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<P align=center>SEMINARIO</P></FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=5>
<P align=center>BIODIVERSITY OF THE OCEANS:</P>
<P align=center>TARA OCEAN EXPEDITION</P></FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=3>
<P align=center>Dr Eric Karsenti, EMBL-Heidelberg</P>
<P align=center>Martes 23/11 a las 10 hs, aula 5, Subsuelo, Pab. 2, Ciudad
Universitaria</P></B></FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>
<P align=center>Plankton plays a major role in the determination and regulation
of the chemistry of our atmosphere,</P>
<P align=center>controlling Oxygen and CO</FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman"
size=1>2 </FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>concentration through
photosynthesis and the production of organic</P>
<P align=center>matter. Yet, most of these organisms and their important role
for life on earth are poorly known to</P>
<P align=center>scientists and even less known of the public at large. Large
initiatives like the Census of Marine</P>
<P align=center>Life, satellite observation of chlorophyll distribution in the
oceans and the deployment of automatic</P>
<P align=center>Argo floats world-wide have begun to produce interesting data
about oceanic biodiversity for some</P>
<P align=center>species and the yearly distribution of photosynthetic activities
at a global scale. Computer</P>
<P align=center>simulations have also started to provide hints of how organisms
distribute and evolve in the oceans.</P>
<P align=center>However the data collected by the Census of Marine life are not
sufficiently coherent and complete</P>
<P align=center>to properly feed the modeling of ocean life and the satellite
observations provide only information</P>
<P align=center>about photosynthetic activity of a few species.</P>
<P align=center>The goal of TARA OCEANS is three folds:</P>
<P align=center>1- To develop a sampling pipeline that allows to determine the
structure of ecosystems "end to end"</P>
<P align=center>(from viruses to fish larvae) in a given environmentally
characterized water mass. Using this tool,</P>
<P align=center>we will begin to extract the principles that govern the
spatio-temporal Biogeography of plankton</P>
<P align=center>ecosystems. By injecting our data in computer models, we will
test these models and develop</P>
<P align=center>predictive tools about the evolution of plankton ecosystems
composition and spatial distribution as</P>
<P align=center>a function of long term climate changes.</P>
<P align=center>2- To survey coral reef ecosystems when we pass by interesting
remote and poorly studied reefs.</P>
<P align=center>3- To promote ocean life knowledge and its impact on climate
evolution through worldwide</P>
<P align=center>education and outreach activities.</P>
<P align=center>During the seminar I will explain all this and show how we work
on TARA to get the samples and</P>
<P align=center>data required to reach this goal. I will also show how these
samples are studied on land as well as</P>
<P align=center>preliminary results. I will show several movies about work and
life on board TARA as well as</P>
<P align=center>simulations of the self organization of plankton ecosystems
worldwide.</P>
<P align=center>Comisión de Investigación y Académica</P>
<P align=center>Departamento de Ecología, Genética y Evolución</P>
<P align=center>Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales</P>
<P align=center>Universidad de Buenos Aires</P></FONT><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=#0000ff size=3>
<P align=center>academica@ege.fcen.uba.ar</P></FONT></FONT><BR><BR>__________
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