The oceanic plankton is largely made up of parasitic and symbiotic species that interact closely with each other, according to a large international genetic study with the participation of the University of Neuchâtel, published Thursday in Science.
From 2009 to 2013, 35 teams from nine countries participated in this work aboard the schooner of the “Tara Oceans”, under the aegis of the French CNRS. The yacht has sailed the seven seas, frigid waters around Antarctica to the Red Sea, through the Mediterranean.
Some 50 scientists collected 35,000 plankton samples to the surface water, or a total of about two million unique DNA sequences.
90% of unknown species
Asked by QED emission of RTS, Enrique Lara Biologist in Soil Biology Laboratory of the University of Neuchâtel, said that the discovery represents about 110,000 “species.” About 90% of them were previously unknown to science.
These figures do not surprise beyond measure scientifically. “Although the diversity of algae, protozoa and fungi in marine plankton we seem huge, other environments such as the soil could be even richer,” he nuance.
The data obtained will evaluate on a large scale, the impact of climate change on ocean ecosystems in the future, according to scientists.
The Tara Oceans expedition in the Arctic Circle in 2013 Video:
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