Dr Jessika Füßel is the first ICBM researcher to be on board the research schooner TARA of the French Fondation Tara Océan. The geoscientist's journey as part of the Tara Europa expedition began on 2 April and will initially last 4 weeks. Füßel, who works at the ICBM in the Marine Geochemistry working group headed by geochemist Professor Dr Thorsten Dittmar, will take samples from both shallow nearshore and deeper waters from on board the Tara. In the course of Tara Europa, the 36-metre research vessel will sail a total of around 25,500 kilometres along the European coastlines, stopping in 17 countries along the way, and will have had a total of 40 researchers on board in varying crews.

The relationships between dissolved organic matter (DOM) and microbes are the focus of the research carried out by Dittmar's group. These relationships are of central importance for the marine carbon cycle and the sequestration of carbon.

The sampling during the 'Tara Europa' expedition is part of the TREC (Traversing European Coastlines) project, launched by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in collaboration with the Tara Oceans Consortium, the Tara Oceans Foundation and more than 70 scientific institutions. EMBL is one of the best-known biological research laboratories in the world and is now supported by 30 countries, including Australia and Israel as well as 26 European countries.

During TREC, in addition to recording and mapping microorganisms and their interactions and role in the overall system, new species and new interactions will also be studied. The effects of marine pollution on marine biodiversity are to be better understood and consequences of local and global climate change on microorganisms assessed. While the investigations at sea are being carried out from the Tara, mobile EMBL laboratories are conducting parallel studies on land.

In late summer, Füßel will again spend four weeks on board the Tara. The expedition is scheduled to last a total of two years. Each campaign will last from spring to autumn.