Environment. A European mission to study marine ecosystems stops near Perpignan

The Crossing the European Coasts (TREC) expedition, led by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and Tara Océan, stopped in the Pyrénées-Orientales. This project aims to study coastal ecosystems across Europe. In April, the researchers took samples on Argelès beach.

During one morning, a team of European scientists take samples of sea water. Their goal is to study biodiversity and coastal ecosystems. Within the team: Thomas Haize, TREC expedition engineer. This mission will “p‘interest in all the chemical and pollutant molecules found in water, to get this scan of the marine environment at a precise time. We are doing this across Europe for two years.”

The water collected is then transferred to a mobile laboratory before passing through very high pressure filters. A delicate operation that must be done quickly. To “preserve DNA as much as possible. We take it and concentrate it in filters which we will cryogenize at -120 degrees. We will concentrate all of this to freeze it as quickly as possible before returning to the lab to be analyzed.”explains the engineer.

Volunteers are also part of the team, such as chemistry master’s students. They are linked to the Banyuls laboratory and collect sand samples.

In the laboratory, they look for various contaminants and organisms found on the site. This will allow us to have a wide range of what we can find in certain places. Then discover to what extent they are affected by the changes. The mission will above all be awareness-raising.

The TREC expedition, mainly funded by the European Union in cooperation with the TARA Foundation, started in Lorient in April 2023. It will pass through 120 different locations spread over 46 regions in Europe.“LThe goal of this expedition is not to condemn man, but to understand man’s impact on the species that live in these environments.developer Thomas Haize.

The results of this huge study will be known within three years.

Written with Henry Villetard de Laguerrie.