Lead institution:
Institut de Ciències del Mar, ICM-CSIC – Spain
The assessment and monitoring of microbial plankton biodiversity are essential to obtain a robust evaluation of the marine environment health status. While the bulk marine photosynthetic plankton is a proxy for primary production, the specific composition of the microbial community is key to unveil a number of biogeochemical processes as nitrogen fixation, carbon sequestration and ocean acidification, that provide valuable indications on ecosystems dynamics and health.
The objective of PETRI-MED is to develop novel strategies to determine and monitor the status and spatio-temporal trends of microbial plankton community composition and function based on satellite observations.
PETRI-MED will address these questions by relying on a highly multidisciplinary approach, combining satellite observations from both past and present missions, field measurements (optical, physical, chemical, and genomics), biogeochemical/ecosystem/marine currents modelling, and artificial intelligence.
Start Date: 01/04/2023
End Date: 31/03/2026
Lead Contact: Marco Talone (talone@icm.csic.es)