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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

After a couple of months sampling with and for the others - we got to go at sea “for us” and now enjoy these little beauties in the lab 🤩

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Tom Chalk @chalkyoceans.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Great to see more work from our culturing seasons in the Arctic twin to @juliemeilland.bsky.social and my @chalkyoceans.bsky.social Mediterranean culturing space, housed in the @exoceanlab.bsky.social at @climatecerege.bsky.social.

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Tom Chalk @chalkyoceans.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Cool off from the heat dome (if affected) with a pair of lovely Arctic papers out recently in GCA from UiT (ex-)students Adele Westgård and Freya Sykes. Take your pick, N. pachyderma or G. bulloides, but they are both successfully cultured in the Tromsø polar culture facility with Mohamed Ezat.

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

The organizers of the seminar series «The Life of Retaria » got their first paper out - nice read for the weekend?!

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

Forams respiration work with an ExoCean member!

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Julie Meilland @juliemeilland.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

🚨PhD alert 🚨 together with @tbiard.bsky.social and myself, based mostly in Wimereux with multiple stay in the beautiful @exoceanlab.bsky.social and focused on planktonic rhizarians C export and respiration. Get in touch!

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Dr. Nina Davtian (she/her/hers) @ninadavtian.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

Do you recall when @anandpallavijha.bsky.social and @chalkyoceans.bsky.social said during ICP15 that @antacl.bsky.social would join @cerege.bsky.social @climatecerege.bsky.social? Well, they didn't lie: www.cerege.fr/en/cerege/an... bsky.app/profile/anan... #IWD #InternationalWomensDay 👩‍🔬 (1/2)

cerege.fr

Anta-Clarisse Sarr - CEREGE

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Tom Chalk @chalkyoceans.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

Really proud of @jysuarezibarra.bsky.social for his upcoming #MSCA research position with us @climatecerege.bsky.social. Not only a really exciting project to help us find out more about the climate system, but also an excellent career step for a superb young researcher.

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CEREGE @cerege.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

In the latest @exoceanlab.bsky.social interview, Jaime shares how his project eCO₂-MorpH uses planktonic foraminifera to reconstruct past CO₂ and inform climate models. Full interview: exocean.academicwebsite.com/pages/4065

exocean.academicwebsite.com

exocean - News & Highlights

In the Spotlight A Lego version of Dr. Suárez-Ibarra (left) and Dr. Chalk (right) hypothetically analysing a marine sediment core. In the back (still in f...

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 24/12/2025

#exocean advent calendar day 24! Today we thought it was a good fit to show an image/talk about “conception”… One of the thing we (try to) do best at ExoCean is planktonic foraminifera reproduction. Here two immaculate mummies… 😏 We would like to wish you all a beautiful Christmas Eve!

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 23: at exoCean we also look at some old questions: in the late 1800s, during the HMS Challenger expedition, they discovered that you can have a constant rain of shells from above, and still end up with a seafloor that looks like the carbonate budget never existed. Why? Pressure. 🌊

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 22: Winding down for the holidays often means one thing... more mass spectrometry time is available! With our friends in @cerege.bsky.social's #ENVITOP facility, we're making use! Thanks to their equipment we're working on measuring elemental compositions down to the nano-gramme!

Postdoc Matthieu Buisson loads samples into the rack ready for elemental analysis.

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

#exocean advent calendar Day 21! The strongest link between all of us is our love for the ocean. Leaving Marseille with a magnificent sunrise reminds us each time we go out how lucky we are to do what we love for a living! We already have our ship time for the first 6 months of 2026 - exciting!

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 20/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 20: it's wishing time... Whether you believe in Santa (the French singer 🎤), FC, or as I recently heard, Professor Xmas... We can all hope for some things in the holiday season... At @exoceanlab.bsky.social we would like (in no particular order):

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Tom Chalk @chalkyoceans.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Essential reading for those interested in going carbon negative 👀. See what @sulpis.bsky.social does for a living and how it connects to @exoceanlab.bsky.social here!

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 19: Friday edition: today’s post is about the peacocks at CEREGE, because it’s Friday and our brains are in weekend mode. They wander around like they own the campus, scream for no reason, and block paths with absolute confidence. Honestly, goals. 🦚

we love peacocks so much they follow us in our offices

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 18: looking for a good read waiting for Santa? 🌊 Try marine carbon removal: @sulpis.bsky.social co-chaired the working group behind the @emarineboard.bsky.social MRV brief, because “trust me bro” isn’t a monitoring protocol. Emissions cuts first; then *maybe* carbon removal.

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Tom Chalk @chalkyoceans.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Net accident you say? Ooops, this net came back looking like it had been mauled by a shark, and I think... Maybe it had. A good, but expensive(!) sample. Sorry @tdegaridel.bsky.social!

