Tara schooner en route to the Pacific corals – Le Figaro

VIDEO – For two years, researchers will succeed aboard the schooner Tara scientific listen to the coral reefs of the largest ocean in the world and measure the threats of climate change <. / p>

“It’s nice to Lorient, the ship is ready …” Saturday, May 28 in the late afternoon the scientific schooner Tara will cast off moorings in the middle of a small boat armada. A moment of great satisfaction after more than two years of preparation for Serzh Planes, CNRS researcher and scientific director of the expedition in the Pacific. Pacific objective of Tara will cross the Pacific Ocean until 2018: “to advocate coral reefs,” says the researcher. If the reefs cover only 0.2% of the ocean surface, they meet nearly 30% of known marine biodiversity. “Not less than 8% of the world population depends” still reminds the scientist.

But the threats to these massive are many: rising sea levels, acidification, bleaching, but also due to multiple pollutants, including global warming. The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is also particularly concerned without, to date, we can say how it will cope. Bleached coral expelling the algae with which it lives in symbiosis. “At this stage he is still alive, says the specialist, but if this continues then it dies.”

Photo credits: F. Latreille / Tara Expeditions

“Studying these fragile ecosystems is a priority,” thus explains CNRS. Seventy scientists from 18 research laboratories and institutions from 8 countries will succeed on the boat to collect samples, take samples, photographing sites collect algae reefs and explore a coral fish species , Acanthurus triostegus , better known under the name surgeon convict because of its white color with black stripes.

“Tara Pacific will try to unveil a reef biodiversity both genomic, genetic, viral or bacterial to compare it with that of the body of water that surrounds it. The goal is to get a real idea of ​​the overall diversity of a coral colony, “explains Serge Planes, who will join the schooner after the crossing of the Atlantic in mid-July. “Until the Panama Canal, there will be two researchers with the crew on board who will work on plankton. The Adventure of coral will start only in the Pacific, first along the Panamanian and Colombian coasts “says the specialist. Tara will then continue on through the first ocean from east to west to Japan (2016-2017) and New Zealand to China (2017-2018). In total the boat should travel some 100,000 km.

The Pacific Ocean concentrates over 40% of coral reefs in the world. In total 40 archipelagos must be identically designed that will draw some 40,000 samples in two years. This multiplicity of levies will offer the opportunity to separate the effects of local perturbations in particular the pollution due to proximity to inhabited coasts “of the impact of global changes such as global warming or acidification and measure the health of coral populations subjected to two types of disturbances, “explains CNRS.