
half of the oxygen on the
planet and absorbs half
of atmospheric carbon, thus
acting as a major regulator
of climate.
TO SAMPLE
VIRUSES:
WE MUST FILTER
10 LITERS OF
SEA WATER.
Zooplankton consists of tiny
animals, for example copepods,
embryos and larvae, but also
huge animals like jellyfish and
siphonophores. They feed on
living matter: bacteria, protists,
or other multicellular organisms.
Most zooplankton migrates
to the surface, or to great depths
to feed and protect themselves
from predators during the
night.
PORTS-OF-CALL
At stopovers every 6 to 8 weeks,
the samples – conserved with
liquid nitrogen, alcohol and
fixatives – were sent to partner
laboratories.
Guayaquil
Papeete
Ascension
Mayotte
Rio de
Janeiro
Ocean regions
undergoing acidification
Minimum oxygen zones
BACTERIA
1 TO 10 BILLION
10 TO 100 BILLION
JANUARY 2011
Scientists collected samples during one month
in Antarctic waters. This was the first Tara
Oceans mission in a polar region.
PARTNER L ABOR ATORIES
THE “ TAR ANAUTES”
23 LABS AND SCIENTIFIC INSTITUTIONS
TAKING TURNS ON BOARD:
8 in France
90
crew members,
artists, and
journalists
5 in the United States
2 in Germany
2 in Italy
1 in Belgium
VIRUSES
Le Cap
Ushuaïa
IN A LITER OF SEA WATER
Bacteria are prokaryotes: cells without
nuclei. Certain species – the cyanobacteria
– can perform photosynthesis. They are a
food for protists and certain zooplankton.
Bacteria are responsible for a wide array of
metabolic functions in the ocean.
Maurice,
La Réunion
Buenos
Valparaiso Aires
Ile de
Pâques
1 in Ireland
1 in Spain
140 researchers
involved in
the lab work
12 scientific
fields
1 in Canada
160
researchers
40 nationalities
1 in Saudi Arabia
1 in Russia
IN A LITER OF WATER
The marine virosphere is immense, and
includes the phages (viruses of bacteria)
and giant viruses (giruses).
Viruses play an essential role in
recirculating living matter.
Size proportions of the micro-organisms
are not respected in these drawings.
VOYAGE OF THE SAMPLES
Mumbai
Djibouti
ZOOPLANKTON
Tara deployed 7 types of nets
(mesh sizes from 5 to 690
microns) immersed between the
surface and 1,000 meters deep.
The specialized Manta net is used
for collecting plastic on the
surface.
Tara crossed the Gulf of Aden,
a very dangerous region infested
with pirates. Research was voluntarily
interrupted for two weeks.
Dubrovnik
Hawaii
1 Nets
FEBRUARY 2010
Lorient (port d’attache)
Québec
THE UNDERWATER
VISION PROFILER
Tromsø
WORLD COURIER
This international specialist in shipping
sensitive products expedited the precious
samples collected aboard Tara to Heidelberg
(Germany), then redistributed them
to partner laboratories around the world.
SCIENTIFIC RESULTS
Based on the data from Tara Oceans, many scientific articles detailing the planktonic
ecosystem and its dynamics have been published, or are on the way to being published
in international journals.
Ongoing analysis of this data, thanks to the Oceanomics project* will help establish
a reference for ocean ecosystems, and set up a method for predicting and
following the evolution of these ecosystems in relation to climate change.
* “Oceanomics” (an Investissements d’Avenir project) aims to promote rational and sustainable
use of marine plankton, one of the planet's most important ecosystems in terms of biodiversity,
bio-resources, and global ecological changes.
WWW.TARAEXPEDITIONS.ORG
PEVEK
ILULISSAT
RESOLUTE
BAY
TUKTOYAKTUK
JUNE
2013
QUEBEC
MURMANSK
TROMSÖ
DOUDINKA
DECEMBER
2013
MARCH
2012
SEPTEMBER
2011
MARCH
2011
MARCH
2010
SEPTEMBER
2010
FOURTH YEAR
QUATRIÈME
ANNÉE
:
:
Lorient - Lorient
Zones
Oxygen
à minimum
minimumd’oxygène
zone
Zone
Ocean
d’échange
exchange
océanique
zone