The French Navy contributes to knowledge of the ocean microbiome

Manon, a master’s student in environmental physiology and environmental toxicology at the Sorbonne University, sees the Bougainville mission as a “unique opportunity to live an extraordinary human and scientific experience” and to discover a world she does not know, which is the world of the French marine. For Thomas, a Master of Marine Science student, “Going to sea for several weeks and being able to put my knowledge into practice in an unfamiliar environment is an excellent way to test myself and develop my independence. Life on board will also allow me to meet people from different backgrounds, who have in common All in concern for the marine environment.

These two students are among the four young people selected to participate in the Bougainville mission, which was officially launched on Tuesday 26 September at the Roscoff Biological Station (Finistère), a few days before the start of the mission. These gap year students will board not a scientific exploration ship, but the French Navy’s Support and External Assistance (BSAOM) ships, D’Entrecasteaux and Champlain, the first and third in the BSAOM program series, based respectively in New Caledonia and Reunion Island. This is under the military situation.

Manon, Thomas, Mathilde and Hugo, the first four students participating in the Bougainville mission.

Assembly tool

These ships are specially designed to operate in large overseas sea spaces and carry out a very wide range of missions: surveillance and protection of French territory and interests, assistance to ships in difficulty and rescue at sea, anti-pollution, and drop of troops at sea. Supporting the police, the gendarmerie, the army, the relief of the stricken population after a natural disaster… And now, science, and in particular, the collection of plankton, this vast network of microorganisms that includes between 10 and 100 billion organisms per liter of sea water and which plays A vital role in the functioning of the oceans and the balance of our planet.

Remoteness, after all, is not very new to the Navy. “Improving knowledge of the marine environment is a very old approach,” Lieutenant Commander Thierry Strasser, Commander of the Navy’s Center of Meteorological and Oceanographic Experts (Centex Metoc), explained to Mer et Marine in early 2022, in the city of Brest (Finistère). “Every day we collect meteorological and oceanographic data for the purposes of navigation and our operations, but also to protect the environment, which forms an important part of our activity.”

Frugal tools

Thus, the Coryphène seawater collector, the Diodon plankton collector, the Lamprey semi-automatic filtration system or the PlanktoScope microscope are added to the usual BSAOM equipment and will not disrupt its operation. For example, a correvin is a drop net placed at the back of a building. In combination with Diodon, which allows the ocean microbiome to be concentrated from several cubic meters of water taken on board directly below or aft of the ship, the system keeps the impact on operations and crew availability minimal. This option was successfully tested during the trial phase in Brest, in November 2021, and was confirmed during the new ascent in February 2023.

These so-called “frugal” gadgets are the result of work by long-standing Plankton Planet, an international consortium born in 2015 that includes researchers (Sorbonne, CNRS, Stanford, University of Maine), sailors (Tara Ossian Foundation), and “ Makers” (SeaLabX, PontonZ). A consortium joined by the French Navy and the Oceanographic Institute of the Alliance Sorbonne University in 2021. The Frugal Oceanographic Kit consists of six pieces and aims to be easy to use, inexpensive, easy to obtain and implement. Plankton Planet’s ambition is participatory: the goal is to deploy these sensors on many boats, sailboats, commercial vessels or fishing vessels, so that everyone can participate in measuring the ocean microbiome, to monitor and understand the health of the oceans.

Curiosity’s microscope is part of the Thrifty Oceanography Kit. This super fun, compact digital microscope lets you observe, photograph, and photograph marine microbes, then share the observations on the platform.

Scientists, sailors and psychics

Meanwhile, four students prepare to use Plankton Planet’s tools and protocols aboard ships of the French Fleet, in remote, rarely sampled areas such as the Southern, Indian and Central Pacific Oceans, under a military situation.Aspiring Volunteer Biodiversity Officer (VOAB). The ship will have a triple hat: scientist, sailor (after a month’s training at the Naval Academy), and mediator, sharing the collected data with local researchers and academics.

A second campaign is scheduled to take place from September 2024 to August 2025, with six other students from the Sorbonne, on three BSAOMs. there Recruitment campaign Already open.

– See our full article on the Bougainville mission

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