What is hidden in the sand, around a wreck or among the algae? Dive.Explo360 articles build on your underwater observations to help you understand marine habitats, species’ ways of life and their relationships within ecosystems.
Develop your knowledge of marine life while diving: discover the features of different environments, learn to observe their inhabitants and connect your discoveries with the marine species guides and the dive videos. These readings accompany divers and anyone curious about underwater life, before or after exploring.
Your marine region: Mediterranean. Choose a marine region, then search for a subject or filter articles by category and topic. Each publication shows its availability and access conditions.
Region labels show where the topic applies. Articles that cover several seas may use tropical examples, even in the Mediterranean catalogue.
44 articles
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restArticle region: Mediterranean
Biotope · Environment
Fish over the canopy reveal one part of a Posidonia meadow. Farther down, leaves, rhizomes and the layer of plant tissue and sediment called the matte offer different conditions. In this Mediterranean flowering plant,…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restArticle region: Mediterranean
Way of life · Behaviour
Pebbles, bivalve shells and fragments of crab outside a crevice can point to a common octopus den. Their position gives clues about feeding and excavation. To establish whether an octopus is still there, look for…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restArticle region: Mediterranean
Way of life · Behaviour
Several dentex appear beside a Mediterranean rocky shoal just as a group of bogue veers away. Their chases overlap. To establish whether the predators are cooperating, it matters whether they respond to one another or…
AvailableFree accessArticle region: Mediterranean
Biotope · Environment
A patch of brown leaves on a Mediterranean beach started in a Posidonia meadow. Some of the meadow’s leaf litter stays near the shoots. Currents carry the rest to the shore or into deeper water. Where the leaves end up…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Biotope · Environment
A lionfish off Cyprus spreads its pectoral fins as it approaches its prey. Its ancestors crossed into the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, as did rabbitfish, cornetfish and pufferfish. Each species’ history shows…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restArticle region: Mediterranean
Biotope · Environment
On a dive, the temperature can fall by several degrees in just a few metres. A thermocline is the layer where this vertical temperature gradient is steepest. Its depth and strength affect how water mixes and where…
AvailableFree accessArticle region: Mediterranean
Biotope · Environment
A dive torch reveals threads and flakes drifting through the water. Some formed near the surface and carry organic matter towards animals that live thousands of metres below. The amount that reaches them depends on what…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restArticle region: Mediterranean
Biotope · Natural history
On a Mediterranean cliff, the angle of the sea fans can change where the rock face turns. Since an adult colony is fixed in place, local flow helps determine how much food reaches it and how its branches grow.
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Way of life · Natural history
A sea cucumber gathers a mouthful of sediment with its tentacles. A few hours later, the grains reappear in a small cylinder. Compare the sediment before and after it passes through the gut to see what happens to its…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Way of life · Behaviour
A blue runner keeps close to a ray as it works the sand. On a Red Sea reef, a grouper signals to a moray before the two set out. In both cases, hunters come together. Their next move can tell you whether they’re taking…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Way of life · Behaviour
A moray can stay still in a crevice for a long time. Its jaws keep moving all the same. The mouth and throat pump water over the gills, and two small openings behind the head let it out again.
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Way of life · Behaviour
A draughtsboard shark can lie still with its eyes open and be asleep. To distinguish sleep from quiet wakefulness, researchers look for changes in how the shark responds, how it holds its body and how much oxygen it…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Anatomy · Science
Metamorphosis can carry an animal into a new habitat or change how it feeds. These five examples show how the body is remodelled along the way.
AvailableFree accessMultiple marine regions
Way of life · Behaviour
An octopus learns to get past a stopper. A grouper signals above a crevice where its prey has vanished. Both behaviours can be observed directly. Working out what the animals know takes a closer look at the evidence.
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Way of life · Behaviour
Two mandarinfish rise together to spawn. At a wrasse nest, rivals can approach while eggs are being laid. Who breeds with whom matters, and what happens after mating can still affect which eggs are fertilised and by…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Way of life · Natural history
A mussel’s shell, a shrimp’s escape and a seabed full of sand pose different problems for a hungry animal. Follow the food from where it starts to where digestion begins, including the particles a sea squirt picks out of…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Way of life · Natural history
A carcass on the seabed draws scavengers and the fish that hunt them. As its tissues break down, some of the material enters those animals, while some reaches the sediment or dissolves. Oxygen levels, microbial activity…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Way of life · Natural history
An algal garden feeds a damselfish. A rock holds eggs only while they develop. An anemone can shelter a group of clownfish for much longer. The value of each resource helps explain how fish defend it.
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Way of life · Natural history
A scorpionfish stays hidden until prey comes within reach. A brightly coloured nudibranch may be conspicuous enough to warn a predator away. An anemone can catch food without leaving its patch of seabed. To understand…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Way of life · Natural history
Removing a parrotfish’s cocoon can reveal what it protects against. Recording activity in a zebrafish’s brain can reveal distinct sleep states. Each experiment answers a different question about what happens when fish…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Way of life · Natural history
The loss of a dominant fish can change how another behaves within minutes. Its reproductive organs may take far longer to change. Four reef fish show how social cues, tissue remodelling and the advantages of size can…
AvailableFree accessMultiple marine regions
Way of life · Natural history
A frogfish’s lure can bring prey within reach of a mouth that opens in a fraction of a second. Whether the prey escapes depends on when it senses danger and how much time it has to react.
