Plankton
Plankton are a multitude of living organisms adrift in the currents.Our food, our fuel, and the air we breathe originate in plankton.
Dinoflagellate Ceratium carriense var volans (Photo : Sophie Marro)
Profiling float (Photo : David Luquet)
Diatoms - Life in glass houses
Champions of photosynthesis, these unicellular organisms appeared at the time of dinosaurs.They produce a quarter of the oxygen we breathe.
Instrumented buoy (Photo : Emilie Diamond)
Jellyfish Rhizostoma pulmo (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Velella - Planktonic Vessels
Colonies of polyps transported by prevailing winds, velella drift at the surface of warm seas.
Pelagia - Fearsome Jellyfish
Mauve jellies move in droves, their nasty stings feared by swimmers.
Instrumented buoy (Photo : David Luquet)
Crab Zoea larva (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Deployment of a profiling float (Photo : Jean-Jacques Pangrazi)
Dinoflagellate Ceratium gravidum (Photo : Sophie Marro)
Ocean color satellites travel around the Earth at an altitude of about 700 to 800 km.
Gelatinous plankton Mneniopsis (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Squid larva (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Deployment of a profiling float (Photo : Jean-Jacques Pangrazi)