Look carefully! Fish carefully! A picture of a totally trashed plankton net and the legs of two very tired scientists.

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 17: Net accident, happy outcome. Ex-lab member Laura caught this phronima (monster in a barrel) “by mistake”, so we adopted it - alive - in a lab aquarium. One haul turned into days of behaviour notes.

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 16: We're getting closer to the holidays, but we don't stop yet. @erc.europa.eu postdoc @jysuarezibarra.bsky.social was out today presenting his work @maxplanck.de in Mainz. @soniachaabane.bsky.social is also visiting to chat with colleagues.

Jaime introduces his project and ForCry at a team seminar in Mainz. 📷 S. Chaabane

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 15: Some plankton are tiny [citation needed?], and for those we need ways to measure tiny (this is a theme you'll hear us talking about a lot). Sometimes just holding samples in place can be hard.... enter the #Cryostage! ❄️

A rack of tiny samples, about 0.5mm in diameter... Here we've custom made some really clean rings to hold them in place... next step, freeze!

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 14/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 14 Footprint reduction: we do lab-based ocean science because we genuinely love it, but also because lab experiments can replace lots of field trips. More control, more insight, and in part, fewer emissions. Bonus: dissolving old sediment cores neutralizes a bit of CO2. 😇

Sometimes you can replace a boat trip with a car trip, ever wondered how much ocean you can get into a Golf?

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 13: Time Machine. Travel back in time with us 6 million years. Part of the reason for our work @exoceanlab.bsky.social is to better understand the past through observing the modern, but sometimes you just need some ancient mud..@chalkyoceans.bsky.social recently went to get some!

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Dr. Nina Davtian (she/her/hers) @ninadavtian.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Are you following @exoceanlab.bsky.social? If not, then you are missing their #AdventCalendar, which describes one thing about this lab—team members, research, and equipment—everyday this month until 24th! @climatecerege.bsky.social 🧪 🌊

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 12: End-of-year celebration - raclette edition. On the agenda for this team meeting: cheese, cheese, cheese, goals for next year: even more cheese. We’ve officially reached our melting point. 🧀

The exoCean team and friends actively brainstorming on hot topics

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 11: Science makes you do strange things. Meet @astridhylen.bsky.social, a postdoc working with carbonate dissolution in coastal sediments. She recently found herself in the middle of a salt marsh, stirring one of the ponds with a (clean) toilet brush taped to a curtain rod.

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 10: As winter creeps into Provence we remember warmer days from our fieldwork in Bermuda. We stayed with the lovely folk at @biosstation.bsky.social, like @blancobercial.bsky.social who helped us to look for different foraminifera to catch, than our usual Mediterranean stuff.

Tom and Julie went out a few days ahead of the rest of the team to do a last minute check that all the islands and beaches and bars existed.

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 9: Meet Maxime (again). At @exoceanlab.bsky.social and @climatecerege.bsky.social Maxime has been conducting several experiments focusing on the culture of marine organisms. One project involved culturing foraminifera in the presence of olivine (Mg,Fe)2SiO4, an igneous mineral.

Don't eat that! A large foraminifera trying to eat grains of olivine. It soon realised that they weren't food, but had no problems afterwards, so... not poison!

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 8: Meet Katoo Declerk's Erasmus+ work. During her internship Katoo is investigating recently dead foraminifera (handily available in our lab!) Forams typically sink to the ocean floor soon after death, but partial or total dissolution can occur before getting there.

A foram carefully lined up beneath the microscope, ready for investigation. 📷 K. Declerk

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 07/12/2025

#exocean advent calendar Day 7! We are lucky to be based in a pine forest, in Southern France, which means loads of possible walks to discuss science in a wonderful environment. We also like to run together - as we did Friday to finish the week!

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 6: To study the deepest ocean trenches, we’re building reactors that make our lab behave like the deep ocean. Funded by @erc.europa.eu #Deep-C, they will hold cold seawater at ~1000 bar (10km water) so we* watch pressure shape chemistry and biology 🔬🌊 *mostly @sulpis.bsky.social

Schematic of the Deep-C high-pressure reactor and in situ sensors.

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

We're so good at this Science stuff. Day "5"!

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 4: Why did we set up this lab? Part I. What is going to happen to climate as CO2 levels go up? @chalkyoceans.bsky.social and @erc.europa.eu project #ForCry look at CO2 in the past to better understand climate sensitivity. Part of this is making better past CO2 reconstructions.

A schematic graph showing global temperature, plotted against CO2. We know CO2 increases temperature, but the how far and how fast are still not totally constrained. Tipping points, or sensitivity changes could impact this relationship in the future, and may have done in the past.

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Tom Chalk @chalkyoceans.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Here comes the final boss: porewater microprofiles, using our favourite tools, pH and oxygen microsensors, made of glass and pure anxiety. Every time one snaps, we just sigh, call our finance manager, and prepare our next monthly order from @unisense.bsky.social. Thanks for the tiny sensors!

