On January 17, 2024, the schooner Persévérance, a supply ship for the Polar Pod project of the doctor and explorer Jean-Louis Étienne, launched the participatory oceanology program Plankton Planet in Antarctica, under the initiative of MEP Catherine Chabaud and biologist Colomban de Vargas. For three weeks, the team, composed of Noan Le Bescot (biologist) and Dorothée Adam (journalist), tested the latest generations of its low-cost, open-source instruments in the Antarctic Peninsula to measure the marine microbiome. This mission allowed us to structure and document the first stages of this new collaboration. The Southern Ocean, crucial to the global climate, is home to unique marine biodiversity despite its extreme temperatures. On Perseverance, several challenges must be met to collect plankton samples in extreme navigation conditions. This program aims to standardize the measurement of the ocean microbiome, involving sailors and Perseverance passengers in this citizen science. The frugal instruments on board have demonstrated their usefulness and will be used during future missions, in the Arctic this summer, then during transatlantic crossings and again in the Antarctic next winter.

Learn more about the Perseverance boat: www.bateauperseverance.com