A year from the Antarctic

Espèce du genre Coscinodiscus - Photo Sophie Marro

Diatom genus Coscinodiscus (Photo : Sophie Marro)

Villefranche-sur-Mer in stormy weather, winter 2011 - Photo : J.-M. Grisoni

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)

Colony of salps Salpa fusiformis (Photo : Fabien Lombard)

Satellite observation (GEOS-12) of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 in the Gulf of Mexico - Source : NASA-NOAA

Jellyfish Pelagia noctilica (Photo : Fabien Lombard)

Ctenaria Lampetia pancerina (Photo : Fabien Lombard)

Siphonophores Forskalia formosa (Photo : Fabien Lombard)

Foraminifera Ruber (Photo : Fabien Lombard)

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

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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.

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The seasonal evolution of the chlorophyll a concentration as seen by a « water color » satellite (SeaWifs) in the Atlantic Ocean.

Gelatinous plankton salpes and Beroe (Photo : Fabien Lombard)

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Colony of dinoflagellates Ceratium hexacanthum. In the video, one can observe the movement of the flagella. (Video : Sophie Marro)

Diatom genus Rhizosolenia (Photo : Sophie Marro)

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The profiling float

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)

Dinoflagellate Ceratium carriense var volans (Photo : Sophie Marro)