Phytoplankton covering the ocean’s surface are responsible for over 50% of the oxygen that has been produced on Earth. In a spoonful of oceanwater, there are thousands of these microscopic organisms of different species. And without them, most – if not all – marine food webs would collapse.
Studying what species comprise planktonic communities in a given area of the open ocean can thus tell us what crucial marine life can exist in that region, from marine mammals to pelagic fish supporting crucial fisheries. But to do this requires extensive sampling across the world’s ocean.
At AOML, in collaboration with academic partners, scientists are doing exactly that.
Luke Thompson, Ph.D., a Northern Gulf Institute (NGI) Research Professor and Co-Principal Investigator of AOML’s ‘Omics Program, was recognized with the National Oceanographic Partnership Program’s (NOPP) 2024 Excellence in Partnering Award for his leading contributions piloting the emerging Bio-GO-SHIP program.
The Biological Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (Bio-GO-SHIP) is a new extension of the international effort GO-SHIP, a 30-year endeavor to monitor major changes in ocean chemistry across the Earth’s oceans on a decadal scale.
Thompson was named among a list of collaborators from University of California – Irvine, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Oregon State University, Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and the National Oceanography Centre in the United Kingdom, working to expand this major international effort to unlock key insights into the planktonic life driving open ocean ecosystems.
“This global-scale oceanographic work is possible only by many organizations coming together,” said Thompson. “Through our partnerships with universities, other NOAA laboratories, and NOAA programs like Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing (GOMO), AOML and NGI are leading the way in collecting ocean biology data that spans the globe. Through our partnership with NOAA Ocean Exploration, we are building tools to make ocean biology data – especially genetic data – widely accessible, enabling the next generation of discoveries that will power innovation while conserving ocean resources.”
What is GO-SHIP?
For over 30 years, scientists from NOAA and leading research institutions have conducted months-long research cruises occasionally crossing entire oceans.
A series of cruise paths (i.e. transects) perform repeat hydrography of the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Southern Oceans on an approximately 10-year cycle.
With stations marked by predetermined coordinates along each cruise path, scientists deploy instruments and floats to collect seawater samples from the surface to the seafloor to investigate the complex cycling of elements that drive all life on earth.
GO-SHIP cruise paths (i.e. transects) colored by lead nation.
And by returning to each of these cruise paths every ten years, scientists are able to uncover global shifts in these elements and the ecosystems they fuel over longer periods of time.
Deploying a CTD (a water sampling device) at various depths throughout the water column, they sample and analyze concentrations of dissolved oxygen (DO), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients as well as other biological and chemical parameters at these stations. But now, with Bio-GO-SHIP, these cruises are adding new components being sampled from the seawater at these stations: DNA and RNA from plankton, photosynthetic pigments, particulate organic material, and plankton counts.
Incorporating Environmental DNA into GO-SHIP Cruises
Within the ‘Omics lab at AOML, scientists are extracting and analyzing environmental DNA (eDNA) – the DNA of whole organisms or cells or free DNA shed by marine organisms into their environment – to advance our understanding of what species exist within a given ecosystem and how abundant they are.
In the Gulf of America, Dr. Thompson and co-Principal Investigator Katherine Silliman of AOML’s ‘Omics program collaborate with researchers at NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center (SEFSC) and Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission – Wildlife Research Institute (FWC-FWRI) to incorporate eDNA sampling to advance monitoring of essential reef fish populations for commercial and recreational fisheries.
And now incorporating eDNA sampling into the already established GO-SHIP cruises, Dr. Thompson and his Bio-GO-SHP collaborators are unlocking new information across crucial ecosystems on a global scale. The eDNA sampled on these cruises allows the international team to identify what species of plankton are most abundant in given regions of the open ocean, identifying key patterns in how they may fluctuate naturally over time and space, and how this correlates with migration of larger pelagic fish and other marine life.
Currently, eDNA sampling is being incorporated into GO-SHIP cruises in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. However, by continuing to expand this program and investigate the diversity of plankton communities across regions, scientists can one day study how they vary, assess trends in what species dominate a certain area over time – and how that might impact the ecosystems these microscopic organisms drive.
Employing this novel technique with the Bio-GO-SHIP program now is therefore filling a crucial gap in our ability to detect major environmental changes as they happen in the most remote regions on Earth.
For more information: https://nopp.org/2025/2024-excellence-in-partnering-award/
See also the Northern Gulf Institute’s story: https://www.northerngulfinstitute.org/news/?d=1154