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Way of life · Natural history
Some marine animals disperse large numbers of eggs. Others invest more in each offspring. How the embryos develop, where currents carry them and when larvae find their first prey can all shape the odds of survival.
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Ecology · Natural history
As the light fades, the fish using a reef can change within hours. Farther offshore, zooplankton shift towards the surface. Their return to deeper water can carry carbon with them, linking a daily feeding trip to the…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Anatomy · Natural history
An injury can interrupt essential functions in seconds. For an animal that survives, the next challenge is to organise the remaining tissues into a body part that works.
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Ecology · Natural history
A passing wave can trigger flashes in plankton, a glowing lure can draw prey closer, and light from a fish’s belly can soften its outline. The effect of the light depends on how it is produced and what the animal seeing…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Ecology · Natural history
A grouper pauses beside a cleaner wrasse. From that encounter alone, it can be hard to tell which fish benefits and how much. The same question applies to a goby sharing a burrow, a remora on a moving host and an isopod…
AvailableFree accessMultiple marine regions
Anatomy · Science
A sea fan seems to move as one in the current. Look closer and you can see individual polyps extend or retract. The living tissue beneath them connects their digestive cavities and helps the colony grow.
AvailableFree accessMultiple marine regions
Ecology · Natural history
The same seagrass meadow can produce food, hold sediment in place and supply debris to the seabed. Ecological roles describe how these processes connect and why their effects vary with local conditions. The examples are…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Ecology · Environment
A wreck adds height, hard surfaces, cavities and shade to whatever habitat was there before. A ship on sand or maerl can change the shape of the seabed considerably. On rock or near a seagrass meadow, the same structure…
AvailableFree accessMultiple marine regions
Biotope · Environment
Waves and currents move grains, form ripples and erase tracks. Meanwhile, animals can stay out of sight beneath the surface. A burrow, a shell or a shift in the sand may be the only visible clue to what lives there.
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Biotope · Environment
A maerl bed takes shape as unattached red algae grow and accumulate on soft sediment. Their rigid branches create surfaces and shelters that a flat seabed offers in fewer forms. The same loose structure that provides…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restArticle region: Mediterranean
Biotope · Environment
A diver sees the green leaves of a Posidonia meadow. Beneath them lies part of its history, built up as roots, rhizomes and sediment accumulate. To understand how the meadow supports other species and stores carbon,…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restArticle region: Mediterranean
Biotope · Environment
In the dim waters of the Mediterranean, thin crusts of red algae can accumulate into walls and platforms. Centuries of growth, erosion and interactions between organisms shape these coralligenous habitats. Over that…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Miscellaneous · Natural history
Sponges, sea stars and anemones have very different body plans. Classifying animals into phyla helps explain where those differences come from and which features they share. Another way to read the same habitat is to…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Anatomy · Behaviour
A patch of colour can hide a fish against one background and make it stand out against another. Cuttlefish and octopuses can respond by changing their appearance. The result depends as much on what a predator can see as…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restArticle region: Mediterranean
Ecology · Science
A tuna takes in some of the energy a sardine obtained from plankton. Elsewhere, a particle sinks past both fish and may feed an animal on the seabed. Following these routes shows how matter and energy move through a…
AvailableFree accessMultiple marine regions
Way of life · Behaviour
From a distance, a school can seem to move as a single animal. It turns abruptly, tightens or spreads out as its members adjust to one another. That coordination starts with the information each fish gets from its…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restArticle region: Mediterranean
Anatomy · Science
A fish’s skin is where its tissues meet the water. Mucus can trap particles, scales can protect the body as it bends, and pigment or reflected light can change what another fish sees. The structures involved vary from…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Anatomy · Science
Holding depth, rising and sinking all take control. A **swim bladder** lets many bony fish regulate buoyancy by adjusting an internal supply of gas. Sharks and some bony fish, including bottom dwellers and strong…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Anatomy · Science
In clear water, a fish may see a neighbour turn. In murky water, the movement it leaves behind can still provide a clue. The lateral line picks up nearby disturbances, alongside the information fish get from sight,…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Anatomy · Science
A passing fish disturbs the water around it. So can a predator, prey or a current flowing around a rock. The lateral line detects these mechanical disturbances close to the body. It adds to the information a fish gets…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Anatomy · Science
As sunlight travels through water, some wavelengths fade faster than others. The eyes of fish differ in the way they gather light, focus it and detect colour. Those differences shape what each species can see as it…
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMultiple marine regions
Miscellaneous · Technique
Some divers return from an underwater landscape with questions about the species they saw, the behaviour they noticed and the habitat they explored. **Naturalist diving** and **diving focused on marine biology** share…
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