The Veolia Environnement Foundation became a leading sponsor of the Tara Oceans scientific program to help scientists study these species so vital to our survival and global climate balance.
Global warming and pollution have an extremely adverse effect on marine ecosystems, which are made up of billions of microscopic organisms known as plankton. Little is known about this huge source of biodiversity, which is so important to life on Earth since these organisms trap nearly 70% of carbon dioxide and produce around 50% of the oxygen we breathe.
Determining the impact of climate change on seas and oceans
The Tara schooner, which has already notched up numerous environmental expeditions over the years, sailed from Lorient in September 2009 for a three-year odyssey covering over 150,000 kilometers of the planet's oceans and seas.
It carries a multinational team of 20 scientists, including physicists, biologists and oceanographers covering over a dozen basic research areas. The many sampling spots scheduled will be used to gather specimens to analyze the diversity and distribution of species of plankton. The expedition's work will help build a unique data bank available to the entire scientific community. This will in turn be used to concretely describe the impact of climate change on the world's seas and oceans.
In total, the expedition involves more than 500 scientists and a network of 50 laboratories and institutes from around the world.
The Veolia Environnement Foundation
The Veolia Environnement Foundation is fully committed to the program and works daily to coordinate scientific bodies with partners in support of the project. It has provided funding for a range of onboard equipment, such as the "Rosette", one of the expedition's most advanced instruments, used to collect samples of water down to a depth of 2,000 meters, providing a virtual real-time snapshot of plankton life. Meanwhile, the project's original sponsor, Veolia Environnement employee Marie-Marguerite Bourbigot, provides the first point of contact for the Tara Oceans scientific teams.
