10 years of Ocean Microbiome Research at planetary scale
A Nature Reviews Microbiology article highlights the work of Tara Oceans — a multi-disciplinary project studying ocean microbial life. In the review, Prof. Sunagawa, together with other members of the project, discusses how insights and data from the past 10 years of work has advanced our understanding of the ocean ecosystem at planetary scale.
Microbial communities in the oceans, also known as plankton, play key roles in the biogeochemistry, food webs, and climate of our planet. In light of global climate change, it is critical to establish an inventory of and to understand the processes within the ocean ecosystem at planetary scale. Tara Oceans, originally a grass-root initiative with the goal to assess the complexity of ocean life by using a modified sailing boat, the team has grown into a multi-disciplinary project that has sampled and analyzed plankton at globally distributed sites from pole-to-pole in seawater down to 1,000 m. The review highlights the insights gained and resources of molecular, morphological and environmental data that have become available in the past 10 years. Furthermore, it discusses how such an approach, that is, to study an ecosystem at planetary scale, and efforts to make well-contextualized and standardized data available for re-use to the scientific community has led to new discoveries. These data may also serve as a baseline for assessing ecosystem changes that impact the future habitability of our planet.
Link to the review in external pageNature Reviews Microbiology