Siphonophore Forskalia formosa (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Remote-controlled sailboat
Gelatinous plankton salpes and Beroe (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Copepode Sapphirina iris (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Foraminifera Orbulina universa and mollusk larva (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Ciliate (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Instrumented buoy (Photo : David Luquet)
Instrumented buoy (Photo : David Luquet)
Underwater glider (Photo : David Luquet)
Plankton
Plankton are a multitude of living organisms adrift in the currents.Our food, our fuel, and the air we breathe originate in plankton.
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)
Mollusk (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
Krill (Photo : Fabien Lombard)
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.
Satellite observation (GEOS-12) of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 in the Gulf of Mexico - Source : NASA-NOAA
Rosette used to collect seawater samples during a scientific cruise in the South Pacific Ocean. During the austral summer, the amount of chlorophyll a is so low that the water becomes deep blue, almost purple. (Photo : Joséphine Ras)
