OBAMA-NEXT Research Presented at ICES ASC 2025 in Lithuania
Ioannis Tsakalakis of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) presented OBAMA-NEXT research at the 2025 Annual Science Conference of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES ASC), held in Klaipėda, Lithuania.
His talk, titled “Pico-phytoplankton diversity, marine ecosystem function and services”, highlighted key insights from OBAMA-NEXT’s interdisciplinary work in Work Packages 2, 4, and 5. The presentation addressed the diversity and ecological roles of pico-phytoplankton—microscopic photosynthetic organisms crucial for ocean productivity—and their relevance to ecosystem functioning and the delivery of marine ecosystem services.
This contribution underscores OBAMA-NEXT’s commitment to advancing biodiversity monitoring tools and understanding at the microbial level, in line with its aim to generate validated, user-friendly information products for policy and management use.
The work draws on integrated approaches developed within the project, combining field data, modelling and algorithmic outputs to assess biodiversity patterns and ecosystem functions. It also illustrates the role of Learning Sites in testing these tools across diverse European marine environments.
Participation in high-profile scientific conferences like ICES ASC ensures OBAMA-NEXT results are shared with the broader marine science community, promoting collaboration and policy-relevant research across European and international forums.
