Registry of all campaigns (from port to port) from the Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013)

The Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013) sampled the world oceans on board a 36 m long schooner, collecting environmental data and organisms from viruses to planktonic metazoans for later analyses using modern sequencing and state-of-the-art imaging technologies. Tara Oceans Data are particularly suited to study the genetic, morphological and functional diversity of plankton. The present data set is a registry of all campaigns (from port to port) conducted during the Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013). The registry provides details about the scientific interest of each campaign, including direct links (URLs) to the corresponding (1) campaign report, (2) samples collected during the campaign, (3) environmental data published at PANGAEA, and (4) nucleotides data published at the European Nucleotides Archive (EBI-ENA).

Registry of all events from the Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013)

The Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013) sampled the world oceans on board a 36 m long schooner, collecting environmental data and organisms from viruses to planktonic metazoans for later analyses using modern sequencing and state-of-the-art imaging technologies. Tara Oceans Data are particularly suited to study the genetic, morphological and functional diversity of plankton. The present data set is a registry of all events conducted during the Tara Oceans Expedition (2009-2013). The registry provides details about the sampling date, time, location and methodology of each event. Uniform resource locators (URLs) offer direct links to the corresponding (1) event logsheet filled on board, (2) environmental data published at PANGAEA, (3) list of samples prepared on board from each event, and (4) nucleotides data published at the European Nucleotides Archive (EBI-ENA).

(Table 2) Age determination of Aegean Sea sediments

The modern Aegean Sea is an important source of deep water for the eastern Mediterranean. Its contribution to deep water ventilation is known to fluctuate in response to climatic variation on a decadal timescale. This study uses marine micropalaeontological and stable isotope data to investigate longer-term variability during the late glacial and Holocene, in particular that associated with the deposition of the early Holocene dysoxic/anoxic sapropel S1. Concentrating on the onset of sapropel-forming conditions, we identify the start of 'seasonal' stratification and highlight a lag in d18O response of the planktonic foraminifer N. pachyderma to termination T1b as identified in the d18O record of G. ruber. By use of a simple model we determine that this offset cannot be a function of bioturbation effects. The lag is of the order of 1 kyr and suggests that isolation of intermediate/deep water preceded the start of sapropel formation by up to 1.5 kyr. Using this discovery, we propose an explanation for the major unresolved problem in sapropel studies, namely, the source of nutrient supply required for export productivity to reach levels needed for sustained sapropel deposition. We suggest that nutrients had been accumulating in a stagnant basin for 1-1.5 kyr and that these accumulated resources were utilized during the deposition of S1. In addition, we provide a first quantitative estimate of the diffusive (1/e) mixing timescale for the eastern Mediterranean in its "stratified" sapropel mode, which is of the order of 450 years.

Biomass of large protists from the Infrakingdom Rhizaria in the global ocean

The present data set is a worldwide compilation from 11 oceanographic expeditions during which an underwater vision profiler (UVP) was deployed in situ to determine the vertical distribution (biomass) of 4 taxonomic groups of plankton larger than 600 µm, belonging to the Infrakingdom Rhizaria, including Collodaria, Acantharia, Phaeodaria and other Rhizaria. Vertical distributions are binned in four layers: 0-100, 0-200, 100-500 and 0-500 m.