Development of the technology for higher resolution sampling of phytoplankton community structure allows the detection of the subtle changes of the phytoplankton community distribution. During Sea2Space cruise with R/V Falkor in January/February 2017, we conducted three experiments in the North Pacific, ranging from the oligotrophic subtropical gyre to the productive waters of California coast. We combined high resolution imaging, collected from the underway system, with light and scanning electron microscopy and high throughput sequencing performed on samples collected from underway and vertical profiles. This data was ultimately used to infer growth rates of different parts of the phytoplankton population while sampling in semi-Lagrangian mode, or detect the impact of the submesoscale physical structure on community structure while sampling across frontal regions.