About This Project

This project will collect environmental DNA during a May 2026 sailing crossing between Guadeloupe and the Azores, coupled with biochemical profiling and visual observations, to assess biodiversity and ecosystem health in this key Atlantic corridor. We hypothesize that these integrated datasets will reveal previously undocumented community compositions and biodiversity patterns.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

The North Atlantic, a highly productive maritime area, is exposed to a wide range of direct humans pressures, such as shipping traffic and commercial fishing (Pirotta et al, 2018). Despite new protective measures like the High Seas Treaty, it remains poorly studied with no established biodiversity baseline. The open ocean between Guadeloupe and the Azores is ecologically vital, hosting numerous species and serving as a migration corridor for cetaceans (e.g. Lydersen et al, 2025; Horton et al, 2022). While eDNA approach has expanded rapidly in coastal zones, its use across oceanic transects data remains rare or inexistant. Biodiversity and biochemical analyses will help to reveal global patterns and inform ecosystem dynamics, while marine megafauna observations and plastic pollution records further enrich this ocean passage’s ecological dataset.

What is the significance of this project?

By assessing biodiversity, and integrating multiple approaches, this project will improve understanding of species distribution, ecosystem connectivity, and the influence of anthropogenic pressures in the Atlantic Ocean. Daily eDNA sampling will enable real-time biodiversity monitoring along the crossing, providing a much-needed baseline for this area. Marine mammal observations will enrich databases with species occurrence data and, when photo identification is possible, will also document individual movement patterns across the ocean. Plastic pollution monitoring will further highlight human impacts along this corridor. Biochemical profiling of environmental parameters (e.g. salinity, pH) will enhance our understanding of the relationships between biodiversity patterns and environmental stressors. Together, the results will yield comprehensive data to support conservation strategies and management policies in the ecologically significant region.

What are the goals of the project?

The goals of the expedition, crossing from Guadeloupe to the Azores, are to: (1) collect environmental DNA samples daily in duplicate to enable biodiversity assessments across multiple taxa; (2) perform daily biochemical measurements of the marine environment throughout the transatlantic crossing to characterise key physicochemical parameters; (3) conduct continuous observations of marine megafauna and birds by a trained Marine Mammal Observer documenting species diversity, abundance, behaviour, and, when possible, individual cetacean photo identification; (4) systematically record plastic debris encountered during the voyage; (5) integrate biochemical, molecular, and observational data; and (6) disseminate the results through open-source datasets (for example, OBIS and GBIF) as well as scientific publications.