The idea for "Great French Advances in Biology" (French: Grandes Avancées Françaises en Biologie) was brought to life in 2006 to create or recreate ties and exchanges between the French scientific community and the French Academy of Sciences, thus energizing the place and role of this latter in the French scientific landscape. Beyond the prestige and the unique opportunity to present their work to the academicians, the winners of this prize also benefit from the possibility of presenting their studies to a large public via publication in the French Academy of Sciences' journal Comptes Rendus Biologies.
At the 17th edition held 28 June at the Institut de France, six young researchers presented their projects to the gathered academicians. Among them was Paul Frémont1 accompanied by his research codirector Olivier Jaillon (LAGE/Genoscope). Frémont presented his most-recent scientific study2 on plankton genomic biogeography published in Nature Climate Change.
Marine plankton is a mix of complex and diverse communities, including viruses, bacteria, archaea, microalgae and zooplankton. These communities play key roles in the Earth's ecosystems, particularly one within the "biological carbon pump." Despite their importance, how these communities are organized in relation to one another is poorly understood.
By combining genomic data gathered during the Tara Oceans expeditions and climate models, researchers from LAGE (UMR8030/Genoscope) and the Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences (LSCE) were able to determine how the marine planktonic communities were partitioned and how they evolve under climate change. The results of their work suggest a major reorganization, approaching 50%, of the planktonic communities by 2100. That reorganization may result in compositional changes to the communities and a reduction of the biological carbon pump, causing in turn an increase in global warming.
Credit : Clara Müller (CEA)
1: Paul Frémont is completing his PhD under the codirection of Olivier Jaillon (LAGE/Genoscope/CEA-Jacob) and Marion Gehlen (LSCE - CEA).
2: This study has been shared through a press release: https://jacob.cea.fr/presse/Pages/actualites-communiques/environnement/plancton-genomique-climat.aspx.