Ocean Sampling Day 2015

On June 23rd-24th 2015, VLIZ and LifeWatch participated in the Ocean Sampling Day (OSD), which is organized each year in the framework of the MicroB3 project. The ultimate goal of OSD is to unveil the secrets of microbial life in the ocean. On OSD, both oceanographers and citizens take seawater samples on almost 200 sites worldwide. During a LifeWatch sampling campaign with the RV Simon Stevin, DNA samples for prokaryotes were collected from 17 stations in the Belgian Part of the North Sea. In addition, 5 volunteers took samples as well (someone from NorthseaKayak, a sailor, a beachcomber, etc.). These volunteers took samples with a “sampling package”, composed by the OSD Citizen Science Project (MyOSD). After the event, these sampling packages were sent to VLIZ. All samples will be sent together for analysis. These cumulative samples, related in time, space and environmental parameters, will provide insights into fundamental rules describing microbial diversity and function and will contribute to the blue economy through the identification of novel, ocean-derived biotechnologies. It is expected that these data will provide a reference data set for generations of experiments to follow in the coming decade. The event attracted a lot of attention from the national and international press.