7 012 datasets

The size of Tara datasets freely available through the European Nucleotide Archive as of 2019

11 535 gigabytes

155 million genes

Tara sampled plankton from: the global ocean surface layer (0–10 m) deep chlorophyll maximum layer (20–100 m) mesopelagic layer (200–1 000 m)

of corals, fish, plankton, seagrass, and sediments

48 000 samples

Tara sampled surface waters and marine litter near major port cities, to track microplastic pollution

8 000 samples

Tara Pacific2016–2018

20%biogeochemical

20%biogeochemical

40%biogeochemical

50%imaging

30%imaging

20%imaging

30%molecular

50%molecular

40%molecular

SAMPLES COLLECTED

Tara Oceans2009–2013

Tara expeditionsExploring the world’s oceans

10 European rivers

Mission Microplastics2019

SAMPLES COLLECTED

SAMPLES COLLECTED

210 stations visited

110 coral reef eco-systems studied

140 000 kmdistance sailed from

Lorient over 38 months

110 000 kmdistance sailed from

Lorient over 29 months

120crew and scientists

180crew and scientists

40 nations globally

32 islands visited

35 000 samples

Tara expeditions are scientific voyages that probe the molecular diversity of the world’s oceans and seas.

The data collected by the Tara schooner are stored in public data archives, such as the ones managed by EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). The data are freely available to researchers all over the world.

To find out more about EMBL’s collaboration with Tara, visit www.embl.de/tara

across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were used for sampling the ocean–atmosphere interface

249 sites

7 500 kmdistance sailed from

Lorient over 6 months

5 sites along each river

40crew and scientists

A treasure trove of data