Siphonophore Forskalia formosa (Photo : Fabien Lombard)

Tunicata Pyrosoma  (Photo : Fabien Lombard)

Instrumented buoy (Photo : David Luquet)

Dinoflagellate Ceratium teresgyr (Photo : Sophie Marro)

Siphonophore  Forskalia formosa (Photo : Fabien Lombard)

Squid larva (Photo : Fabien Lombard)

Scientists collecting seawater samples from the rosette (Photo : Stacy Knapp, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Diatom genus Coscinodiscus (Photo : Sophie Marro)

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)

Gelatinous plankton salpes and Beroe (Photo : Fabien Lombard)

Mollusk  (Photo : Fabien Lombard)

Deployment of a profiling float (Photo : Jean-Jacques Pangrazi)

Phytoplankton bloom observed in the Barents Sea (North of Norway) in August 2010 by the ocean color sensor MODIS onboard NASA satellite Aqua. Changes in ocean color result from modifications in the phytoplankton composition and concentration. The green colors are likely associated with the presence of diatoms. The shades of light blue result from the occurrence of coccolithophores, phytoplankton organisms that strongly reflect light due to their chalky shells - Source : NASA's Earth Observatory (http:/earthobservatory.nasa.gov)

Acantharia (Photo : Fabien Lombard)

Average chlorophyll concentration in the surface ocean (from mi-September 1997 to August 2007) from the ocean color sensor SeaWiFS (NASA). Subtropical gyres, in the center of the oceanic basins, are characterized by very low concentrations of chlorophyll a (dark blue) - Source : NASA's Earth Observatory (http:/earthobservatory.nasa.gov)

Coccolithophore  (Photo : Sophie Marro)