Overview

The Tara Foundation sponsors scientific expeditions to advance the knowledge of the Ocean. I have been involved in the Tara consortium participating in he analysis of global ocean plankton communities, contributing to our understanding of marine biodiversity and ecosystem function.

The Project

The Tara Oceans consortium represents one of the largest efforts to study ocean biodiversity:

  • Expedition duration: 2009-2013 (main expedition), ongoing follow-ups
  • Samples collected: Over 35,000 samples from 210 stations
  • Depth range: Surface to mesopelagic zones
  • Geographic coverage: All major ocean basins including Arctic

My Contributions

I have contributed to several aspects of the Tara Oceans research:

  • Metagenomic analysis of plankton communities
  • Reconstruction of metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs)
  • Laboratory testing on board Tara Polar Station

Publications

Selected publications I’ve contributed to:

  • Paoli et al. (2022). Biosynthetic potential of the global ocean microbiome. Nature
  • Vernette et al. (2022). The Ocean Gene Atlas v2.0: Online exploration of the biogeography and phylogeny of plankton genes. Nucleic Acids Research
  • Royo-Llonch et al. (2021). Compendium of 530 metagenome-assembled bacterial and archaeal genomes from the polar Arctic Ocean. Nature microbiology
  • Salazar et al. (2019). Gene Expression Changes and Community Turnover Differentially Shape the Global Ocean Metatranscriptome. Cell
  • Lima-Mendez et al. (2015). Determinants of community structure in the global plankton interactome. Science

Resources

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