Les mésocosmes déployés dans la rade de Villefranche en face de l'observatoire océanologique de Villefranche (© L. Maugendre, LOV)
Gelatinous plankton salpes and Beroe (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Profiling float (Photo : David Luquet)
Elephant seal equipped with a sensor
Foraminifera (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Plankton
Plankton are a multitude of living organisms adrift in the currents.Our food, our fuel, and the air we breathe originate in plankton.
Underwater glider (Photo : David Luquet)
Dinoflagellate Ceratium carriense var volans (Photo : Sophie Marro)
Siphonophores - The longest animals on the planet
Cousins of corals, siphonophores are colonies of specialized individuals called zoids. Some catch and digest their prey, others swim, or lay eggs or sperm.
Villefranche-sur-Mer in stormy weather, winter 2011 - Photo : J.-M. Grisoni
Jellyfish Leuckaztiara octona (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Phytoplankton bloom observed by the ocean color sensor MODIS onboard NASA satellite Terra in May 2010. The bloom spreads broadly in the North Atlantic from Iceland to the Bay of Biscay - Source : NASA's Earth Observatory (http:/earthobservatory.nasa.gov)
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.
Deployment of a profiling float (Photo : Jean-Jacques Pangrazi)
Krill (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Coccolithophore (Photo : Sophie Marro)
