The site has so far been a research site aiming at the study of plankton variability in response to environmental forcing. Plankton samples are collected along with environmental data at a weekly scale, and species identification is performed with traditional methods coupled with Electron microscopy and molecular tools. Phytoplankton species are often grown in the lab for experimental work or taxonomic analyses, which have led to the discovery of about 15 new microalgal species. Special investigations have addressed, among other topics, the role of viruses in the demise of algal blooms, the rate of dinoflagellate cyst production over the seasons, the rhythm of sexual reproduction in diatoms and grazing of meso- and microzooplankton.