A jar of deep sea mud sitting on a height adjustable stand. It has microprobes to measure oxygen (respiration, photosynthesis) and pH (dissolution, precipitation, also respiration etc...) at tiny intervals to see what is going on right at the grain interface.

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Tom Chalk @chalkyoceans.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Once the cores make it back to our lab, it’s time to get our hands dirty: we slice them like a very unappetizing cake, a couple of cms at a time. If we can, outside of the lab to keep it clean inside. All of that just to rebuild the sediment as it looked on the seabed.

Marine and Olivier cutting the core into slices, at the top it can be really liquid and gooey, so we keep it vertically, but lower down it can be almost like a rock. Despite the complaining from Olivier both of them are remarkably mud-free!

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 04/12/2025

Who did that?? I guess we'll never know... #exoCeanadvent Day 4 has been taken over by one of the researchers...A lesson in cyber security for us all @chalkyoceans.bsky.social.

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

How could we forget, LAB-rador mascot (not really, but American Labpard doesn't work so well), Jean-Milou [somehow not on @bsky.app yet]. Anglophones you can call him John-Milo.

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

#exoCeanadvent Day 3: An important part of creating a lab is to be able to plan things in miniature, for this we use #Lego versions of our team, they tend to be a bit cheaper for testing. You may spot some of @chalkyoceans.bsky.social's not so secret wishlist in the background (#nu-instruments).

The three PIs of #exoCean in Lego format. Olivier the steampunk moustache man, Julie smiling with her paintbrush (for picking forams) and Tom carrying some blue chemical (probably for his hair).

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Day 2 of #exoCeanadvent: Come with us to sea (you can also be a land based participant). As an 'inland' ocean lab, we don't quite have the sea on our doorstep, but that doesn't mean we can't bring it to us! We're based just 30–60 minutes from boats out of Marseille and Toulon.

A plankton net (think large wind sock) hangs from the back of a boat. We use these to conduct surveys of the ecosystem and bring back live plankton to the lab.

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Welcome to the exoCean advent calendar! To get us through the wintery month of December we'll be telling you one thing about our lab everyday this month. (Until the 24th). Stay tuned! Today we unveil our new lab #logo and #website, it's a new era for #exoCean! exocean.academicwebsite.com

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

@juliemeilland.bsky.social won this year’s Alan Higgins Award! We cite: « her pioneering work on planktonic foraminifera - including the first multi-generational lab cultures - has transformed how we study and apply these vital microfossils. » Yay!

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Please repost and pass on to your students looking for M2 internships.

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Tom Chalk @chalkyoceans.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Interested in improving our knowledge of climate by looking into the past? In the Pliocene the earth was hotter than today, but carbon dioxide was "about the same". Come work with us in 2026 looking at where this crucial information comes from, and how to make it better during an M2 internship.

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exoCean Laboratory @exoceanlab.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Please repost and pass on to your students looking for M2 internships.

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Tom Chalk @chalkyoceans.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Wonder what carbon was doing in the oceans before humans were around to see? We'll use the chemistry of tiny shells on the seafloor to find out how carbon moved between the ocean and atmosphere over 1 million years ago. Come work with us in 2026 for your M2 internship @climatecerege.bsky.social.

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Tom Chalk @chalkyoceans.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

Just realised that this is as close to an "M2-M2" project as you are likely to get. Explore the aftermath of one of the most interesting features of the Pliocene, MIS M2 during your M2 internship! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

Exploring the MIS M2 glaciation occurring during a warm and high atmospheric CO2 Pliocene background climate

Prior to the Northern Hemisphere glaciation around ∼2.7 Ma, a large global glaciation corresponding to a 20 to 60 m sea-level drop occurred during Mar…

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Olivier Sulpis @sulpis.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Master's internship (6 months) — Mangrove–ocean oxygen dynamics in Senegal 📍 CEREGE (Aix-en-Provence) | 🗓 Start Jan–Mar 2026 | ⏳ Apply by 31 Oct 2025 See flyer: nuage.osupytheas.fr/s/ZGcJtgN6Sm...

nuage.osupytheas.fr

Sujet de M2_MANGO2026.pdf

Nuage - le Nuage de l'OSU Pytheas

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James Bradley @drbradbrad.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

📢 PLEASE RT! ❄️ M2 Masters Internship: Metagenomic analysis of microbial cold adaptation in the cryosphere 🧬 Compile & curate ice nucleation & cold-adaptation protein database 🖥️ Build HMM profiles 🦠 Analyze existing metagenomic data using HMMs ☀️ Marseille, France Apply by 15 Oct

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Olivier Sulpis @sulpis.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

Reminder - the exoCean lab is hiring

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