Biological Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (Bio-GO-SHIP)

Bio-GO-SHIP aims to become an international collaboration to measure, understand, and predict the distribution and biogeochemical role of pelagic plankton communities. The project leverages the global-reaching GO-SHIP platform and its complementary hydrographic measurements. The mission of Bio-GO-SHIP is to quantify the molecular diversity, size spectrum, chemical composition, and abundances of plankton communities across large spatial, vertical, and eventually temporal scales.

This will be achieved through systematic, high-quality, and calibrated sampling of omics, plankton imaging, particle chemistry, and optical techniques as operational oceanographic tools. Integration with regular GO-SHIP measurements and their analyses of the physical and chemical environment will allow us to understand (and eventually predict) how plankton communities respondto ocean changes and how biological processes feeds backon carbon, oxygen and nutrient cycles.