Tara Pacific

The biodiversity of coral reefs in the face of climate change and the pressures of human activity

Objectifs

An expedition with unprecedented scope

How does this fragile ecosystem work?

How able is it to resist and adapt to climate change and local pressures?

Sharing the importance of these coral reefs for biodiversity and local populations?

Championing the protection of these ecosystems at the Convention for Biological Diversity.

Having left its home port of Lorient in May 2016, the schooner Tara carried out the most ambitious scientific campaign ever undertaken on coral reefs. Two and a half years of expedition, more than 100,000 km covered, and 2,677 scientific dives, enough to meet the objective set at the start: to inspect the coral on the scale of the biggest ocean in the world, the Pacific.

In day-to-day life

The internal workings of Tara Pacific

The unique character of this expedition lies firstly in its ‘transversal’ approach to a very extensive geographical area, i.e. the Pacific, where more than 40% of the world’s coral reefs are concentrated. Such an approach had never been tried before on this scale.

Goélette

2 yearsof expedition
100 000 kmcovered on the planet
32archipelagos studied
36 000samples collected

Serge Planes, Scientific Director of the expedition

After our initial observations,
it seems clear that the future condition of coral reefs will depend on our climatic trajectory and our ability to protect the reefs locally from local practices and pollution.

40% of the world’s coral reefs are concentrated in the Pacific Ocean.

Tara Pacific : en haut du mat une chercheuse tient un corail.

Bilan

Contrasting states of health depending on the reefs

Currently, predictions on the evolution of coral reefs suggest that they will deteriorate until climate change is stabilised and new types of reef assemblies stand up to the planet’s temperature conditions.

The data from Tara Pacific offer a unique opportunity to distinguish local disruptions (pollution, urbanisation, sedimentation due to soil erosion) from global negative effects (global warming, acidification of the oceans) and to measure the state of health of coral populations subject to these two types of disruption.

Scientific publications

10/12/2019

The Tara Pacific expedition – A pan-ecosystemic approach of the “-omics” complexity of coral reef holobionts across the Pacific Ocean.

Planes S. et al

Tara Pacific

13/03/2018

Status of coral reefs of Samoa and recommendations to promote resilience and recovery of coastal ecosystems.

Ziegler M. et al.

Tara Pacific

12/09/2019

Millepora platyphylla range extended back to the Eastern Pacific, thanks to a new record from Clipperton Atoll.

Boissin E. et al

Tara Pacific

13/05/2020

Tara Pacific Expedition’s Atmospheric Measurements of Marine Aerosols across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans: Overview and Preliminary Results.

Flores, J.M. et al

Tara Pacific

11/12/2019

Expanding Tara Oceans Protocols for Underway, Ecosystemic Sampling of the Ocean-Atmosphere Interface During Tara Pacific Expedition (2016–2018)

Gorsky G et al.

Tara Pacific

09/05/2018

An improved primer set and amplification protocol with increased specificity and sensitivity targeting the Symbiodinium ITS2 region for next-generation sequencing diversity assessment.

Benjamin CC Hume et al.

Tara Pacific

26/10/2020

A framework for in situ molecular characterization of coral holobionts using nanopore sequencing reveals new microbial associations.

Carradec, Q, et al.

Tara Pacific

15/01/2020

Coral Li/Mg thermometry: Caveats and constraints

Cuny-Guirriec, K. et al.

Tara Pacific

04/06/2019

Bromotryptamine and Bromotyramine Derivatives from the Tropical Southwestern Pacific Sponge Narrabeena nigra

Miguel-Gordo, M. et al.

Tara Pacific

09/12/2020

Airborne microplastic particles detected in the remote marine atmosphere

Trainic, M. et al.

Tara Pacific

29/09/2020

Relay aboard the schooner

On deck, a team of interdisciplinary scientists coordinated by the CNRS and the Monaco Scientific Centre: 100 scientists involved from 23 institutes in 8 different countries.

Labs & partners