Global Ocean System Ecology & Evolution

An ambitious program

On September 12, 2018, at the French Academy of Sciences, a major milestone in ocean research was announced. After 10 years of studying ocean life aboard the schooner Tara and in partner laboratories around the world, the very ambitious Global Ocean System Ecology & Evolution (GO-SEE) program was launched.

The GO-SEE research federation

The GO-SEE program is developed and coordinated by the Fédération de Récherche Tara Oceans of the CNRS, together with the Tara Oceans consortium, led by EMBL, and the Tara Expeditions Foundation.

“Understanding an entire global ecosystem”

Human societies have spent billions to discover the properties of the infinitely small (atoms and cells) and the infinitely large (stars and the universe). From these explorations, we have improved lifestyles, learned how to fight disease, and how to generate energy.

The largest continuous ecosystem on earth is the ocean. Life most probably started there around 4 billion years ago, from where it underwent a long complexification process from the tiniest and simplest viruses and microbes to larger and more sophisticated unicellular protists and multicellular organisms. This complexification process is the origin of today’s extraordinary biodiversity; it has generated the oxygen we breathe and our fossil fuel reserves while absorbing CO2 and other noxious gases from the atmosphere to make our planet a comfortable home for humanity. It’s time to give it our attention.

For the first time, global modeling is based on the actual biological complexity of a marine ecosystem

Global Ocean System Ecology & Evolution (GO-SEE) is a new odyssey. This program aims to discover the structure and dynamics of the planktonic ecosystem at large spatial and temporal scales, taking into account the different species (taxonomic approach). For the first time, this integrated approach will make it possible to model the real biological complexity of this ecosystem on a planetary scale.

By bringing together 12 scientific disciplines and applying the latest technologies in plankton collection, DNA sequencing, automatic imaging, bioinformatics and physics for a holistic study (biology, chemistry, physics) of the Ocean, this research constitutes a crucial step in the understanding and modeling of the Earth’s ecosystems.

Federation for research: an ambitious project

Hosted by the new Federation for Tara Oceans Research (FR 2022), this multidisciplinary project brings together 20 laboratories from France and around the world to collaborate with the Tara Oceans Foundation, under the auspices of the CNRS, CEA, IRD, EMBL, and 5 French universities.

Tara Oceans standardized data collection from ocean ecosystems

Tara Oceans pioneered a standardized process to collect, store, and analyze samples and data from planktonic ecosystems. The data collected is very heterogeneous – including physicochemical measurements, genomics, and images of plankton – and is also immense, requiring a new database structure. Independent initiatives are now adding more data, expanding further the possibilities to explore ocean life. The database developed by Tara Oceans represents the largest genome-based global scale open-access resource from marine ecosystems.

Plankton

Marine plankton constitute the largest biome on earth. In every liter of seawater, there are between 10 and 100 billion life forms, including viruses, prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea), single-celled eukaryotes (protists), and small animals. During the history of life on our planet, plankton were responsible for generating atmospheric oxygen long before terrestrial plants appeared, and today they still perform half of planetary photosynthesis. Plankton is a key component of global carbon cycling and climate, notably through the ‘biological carbon pump’ by which atmospheric CO2 is transformed into organic carbon and eventually transferred to the ocean floor, where it can be sequestered for millennia. Plankton are the primary food for fish and shellfish and hold an enormous but largely untapped source of unique organisms and bioactive compounds relevant to bio-industries and the blue economy.

The future habitability of our planet depends on plankton ecosystems

Understanding the fundamental properties of plankton ecosystems (structure, dynamics, evolution), and how life originated, complexifies, and evolves at the ecosystem level, is arguably the greatest scientific challenge of the next decades. It is essential to predict the future of our biosphere and to learn how to live in synergy with our Earth system.

Critical assessments of biodiversity in the ocean

Researchers are witnessing profound changes in ocean biodiversity, with migrations and species losses caused by temperature changes, oxygen loss, and acidification. GO-SEE will contribute to a future multidisciplinary observation of ocean biodiversity, as asked in the United Nations SDGs and the G7 Ocean agenda, amongst others.

More accurate prediction tools for fish stocks

Current models for fisheries are changing with new technology and the need for a more holistic view on ocean ecosystems. GO-SEE will boost the integration of data from ocean microbiomes and plankton networks into current models.

Socio-political objectives

GO-SEE will provide decision-makers with crucial information for infrastructure and business management in the current context of climatic and environmental uncertainties.

International cooperation and capacity building

In a logic of cooperation, the Tara Ocean Foundation and the Fonds Français pour l’Environnement Mondial (FFEM) support capacity-building and research in developing countries. We aim to develop international cooperation in sciences related to ocean ecosystems, and to support greater consideration of marine ecosystems in the existing ocean policy forums.

Science and Education

The GO-SEE program and the Tara Foundation are ideal partners for educational infrastructures, providing them with turnkey activities on scientific and interdisciplinary topics for all age groups. By staying as close as possible to the real data collecting by the scientists, pupils also get a unique first-hand experience of how «real scientists» work!

At the forefront of technological innovation

Over the last decade, France has developed the technological and conceptual means to understand and model a biome on a planetary scale. In this French-led international adventure, leading French (CNRS, CEA, PSL, SU, etc.), European (EMBL) and worldwide laboratories have combined their oceanic expertise during the Tara expeditions. Recognized worldwide, our pioneering scientific, technological and conceptual breakthroughs have been published in leading scientific journals.

Thanks to artificial intelligence, we are now on the verge of making discoveries related to the global modeling of an entire ecosystem, impossible to achieve a few years ago. France is one step ahead with this Tara Oceans program, based on extensive ocean data, innovative but fragile public-private funding and the ability of the Tara Ocean Foundation to inform the general public and decision-makers of the latest knowledge in global ecology.

Innovate, explore, understand and share

To meet our expectations –to innovate, explore and always understand– the Tara Oceans program is structured under the co-supervision of the CNRS, the CEA, the IRD, the EMBL and several universities. It brings together 20 French and international laboratories and universities, including the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM) of the University of Chile, as well as the Tara Oceans Foundation. This research federation marks a decisive step towards the structuring of a multidisciplinary approach to ecology, with the ambition of creating in the future a European Research Center of Excellence in Global Ecology following an ecosystem approach.

Participating Institutions