Despite the importance of their role, the diversity and physiology of the many plankton species providing the basis of the oceanic ecosystems remain largely misunderstood. While satellite observation supplies data on photosynthesis activity on the ocean surface, only the studies and analyses conducted on these processes at greater depth - where this activity reaches a peak - can tell us about the diversity and distribution of the plankton species in order to preserve them better.
This is the reason for the scientific program conducted by Tara Oceans, initiated by the Tara Foundation, with the support of Agnès b, the Brittany regional authority and the French National Research Agency.
Having already completed seven historic expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctic, in Patagonia, Greenland and South Georgia, the polar schooner which already carried the scientists to drift across the ice-pack for 507 days, will sail from Lorient next September, for a three-year odyssey covering over 150,000 kilometers on all seas of the globe.
