The MOBYDICK cruise took place in February-March 2018 around Kerguelen island, in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean. Pictures come from phytoplankton and bottlenet samples collected at 4 locations during the late summer bloom. The main objective of MOBYDICK is to study the links that exist between the biological pump of carbon and the food web structure.

During this cruise, we observed a number of beautiful emblematic Southern Ocean diatoms, but also a large diversity of Rhizaria, which we had not encountered on previous visits to this location (KEOPS I and II programs). Light microscopy images were almost entirely captured on board in live samples less than 30 minutes after sampling, while SEM pictures were acquired 3 months later on uncoated polycarbonate filters with a Phenom SEM (which we were able to use thanks to D. Vaulot and I. Probert in Roscoff).