This project will use samples collected during the Tara-Oceans scientific expedition from 2009 to 2012. By March 2012, the Tara schooner, equipped with advanced sampling systems covering a broad range of organism sizes from viruses to animals, gathered standardized genetic (total DNA/RNA), morphological, and physico-chemical (contextual) samples from 153 sites across the world's oceans. These locations were carefully chosen with input from real-time remote sensing and in-situ hydrographic criteria. In total, about 50,000 biological samples and 13,000 contextual measures from three depths will be analyzed. The metagenomics aspect of the project involves analyzing size-fractionated plankton samples through barcoding and shotgun sequencing. Additionally, isolated single-cell amplified protists and single-organisms isolated metazoans will be sequenced as reference genomes.