Pan-oceanic spatial scaling of planktonic ciliate diversity

对原生浮游生物空间多样性格局的全面了解，是我们了解它们在不同海洋环境中的适应和功能的基础。当试图阐明原生生物对快速变化的环境条件的反馈时，如海洋温度的升高和二氧化碳引起的酸化，以及营养体系的变化，这种广阔的视角尤为重要。然而，在大多数生物地理学研究中，由于样本量小，来自许多地理区域的样本缺乏，以及缺乏背景环境数据，这些模式仍然难以捉摸。TARA海洋计划（http://oceans.taraexpeditions.org/）旨在通过在其为期3年的全球航行（2009-2012）中对350多个地点进行采样并收集261个生物和物理化学环境参数来解决这个问题。近期目标是利用已采集的TARA样本对浮游纤毛虫进行高通量测序和形态鉴定，阐明这些模式原生生物的泛海洋空间尺度规律，并对其生物多样性有更深入的了解。更广泛的影响是将这些数据（以及其他为TARA Oceans提供数据的研究人员提供的数据）整合到一个开源的多维数据库中，这将允许绘制浮游生物的全球分布地图，并生成浮游生物在气候变化面前时空演变的预测模型。

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.