More particularly, Anne Goffart studies the relationships between the physical structure of the water column and the development of the phytoplankton. In the ocean everything is connected, and therefore phenomena must be studied in a holistic way. This is the meaning of the term water column. The phytoplankton is composed of algae. These need fertiliser in order to develop, particularly nitrates, silicates and phosphates, located in the deeper layers of the ocean. It is the winter wind that causes these elements to rise to the shallow layer where the phytoplankton develops. It causes the surface layer to cool down and this becomes denser as a result, which causes it to sink to the bottom and make the deeper layers that contain the nutrient salts rise. As we can see, the fate of marine life also depends on the air! The site at Calvi, where some measurements have been taken for more than thirty years, gives Anne Goffart the opportunity to establish a relationship between this mechanism and climate change. Indeed, as the sea here is not polluted, the signals given off by the ocean following these changes are not camouflaged or disturbed as is the case with those emitted as a result of man-made pollution. The other reference site worked on by Anne Goffart is the Antarctic, more precisely the waters close to Terre Adélie, which is also protected from man-made pollution.

The data recorded at STARESO over several decades is primarily of a meteorological nature: water temperature, direction and intensity of the wind, showers and pressure. After this the data concerns the state of the phytoplankton, (for example the concentration of chlorophyll), zooplankton (notably its specific composition), and posidoniae (concentration, leaf length etc). (See article The guardians of the coastal environment.) and benthic algae. For the last few years, systematic measurements of the concentration of CO₂ have also been carried out.

The first huge task undertaken by Anne Goffart was to collect and grade the old data. Indeed, thirty years ago, the aim of the researchers was not to make a connection between this data and possible climate change. And in three decades, techniques have evolved: it is therefore necessary to ensure that the same thing that was measured yesterday is measured today, in order to dispel any theories that the changes were merely due to the development of measuring techniques. On completion of this phase of the work, Anne Goffart compared the data concerning phytoplankton with that concerning the weather, and climate change was the clear result. The graphs opposite need almost no commentary.