Pan-oceanic spatial scaling of planktonic ciliate diversity

全球了解原生生物浮游生物的空间多样性模式是我们了解它们适应不同海洋环境并在其中发挥作用的基础。这种广泛的视角是特别重要的，当试图阐明原生生物反馈迅速变化的环境条件，如海水温度和二氧化碳引起的酸化，以及营养制度的变化。然而，这些模式仍然难以捉摸，由于样本量小，缺乏样本从许多地理区域，并缺乏上下文环境数据在大多数植物地理学研究。塔拉海洋方案（http：//oceans.taraexpeditions.org/）旨在解决这一问题，在其为期三年的全球航行（2009-2012年）中，对350多个地点进行了采样，收集了261个生物和物理化学环境参数。当前的目标是使用已经收集的塔拉样品的高通量测序的浮游纤毛虫，并进行形态鉴定，阐明泛海洋的空间尺度规则，这些模式原生生物，并获得更深入的了解他们的生物多样性。更广泛的影响是将这些数据（沿着其他研究人员为塔拉海洋提供的数据）整合到一个开放源多维数据库中，这将有助于绘制浮游生物全球分布图，并生成面对气候变化的浮游生物时空演变预测模型。

A global understanding of spatial diversity patterns of protistan plankton is fundamental to our understanding of their adaptation to, and functioning in, different marine environments. This broad perspective is especially important when trying to elucidate protistan feedback to rapidly changing environmental conditions such as increases in sea temperature and CO2-induced acidification, as well as shifts in nutrient regimes. However, these patterns remain elusive due to small sample sizes, a paucity of samples from many geographic regions, and a lack of contextual environmental data in most biogeography studies. The TARA Oceans program (http://oceans.taraexpeditions.org/) was designed to solve this by sampling more than 350 sites and collecting 261 biological and physico-chemical environmental parameters on its 3-year global voyage (2009-2012). The immediate goal is to use already collected TARA samples for high-throughput sequencing of planktonic ciliates, and for morphological identifications, to elucidate pan-oceanic spatial scaling rules of these model protists and to obtain deeper insights into their biodiversity. The broader impact is the integration of the data (along with data from other investigators contributing to TARA Oceans) into an open-source multidimensional database, which will allow mapping of the global distribution of plankton and generating predictive models of the spatio-temporal evolution of plankton in the face of climate change.