© G.Bounaud - Tara Expeditions.

The last publication issued by Tara Oceans in Nature¹ describes the network of planktonic organisms that participates to the huge carbon sink constituted by the oceans of our planet, and explains how it functions. Lucie Bittner², from the IBPS Evolution Laboratory, is co-first author of this publication that highlights the importance of interdisciplinarity between oceanography, genomics and computer science. By crossing metagenomics and biogeochemical data, this study helps understand oceanographic issues at the global scale. It thus opens fascinating perspectives for modelling the biological and biochemical functioning of the « ocean » system constituted by all our planet’s oceans and emphasizes the major role of planktons in climate regulation. This article was the subject of a press release³ by the CNRS and UPMC.

¹Plankton networks driving carbon export in the oligotrophic ocean, L. Guidi & al.
²Team High throughput data analysis for genomics
³Plankton network linked to ocean's biological carbon pump revealed