BioSWOT-Med cruise : Interview with Véronique Cornet

How to study phytoplankton diversity?

Véronique Cornet is an expert of microphytoplankton and its role in the biological carbon pump. Here she explains what phytoplankton are, how to collect them at sea, and how to analyze their diversity.

Véronique Cornet and the phytonet

THE INSTRUMENTS OF OCEANOGRAPHERS – Véronique Cornet is a research engineer at CNRS working at the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (MIO). During her career she has participated in 10 oceanographic campaigns from the Southern Ocean (Kerguelen Islands – Macquarie Island), Pacific (New Caledonia – Polynesia, Solomon Islands) Mediterranean Sea, and 1 ice camp in the Arctic. Specialist of microphytoplankton and its role in the biological carbon pump, in this interview she describes what phytoplankton are, how to collect them in the sea using the phytonet and Niskin bottles and how to analyze their diversity using the PlanktoScope, the optical microscope and the scanning electron microscope (SEM).

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The phytonet

The CTD rosette

The PlanktoScope

Nano diatomée Minidiscus sp. Credit : Véronique Cornet

Diatomée Asterolampra marylandica. Credit : Véronique Cornet

Collage of images taken by the PlanktoScope. Credits : Véronique Cornet