Project description
Uncovering the mechanisms behind plankton evolution
Earth’s oceans are in constant motion, shaped by currents that influence the distribution and evolution of marine life. Plankton is the foundation of ocean ecosystems, and it exhibits remarkable diversity. However, the processes driving plankton evolution remain mysterious. The ERC-funded PlankDiv project aims to further understand how plankton species have diversified over time. The team will use global ocean samples and advanced genetic sequencing (long-read metabarcoding) to characterise the patterns and drivers of diversification across present-day eukaryote plankton groups. Researchers will also reconstruct ancient oceans to understand how past climate changes shaped plankton diversity. The proposed research will boost understanding of the forces driving ocean biodiversity and its critical role in global ecosystems.
Objective
Oceanic plankton constitute a diverse array of organisms crucial to Earth’s carbon cycle, climate regulation, and the functioning of the ecosystems. A key biological challenge lies in understanding the build-up of planktonic diversity in the global oceans. Two primary limitations are the scarcity of robust (phylo)genetic data for most plankton groups, and the lack of computational tools designed to explore diversification in the ocean, continually shaped by currents. Here, I propose to characterize the patterns and drivers of diversification across present-day eukaryote plankton groups by harnessing three main resources: i) recent global-scale surveys of oceanic samples, ii) emerging long-read metabarcoding technologies, and iii) my team’s expertise in developing innovative modeling tools.
First, we will generate long-read metabarcoding data for over 800 plankton samples worldwide. We will characterize the diversity and distribution of major eukaryotic plankton groups above and below the species level.
Second, we will develop an evolutionary model in the global open ocean, providing predictions on the mode and tempo of diversification. We will evaluate the role of current-mediated dispersal constraints and environmental selection in driving genetic differentiation and speciation.
Third, we will construct taxonomically rich phylogenetic trees for the major eukaryotic plankton groups and analyze variations in diversification rates through time and across oceans.
Fourth, we will reconstruct paleo-oceans throughout the Cenozoic era and elucidate how past environmental changes have influenced diversification dynamics.
This proposal represents the first endeavor to conduct a comparative analysis of diversification across eukaryote plankton groups, from microevolutionary to macroevolutionary scales. The results will provide a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms underpinning diversity patterns in the global oceans.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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(opens in new window) ERC-2024-ADG
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75794 PARIS
France
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