Tara Expedition seminar, understanding the oceans and facing climate change
September 13th, 2016
Hernán Reyes and Jorge Angulo researchers
Researchers of Instituto de Fomento Pesquero, Hernán Reyes and Jorge Angulo, attended the activity and they said the talk was very interesting
On Friday, September 9, at Universidad de Chile, Salon de Honor premises, Tara Expedition Seminar, understanding the oceans and facing climate change took place. In the activity, the following people attended: Dr. Eric Karsenti, scientific director of Tara Oceans; Environment Undersecretary, Marcelo Mena; Senator Guido Girardi; Gabriel Normand, first counselor of French Embassy in Chile, Waldemar Coutts director of Dirección de Medioambiente y Asuntos Oceánicos of Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The Tara Foundation is working since 2003, developing scientific research in support of the environment, is composed of a team of scientists from different areas dedicated to the study of the environment, it has a sailing boat equipped with the latest technology that allows the study and understanding of climate change impact on oceans.
The data collected by TARA OCEANS between 2009 and 2013 has allowed to identify 40 million new genes, result of 35,000 samples and, currently, they are available for everyone.
Gabriel Normand, first counselor of the French Embassy in Chile, said there is a strong collaboration between the French Embassy, cultural and scientific service of Chile and the Universidad de Chile. Because of this collaboration, it was considered an instance very important to show work and results of this expedition; and new results has been found on plankton, which allows us to better understand the role of oceans in climate change and has a spirit of scientific collaboration, that is why is shared with everyone”
Dr. Eric Karenti
Dr. Eric Karsenti, scientific director of Tara Oceans, said “Tara Expedion and Tara Pacifics are global level expeditions and currently are in Isla de Pascua taking samples, and will travel from Panama Channel to the Archipelago of Japan (2016-2017), and from New Zealand to China (2017-2018). The aim of the expedition is to have a global idea of the distribution of plank tonic species and the state of corals and to understand how these ecosystems will vary when facing the climate change.
Undersecretary of Environment, Marcelo Mena, said “there is human impact on the ocean; on a global level, Chile is trying to promote protection through the unprecedented expansion of marine protected areas and also working on an international agenda in order to promote ecological conservation of marine ecosystems.
Tara work is very important as it helps us to identify and study in a best way what are the roles of the different ecosystems in cycles and CO2 emissions with respect to climate change.”