Applied and fundamental plankton research would benefit from more joint efforts: examples from Acartia tonsa

Increased collaboration and communication is needed between the planktologists engaged in marine ecological research and those working with industrial applications. Lessening the dichotomy between “basic” and “applied” sciences will lead to increase scientific advances in both fields. Thanks to dedicated research efforts, industrial production of rotifers, Artemia and, more recently, copepods as live feed for fish hatcheries is established. Yet, there are still many biological and technical challenges to be tackled for optimizing production. Some of these challenges could be eliminated faster by supporting joint efforts between scientists working across technical fields and simply by resolving some of the communication barriers. We give examples of how scientists dealing with ecological questions could gain from using and reflecting on data produced for industrial purposes and vice versa. We use two examples from research carried out to support aquaculture production of the cosmopolitan calanoid copepod Acartia tonsa. We argue that research questions are often answered using similar experimental approaches and quality standards; and that scientists working across different fields would gain by more joint research programs. While such joint efforts sound obvious, we argue that an international facility to support such collaborations in plankton sciences should be established.