With scientists continuing to observe alarming changes in climate patterns, and as international agreements are brokered to address these issues, the greatest contribution offered by the Tara Oceans’ voyage, according to Dr. Karsenti, is to provide climatologists with a better understanding of the role oceans play in global warming and of how marine ecosystems might adapt to shifts in climate.
     “The most important outcome for the future is that this will open the possibility to build models integrating the evolution of pelagic ecosystems with environmental changes,” he says.
     Thanks to Dr. Karsenti and the entire Tara team, we’re getting a rare measurement of the planet’s pulse, taken through the study of our oceans. We’re getting to see how fragile life really is and how the most delicate forms of all may just be the most vital. They’re the ones hidden below the depths of our oceans, and as important to us as they are, up until now we’ve known very little about them. For those of us pondering our connection to the broader forces we don’t see, maybe it’s worth spending less time gazing upwards and instead fixing our eyes on the azure waters that surround us.