What Darwin didn’t see: the microbial ocean explored in the Malaspina and Tara Océanos global expeditions

When Darwin made his famous voyage aboard the Beagle, they did not possess either the tools or the knowledge to discover that most of the organisms that inhabit the sea are microscopic, and that they comprise an enormous diversity of species and metabolisms, many times greater than that of the more visible organisms. On the Tara Océanos and Malaspina global expeditions we attempted to discover as many as possible, and we have done so using molecular biology tools that enabled us to assess this hidden diversity of species and ecological functions. In this lecture, the speaker will be explaining how we managed this, from the initial stage of planning the expedition to the point when we obtained the data, as well as the main results that were obtained.

Cycle: Science on Monday: The Blue Planet. Aproaches to our Knowledge of the Marine Environment

Organized by: The Residence for Researchers, CSIC-Delegación en Cataluña, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar (ICM)