Coordinated by the Tara Ocean Foundation, Plankt'Eco aims to meet the need for knowledge about planktonic ecosystems and their integration into fisheries and climate work. It is a programme for sharing knowledge and scientific collaboration between countries in South America, West Africa and Europe.
The implementation of international and regional governance frameworks now requires innovative tools for monitoring the state of health of the ocean and managing marine resources. The Plankt'Eco project is responding by developing operational indicators based on plankton. At the base of the food chain and supporting functions that are essential to the balance of the ocean, plankton must be taken into account to enable the development of an integrated and quantitative approach to the management of marine ecosystems. This innovative approach is based on cutting-edge technologies and a new vision of the good ecological status of the ocean. Training scientists in the use of equipment for analysing planktonic ecosystems and raising awareness of their importance at national and regional level are essential to the implementation of this approach.
Several IRD research units and international joint laboratories are involved in this project: MARBEC, LEGOS, LOCEAN, LOPS, LMI Eclairs 2, etc. They will be involved in developing a "Plankton Fish" model to analyse the contribution of plankton to trophic chains, setting up a plankton imaging platform in Senegal, supporting the development of citizen science using plankton observation instruments, and designing advocacy campaigns based on a Science to Policy approach to inform decision-making at global level.
https://fondationtaraocean.org/ressource/brochure-plankteco/
