Tara Oceans
The recent Tara Arctic expedition strongly demonstrated the reality of global warming. What will be the impact of this global warming on life and on human society?
The increase in CO2 and its acidifying effects on the oceans are at the heart of the problem. Half of our CO2 production is absorbed by planktonic organisms. They are at the very origin of life, and a major component of the climate engine. Through their photosynthetic activity these microscopic organisms produce as much oxygen as forests. Without oxygen-producing plankton, humans would never have seen the light of day, and without them, we will disappear.
Our future is bound to the fate of the microscopic life in the oceans. How will plankton adjust to abrupt changes in the environment? Will the oceans bloom with invasive species or will there be ocean desertification? Tara will embark for 3 years on a unique trip around the world in search of answers to these basic questions. Tara Oceans tour
What makes this expedition unique is the multidisciplinary and continuous exploration of the world’s oceans and seas using the same collection and observation methods everywhere.
An international team of oceanographers, ecologists, biologists and physicists from prestigious laboratories has been organized for the Tara Oceans expedition. Artists, journalists, scientific and cultural personalities from the visited countries will be associated with this exceptional adventure.
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| The SPIM goes on board. (copyright: P. Theer) |
EMBL's LM Group (from left): U. Kržič, E. Stelzer, A. Riedinger, F. Härle, P. Theer and E. Reynaud (copyright: EMBL Photo Lab) |
Setting up the SPIM. (copyright: E. Reynaud) |
Running first tests with the SPIM. (copyright: P. Theer) |
Tara Oceans Expedition in the local press:
Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, issue 6 November 2009, No. 257
Tara Oceans is sailing around the world following the trails of Charles Darwin
150 000 kilometers of route, 60 ports of call and 50 laboratories participating – these are just a few facts that mark the mega project called “Tara Oceans Expedition”. The adventure is scheduled to take three years involving more than 100 scientists to explore worldwide the marine ecological system of the seas and oceans. This project is at least as ambitious as Charles Darwin’s famous travel with the “Beagle” around the world 180 years ago when he set out to sail the seas to systematically explore the global biodiversity of plants and animals. The leading brain behind the project is Eric Karsenti, a scientific group leader at European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). It is here in Heidelberg where everything comes together. With his team Eric Karsenti is trying to get a better overview of how the global climate is influenced by marine life. Floating sea plankton eventually represents the biggest mass movement on earth.
After six years of busy preparations the ship – a well-built 120-ton schooner – started from the French port of Lorient (see map below) in September 2009. The first six weeks are over and the Tara team experienced the first heavy storm while sailing along the coast of Corsica; but also the first samples were taken. In the meantime the samples of jellyfish Clytia hemisphaerica taken in the Mediterranean Sea are currently being evaluated in a special laboratory. At the moment Tara Oceans is sailing along the coast of Tunisia and will soon set course for the corals of the Red Sea, she will then continue towards the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic, passing by Patagonia and sailing across the Pacific Ocean before returning to France finally. Tara Oceans' total route will be four times the length of the equator. ...continued here
University College Dublin news
It will take a lot of work during and after the expedition to interpret and understand the information contained in the collected data.
From a purely scientific point of view, this approach should allow us to establish how ecosystems of “small” organisms in the world’s oceans are structured. We will learn which viruses, bacteria, protists and small metazoan organisms live together in given marine environments. Since the ocean is an open system, one could think that all organisms are everywhere. Obviously this is not the case because when a given organism migrates into an unfavorable environment, it dies.
Our approach should tell us a lot about the mechanisms of evolution. In particular, the classical idea of survival of the fittest could be examined. For instance, how viruses and their hosts co-evolve under different physico-chemical pressure is unknown. The Tara Oceans expedition will provide a unique opportunity to better understand such questions.
We clearly need complex modeling, based on bioinformatics analyses of DNA and RNA sequences obtained from organisms collected during the voyage, combined to morphological analyses of these same organisms. We will also study populations and communities dynamics in relation to their physico-chemical environments. Thus, we will learn much about how ecosystems change and adapt in response to climate change. Since they are at the base of the oceanic food chain, we may be able to predict how marine ecosystems will affect the climate by producing more or less oxygen and absorbing more or less CO2.