#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!
HMS Challenger
#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. 🌊
#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!
#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):
glorious peacock seducing CEREGE people
please feed me
we love peacocks so much they follow us in our offices
#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. 🦚
#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.
#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.
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!
#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! ❄️
Sometimes you can replace a boat trip with a car trip, ever wondered how much ocean you can get into a Golf?
#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. 😇
#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!
The exoCean team and friends actively brainstorming on hot topics
Tiny raclette pan, big ambitions
#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. 🧀
#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.
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!
#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.
A foram carefully lined up beneath the microscope, ready for investigation. 📷 K. Declerk
#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.
#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!
Schematic of the Deep-C high-pressure reactor and in situ sensors.
#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
Tom holding a surface interface core, like a proud father. The core includes the top layer of mud, with the bottom layer of ocean, including all the creatures living there (and more importantly for Tom, the ones long dead too). Disclaimer: Tom does not get seasick.
#exoCeanadvent Day 4: At exoCean we also investigate what happens to calcifiers who mysteriously die (answer: a lot happens). For that we must go at sea and collect evidence, just like CSI but with more seasickness pills, same sunglasses.
an illustration is required here, meet the real version of Jean-Milou, @exoceanlab.bsky.social only Canidae member.
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).
#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).
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.
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.
Face à l’urgence climatique, les techniques d’élimination du CO₂ dissous dans l’océan suscitent espoirs autant qu’inquiétudes. Comment procéder ? Quelles règles se donner ? Qui doit décider ? Les éclairages du biogéochimiste Olivier Sulpis, chargé d’évaluer ces méthodes.
Cheers to your success and to the decades to come!
Postdoc vacancy: Microbial dormancy in the cryosphere
@erc.europa.eu #ERC_SIESTA
📢 PLEASE RT
🧬 Single cell microbial activity measurements, flow cytometry, cell sorting, omics, ecological interpretation
☀️ Marseille, France
‼️ Apply ASAP & before 7 Nov
Link: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
You bring: M2 in env./geo/marine sciences, basic Matlab/Julia/Python, and interest in field, lab & modeling.
Supervision: Sonia Chaabane, Olivier Sulpis, Thibault de Garidel, Laetita Licari (CEREGE). Allowance per French regs.
Apply: Send CV + cover letter → chaabane@cerege.fr
You’ll work on: a 1-week field trip to Senegal (expenses covered), sediment cores & in-situ oxygen profiles; benthic foraminifera proxies; and the RADI 1-D reactive transport model to reconstruct porewater oxygenation.
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...
Reminder - the exoCean lab is hiring
The lab keeps evolving and we are THRILLED! More equipment is about to arrive, some more is planned, and we feel super excited about our different projects. Also really… what a view when the doors are open, one can even see the emblematic « sainte victoire » behind the trees!
📚 Requires a PhD in geochemistry/oceanography.
Apply by mid-Oct here: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U.... We'll extend to end of October if needed.
🔬 Explore CaCO3 dissolution in deep-sea sediments using cutting-edge high-pressure reactors. Lead experiments, publish impactful research, and collaborate globally.
💼 This 2yr role (flexible start Jan-Apr 2026) offers 3.1-4.2k€ gross/month, full funding, mentorship, and fieldwork opportunities.
