It was known that plankton was essential for the environment because it serves as the basis of the marine food chain and provides half of the oxygen that is generated on Earth through photosynthesis.
Now scientists have found that plankton is much more complex than we had imagined, according to five studies published Thursday in the journal Science.
The studies were conducted during an expedition several years known as the Tara Oceans project.
Between 2009 and 2013, international researchers traveled aboard the French schooner “Tara” and took 35,000 samples of plankton-which includes viruses, bacteria, unicellular algae and larvae of all major peces– ocean regions.
“This is the greatest effort of sequencing DNA has ever done on ocean science: analysis revealed about 40 million genes, most of which are new to science, which points to a much higher plankton biodiversity than previously assumed, “said researcher Patrick Wincker French sequencing center Genoscope.
The boat also collected information on the depth, temperature and salinity of the oceans, as well as interactions between the tiny forms of life on the water.
The team also identified 5,000 viral populations in the upper layers of the world’s oceans.
“Surprisingly, despite several decades of marine viral research, only 39% of these 5,000 viral populations were similar to the virus that already took for known,” said researcher Jennifer Brum, University Arizona.
This mapping is a first step towards greater understanding of the dynamics and structure of the marine ecosystem as a whole, the researchers said.
In addition, understanding the distribution of these organisms and their interactions is useful to study global changes, especially those related to global warming and its impact on ocean systems.
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