CARDINAL addresses the impacts of large-scale drivers of changes in the Nordic Seas on zooplankton by developing new ways of integrating cutting-edge optical technologies (e.g. satallite and imaging) with data analysis and modelling approaches

CARDINAL has been designed as a bridge between two innovative projects aiming at 1) providing the first large-scale observation of zooplankton through ocean colour remote sensing by taking advantage of Calanus redness (SEA PATCHES, S Basedow) and 2) measuring traits automatically from in situ individual images of zooplankton (ARTIFACTZ, F Maps). This new project brings together an expert team of researchers, end-users and graduate students to explore how to merge individual-based and large-scale approaches. This approach could revolutionize the field of marine ecology in a similar way than satellite imagery alone did for the past few decades, once it provided access to subsurface colour-derived biomass and productivity estimates of phytoplankton.