What?
DROPTHEMIC-MED (Diversity and Responses Of Plankton: Tracking Microbial Community Structure in the Mediterranean Sea) is a research project that aims to monitor and analyze plankton biodiversity in the Mediterranean Sea. The project integrates satellite data, pigment analysis, and DNA metabarcoding to study marine microbial ecosystems.
Why?
Plankton plays a critical role in marine ecosystems and global biogeochemical cycles. Their rapid response to environmental changes makes them key indicators of ecosystem health. The Mediterranean Sea, a biodiversity hotspot, faces threats from climate change, pollution, and overexploitation. Monitoring plankton diversity is crucial for sustainable management and conservation efforts.
How?
The project brings together experts in plankton ecology, remote sensing, and machine learning to develop innovative methods for monitoring marine biodiversity. By using satellite data, laboratory pigment analysis, and DNA metabarcoding, the team aims to track plankton diversity at an unprecedented resolution. Machine learning models are trained to link satellite reflectance data with pigment concentrations and, in turn, predict plankton community composition. These models are then validated with newly collected genetic data from seawater samples. Finally, the project applies these tools to analyze long-term trends in Mediterranean plankton biodiversity over the past 25 years, offering new insights into ecosystem health and environmental change.
About
Planktonic microbes are key drivers of Earth’s biogeochemical cycles, representing a crucial entry point in marine food webs. As sensitive indicators of ecosystem health, their composition rapidly reflects environmental changes. In the biodiversity hotspot of the Mediterranean Sea, increasing climate stressors and anthropogenic impacts underscore the urgent need for effective monitoring of plankton communities. The DROPTHEMIC-MED project integrates expertise in plankton molecular ecology, radiometry, and machine learning (ML) to track marine biodiversity trends. Key tasks include developing ML models to predict photosynthetic pigment concentrations and plankton community composition from satellite data, validating the predictions with new metabarcoding data, and analyzing 25 years of Mediterranean plankton diversity records. This project will provide critical insights into marine ecosystem health while fostering transdisciplinary collaboration among Early Career Researchers (ECRs).
Key Objectives
The DROPTHEMIC-MED project aims to:
- Study patterns of plankton diversity in the Mediterranean Sea to improve monitoring and management practices.
- Develop innovative ML pipelines to predict pigment concentrations and plankton biodiversity from satellite data.
- Foster collaboration and capacity building among ECRs.
Main outcomes
- A ML model to predict pigment concentration from radiometry data is produced using DS1.
- A ML model to predict plankton biodiversity from pigment concentrations is produced using DS2.
- A dataset DS3. DS3 is used to evaluate the O2 model.
- DS4 is produced using Copernicus RRS records and O1 and O2 models. The results of the project are discussed, published and disseminated.
Expected Impact
- Advances EuroMarine’s mission to promote sustainable marine ecosystem management.
- Contributes to the UN Decade of Ocean Science by addressing key challenges (protecting ecosystems and creating digital ocean representations).
- Supports SDG 14 by facilitating conservation strategies for marine biodiversity.
- Enhances open-source data interoperability and tool creation.
By bridging the gap between discrete and continuous monitoring methods, DROPTHEMIC-MED will offer unprecedented insights into Mediterranean plankton diversity, fostering innovative research while promoting ECR growth and visibility.