PlancZEu project

Analyzing the planktonic communities of the Brazilian oceanic islands.

Plankton is constitute of microscopic organisms, including viruses, bacteria, protists and small multicellular organisms that, in addition to producing half of the planet’s oxygen through photosynthesis, act as carbon sinks, influence the climate and form the basis of the food chain of Fish and marine mammals.

Considering the importance of these microscopic animals for the balance and functioning of marine ecosystems, the PlancZEu (Plankton of the Eupofotic Zone) project is aimed at analyzing the dynamics of the planktonic communities of the Brazilian oceanic islands – São Pedro and São Paulo (ASPSP) Martim Vaz and Trindade archipelagos – as well as the marine region that separates them, relating the data of biodiversity and distribution with the biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nitrogen and with the physical characteristics of the water column.

672

samples

crew & researchers

borded days

2600

nautic miles

The project will be developed focusing on the euphotic zone of the pelagic environment, which is the upper layer of the water column, where light can penetrate and where a great number of processes and interactions that define the functionality and persistence of the ecosystem occur. We will analyze (1) the genetic diversity of planktonic communities; (2) the role of planktonic microorganisms in the ecosystem; (3) establishing a biogeochemical model of nitrogen and carbon on the ocean surface; And (4) to analyze the physical characteristics of insular environments and the entire course that separates them, including temperature, salinity, direction and velocity of currents.

All fieldwork will be carried out aboard the ECO Sailboat, with a team of researchers from UFSC of the Oceanography, Biology, Ecology and Engineering areas. The project also counts with the company Neoprospecta, specialized in bioprospecting with proprietary techniques of genetic sequencing of the Brazilian biodiversity and focus on the pharmaceutical development.

The proposal will add unprecedented and integrated information of the pelagic compartment from understudied regions of the Western South Atlantic, which may be extrapolated to other marine environments in Brazil and the world.

PlancZEu = “Diversity of the planktonic communities associated to the biogeochemical cycles of the euphotic zone in the oceanic islands and in the latitudinal range between the São Pedro and São Paulo Archipelago and the Trindade Island” / “Diversidade das comunidades planctônicas associadas aos ciclos biogeoquímicos da zona eufótica nas ilhas oceânicas e no gradiente latitudinal entre o Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo e a Ilha da Trindade” – submitted and approved in the CNPq Call No. 15/2015 – Program Archipelago and Ocean Islands.

PlancZEu project

About

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