ONEPlankton - interconnecting methods for high-throughput phytoplankton diversity and abundance

Monitoring global dynamics of marine plankton, both in coastal and oceanic regions, is fundamental to understanding the interplay between their ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration) and future climate scenarios. Phytoplankton communities have been historically monitored at different spatial and temporal scales in view of their structural complexity and dynamics. Ocean surface color derived from satellite data has been used to monitor phytoplankton primary production and biomass at ocean scales over decades. On the one hand, microscopic individual cell identification and counts  by specialists have been used by researchers and in monitoring programs for several years and recently complemented by underwater imaging flow cytometers (IFC) which provides high-resolution cell counts, image, volume, and pigments content. On the other hand, high-throughput sequencing data have provided a wealth of data on the fine scale taxonomy of phytoplankton communities at local and global scales. However, these types of datasets are still very much disjunct and used in isolation. We believe the development of methods interconnecting these three types of data is fundamental for the development of unified plankton long-term observatories and a step forward to a sustainable ocean future.