BIOSWOT - Using satellites to study plankton

As part of the BioSWOT project supported by CNES (PI F. d'Ovidio, LOCEAN), the Institut Méditerranéen d'Océanologie (MIO) has developed a collaboration with the SHOM (French Navy Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service).

A.Doglioli and G.Grégori boarded the BHO Beautemps Beaupré for the PROTEVS campaign.¹-SWOT² (PI F.Dumas) in the western Mediterranean Sea, south of the Balearic Islands, from 28 April to 16 May 2018. In close interaction with a shore team (A.Petrenko, S.Barrillon, L.Rousselet, M.Thyssen) and in contact with colleagues at IMEDEA and the SOCIB (PI A.Pascual and J.Allen) aboard the r.v. 'Garcia del Cid', MIO researchers studied the role played by ocean currents in the structure and dynamics of the phytoplankton community.

These micro-organisms play a major role as they form the basis of the food web, play a part in the cycle of biogenic elements and supply the ocean with dissolved O2 through the primary production process.

A Cytosense automated flow cytometer (Cytobuoy) was implemented on board, on the seawater circuit of the ship's thermosalinograph (TSG), to study phytoplankton cells on an individual scale and at high frequency (every half hour). The sampling strategy was controlled by detailed analysis of satellite data in near-real time.

Le project website and the NASA

See also FUMSECK, a BIOSWOT project campaign

1. PROTEVS: ocean forecasting, turbidity, flow, waves and sedimentology    
2. SWOT: surface water and ocean topography