Polar zones

The polar regions are key environments for controlling the Earth's climate machine, but they are also highly sensitive to ongoing climate change. The Arctic and Antarctic oceans are the site of intense phytoplankton blooms, mainly dominated by siliceous phytoplankton such as diatoms, which result in significant C fluxes to the deep ocean.

In the Southern OceanWe are particularly interested in the natural laboratories of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Kerguelen in particular), and the role of iron fertilisation in areas of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current limited by this micronutrient and the various factors controlling the flow of Si and C to the deep ocean, in relation to planktonic biodoversity.

In the Arctic OceanWe are studying the impact of increasingly early melting of the sea ice on the dynamics of the spring phytoplankton bloom, and the role played by ice, light and macronutrients in the evolution of the bloom and its termination.