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Tara expeditions (2009-2013) sampled the world’s oceans with standardized protocols, putting an exceptional effort into sampling plankton diversity across a large size range, using a combination of water samples and net tows. The efforts to explore the genomic diversity of plankton, through metabarcoding and metagenomics, have led to well publicized papers and have made the renown of Tara. While a similar extensive effort has been put on imaging, the datasets are not public yet. In a limited number of stations, in addition to the usual 5μm -> ~5cm Tara sampling strategy, multinet trawls allowed to sample the vertical distribution of plankton; this is the content of this dataset. Using a 300µm mesh net, it cover organisms from 300µm to ~3cm.

Tara expeditions sampled the world’s oceans with standardized protocols, putting an exceptional effort into sampling plankton diversity across a large size range, using a combination of water samples and net tows. The efforts to explore the genomic diversity of plankton, through metabarcoding and metagenomics, have led to well publicized papers and have made the renown of Tara. While a similar extensive effort has been put on imaging, the datasets are not public yet. In a limited number of stations, in addition to the usual 5μm -> ~5cm Tara sampling strategy, Bongo net samples were taken during the day and during the night, at the same station; this is the content of this dataset. Using a 300µm mesh net, it cover organisms from 300µm to ~3cm, Bongo net (300μm mesh) hauled vertically from 500m depth to the surface, once during the day, and once during the night. Sample preserved in 4% buffered formalin and stored over the long term at the Centre de Collections Planctoniques de Villefranche (CCPv). Sample scanned on a ZooScan, images processed with ZooProcess and sorted taxonomically on EcoTaxa, within the Plateforme d'Imagerie Quantitative de Villefranche (PIQv). The PIQv and CCPv platforms are part of EMBRC-France, a national Research Infrastructure supported by ANR, under the reference ANR-10-INSB-02.

The Tara Oceans project sampled contrasting ecosystems of the world oceans during a three-year expedition (2009-2013), collecting environmental data and plankton, from viruses to metazoans, on board the 36-metre Tara Schooner. It surveyed 210 ecosystems in 20 biogeographic provinces, collecting over 35,000 samples of seawater and plankton. Samples were later analysed using modern sequencing and state-of-the-art imaging technologies., We are keen to thank the commitment of the following people and sponsors who made this singular expedition possible: CNRS, EMBL, Genoscope/CEA, VIB, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, UNIMIB, ANR (projects POSEIDON, BIOMARKS, PROMETHEUS, and TARA-GIRUS), FWO, BIO5, Biosphere 2, agnès b., the Veolia Environment Foundation, Region Bretagne, World Courier, Illumina, Cap L'Orient, the EDF Foundation EDF Diversiterre, FRB, the Prince Albert II de Monaco Foundation, Etienne Bourgois, the Tara schooner and its captain and crew. Tara Oceans would not exist without the continuous support of the participating 23 institutes

The Tara Oceans project sampled contrasting ecosystems of the world oceans during a three-year expedition (2009-2013), collecting environmental data and plankton, from viruses to metazoans, on board the 36-metre Tara Schooner. It surveyed 210 ecosystems in 20 biogeographic provinces, collecting over 35,000 samples of seawater and plankton. Samples were later analysed using modern sequencing and state-of-the-art imaging technologies., We are keen to thank the commitment of the following people and sponsors who made this singular expedition possible: CNRS, EMBL, Genoscope/CEA, VIB, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, UNIMIB, ANR (projects POSEIDON, BIOMARKS, PROMETHEUS, and TARA-GIRUS), FWO, BIO5, Biosphere 2, agnès b., the Veolia Environment Foundation, Region Bretagne, World Courier, Illumina, Cap L'Orient, the EDF Foundation EDF Diversiterre, FRB, the Prince Albert II de Monaco Foundation, Etienne Bourgois, the Tara schooner and its captain and crew. Tara Oceans would not exist without the continuous support of the participating 23 institutes (see http://oceans.taraexpeditions.org).