The marine biodiversity observation network plankton workshops : plankton ecosystem function, biodiversity, and forecasting—research requirements and applications

Plankton is a massive and phylogenetically diverse group of thousands of prokaryotes, protists (unicellular eukaryotic organisms), and metazoans (multicellular eukaryotic organisms; Fig. 1). Plankton functional diversity is at the core of various ecological processes, including productivity, carbon cycling and sequestration, nutrient cycling (Falkowski 2012), interspecies interactions, and food web dynamics and structure (D'Alelio et al. 2016). Through these functions, plankton play a critical role in the health of the coastal and open ocean and provide essential ecosystem services. Yet, at present, our understanding of plankton dynamics is insufficient to project how climate change and other human-driven impacts affect the functional diversity of plankton. That limits our ability to predict how critical ecosystem services will change in the future and develop strategies to adapt to these changes

Neurodiversity: An Important Axis of Diversity in Ocean Sciences

Neurodiversity refers to variations in the human brain that affect information processing; it includes conditions, or “neurotypes,” such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, dyscalculia, and dyspraxia, among others. Neurodiversity can be conceptualized as significant differences in the ways that individuals process information; such differences may concern written or verbal language, sensory information, body language, or social interactions. These differences have been historically viewed within the medical model of disability, for example, as deficits in ability through a diagnosed condition, often associated with a goal of curing or managing the condition.</jats:p

Margarita Menegus Bonermann (dir.), avec la collaboration de Antonio Ibarra, Juan Manuel Pérez Zevallos et Jorge Silva, Dos décadas de investigación en Historia Económica comparada en América Latina. Homenaje a Carlos Sempat Assadourian

Moutoukias Zacarías. Margarita Menegus Bonermann (dir.), avec la collaboration de Antonio Ibarra, Juan Manuel Pérez Zevallos et Jorge Silva, Dos décadas de investigación en Historia Económica comparada en América Latina. Homenaje a Carlos Sempat Assadourian. In: Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales. 55ᵉ année, N. 4, 2000. pp. 897-899

Modelling approaches for capturing plankton diversity (MODIV), their societal applications and data needs

Ecosystem models need to capture biodiversity, because it is a fundamental determinant of food web dynamics and consequently of the cycling of energy and matter in ecosystems. In oceanic food webs, the plankton compartment encompasses by far most of the biomass and diversity. Therefore, capturing plankton diversity is paramount for marine ecosystem modelling. In recent years, many models have been developed, each representing different aspects of plankton diversity, but a systematic comparison remains lacking. Here we present established modelling approaches to study plankton ecology and diversity, discussing the limitations and strengths of each approach. We emphasize their different spatial and temporal resolutions and consider the potential of these approaches as tools to address societal challenges. Finally, we make suggestions as to how better integration of field and experimental data with modelling could advance understanding of both plankton biodiversity specifically and more broadly the response of marine ecosystems to environmental change, including climate change

The Foraminiferal Response to Climate Stressors Project: Tracking the Community Response of Planktonic Foraminifera to Historical Climate Change

Planktonic Foraminifera are ubiquitous marine protozoa inhabiting the upper ocean. During life, they secrete calcareous shells, which accumulate in marine sediments, providing a geological record of past spatial and temporal changes in their community structure. As a result, they provide the opportunity to analyze both current and historical patterns of species distribution and community turnover in this plankton group on a global scale. The FORCIS project aims to unlock this potential by synthesizing a comprehensive global database of abundance and diversity observations of living planktonic Foraminifera in the upper ocean over more than 100 years starting from 1910. The database will allow for unravelling the impact of multiple global-change stressors acting on planktonic Foraminifera in historical times, using an approach that combines statistical analysis of temporal diversity changes in response to environmental changes with numerical modeling of species response based on their ecological traits