Tara Microbiome Expedition Plankton and Ocean Variables

The Tara Microbiome expedition focuses on plankton and the ocean's microbial ecosystem. It is conducted in conjunction with the AtlantECO program, involving multiple ships collecting similar variables. The dataset is managed by the OB_DAAC organization and appears across multiple government data platforms.

Use Cases

• Analyzing plankton community structure and its role in the marine food web.
• Studying relationships between ocean temperature, salinity, and microbial distributions.
• Investigating ocean chemistry and optics to understand carbon cycling and light penetration.
• Modeling ecosystem services provided by the ocean microbiome across different regions.

Strengths

• Cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov signals importance and broad accessibility.
• Part of a coordinated international research program (AtlantECO), suggesting standardized collection methods.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: no row count, file size, or specific column names are provided.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date (2026-03 12 vs. 2022-12-31) and license clarity ('other-license-specified' vs. 'None').

Provenance

Source

OB_DAAC organization.

Collection Method

Ship-based expedition sampling as part of the Tara Microbiome mission and AtlantECO program.

Time Range

null

Freshness

2026-03-12 21:09:26.698640

Geography

Oceanic, specific regions not detailed.