Dinoflagellate Ceratium macroceros var macroceros (Photo : Sophie Marro)
Radiolarians (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Velella - Planktonic Vessels
Colonies of polyps transported by prevailing winds, velella drift at the surface of warm seas.
Animation of the biosphere obtained from the ocean color sensor SeaWiFS
Colony of diatoms genus Bacillaria whose single cells slide against each other (Video : Sophie Marro)
Coccolithophore (Photo : Sophie Marro)
Les Dinoflagellés - Ceratium gravidum
Ceratium gravidum dont en voit parfaitement les mouvements d’un des deux flagelles.
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)
Carte bathymétrique de la Mer Méditerranée
Rosette for collecting seawater samples
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.
Squid larva (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Villefranche-sur-Mer in stormy weather, winter 2011 - Photo : J.-M. Grisoni
Large rosette sampler used in the "World Ocean Circulation Experiment". This rosette has 36 10-liter Niskin bottles, an acoustic pinger (lower left), an "LADCP" current profiler (yellow long tube at the center), a CTD (horizontal instrument at the bottom), and transmissometer (yellow short tube at the center). (Photo : L. Talley)
Dinoflagellate Ceratium falcatum (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)
Deployment of a profiling float (Photo : Jean-Jacques Pangrazi)
Acantharia (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
