During the Winter Enrichment Period, I organized a lecture at King Abdullah University Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, thanks to Romain Trouble who is the Secretary General of the Tara Foundation and Operations Manager of Tara Oceans. Dr. Stein Kaartverdt from the KAUST Red Sea Research Center introduced the 2 instructors, Dr. Fabrice Not and Olivier Marien, captain of Tara. Fabrice worked on the diversity of Tiny eukaryotic organisms in the sea for his PhD. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Rosenthiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science, Miami FL, and The Institute of Marine Science in Barcelona, Spain. Currently, Fabrice is a research scientist for the Station Biologique de Roscoff (CNRS-Univ Paris Pierre et Marie Curie), France.
Tara Oceans is a three-year marine expedition organized under the auspices of the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP). It studies unknown and crucial marine ecosystems and make a singular voyage around the blue planet to better understand the past and present sources of life. The objectives of the Tara Oceans Oceanographic Mission are (1) to explore the biogeography and biodiversity of different oceanic regions and depths, mapping the distribution of organisms from viruses to bacteria and protozoans, from phytoplankton to zoo plankton and fish larvae in different physical conditions and (2) to survey and study the biodiversity of coral reef ecosystems and extreme environments: ho vents, deep sea, polar regions.
For more information on the project, please visit http://oceans.taraexpeditions.org

Bon vent a l expedition!
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