Scientists found a world plankton biodiversity , the set of tiny plants, viruses and embryonic fish which are the favorite food and also one whale delas of the largest suppliers of oxygen on the planet.
It was known that the plancto n was essential for the environment because it serves as the basis for food chain marine and provides half of the oxygen that is generated on Earth through photosynthesis.
Now scientists have discovered that plankton is much more complex than they had imagined, according to Five studies reported Thursday in the journal Science .
The studies were conducted during an expedition several years known as the Tara Oceans project.
Between 2009 and 2013, international researchers traveled aboard the French schooner “Tara” and took 35,000 samples of plankton-which includes virus, bacteria, unicellular algae and fish larvae – all the great regionesoceánicas
“This is the greatest effort of sequencing DNA has ever done in ocean science. The analysis revealed nearly 40 million of genes, most of which they are new to science, which points to much higher in plankton than previously assumed unabiodiversidad “said researcher Patrick Wincker French sequencing center Genoscope.
The boat also collected information on the depth, temperature and salinity of the oceans, as well as interactions between the tiny forms of life on the water.
team also identified 5,000 viral populations layers superioresde the world’s oceans .
“Surprisingly, despite several decades of marine viral research, only 39% of these 5,000 viral populations were similar to the virus that already took for known, “said researcher Jennifer Brum, the Universidadde Arizona.
This mapping is a first step towards greater understanding of the dynamics and structure of the marine ecosystem as a whole, the researchers said.
In addition, understanding the distribution of these organisms and their interactions is useful to study global changes, especially those related to global warming and its impact on ocean systems.
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