Observe · understand · progress
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.
17 articles
Available1/3 public · licence required for the restAnatomy · Science
A sea fan spreads its polyps into the current. Nearby, the small white crowns of red coral stand out against a branch. Each mouth can catch a meal, but the animals carrying those mouths stay connected. Looking at these connections changes how we understand a colony.
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AvailableFree accessEcology · Natural history
In a meadow, on a reef or offshore, organisms feed, grow and change their surroundings. Understanding their roles connects these observations and helps explain how marine life works. The illustrated examples are Mediterranean; the mechanisms discussed apply across the seas.
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Available1/3 public · licence required for the restEcology · Environment
When a ship sinks, its maritime story ends, but another begins. Resting on sand, maerl, rock or sometimes against a seagrass meadow, its structure introduces hard surfaces, height, cavities and shade into the underwater landscape.
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AvailableFree accessBiotope · Environment
A sandy seabed is never truly still or deserted. Waves and currents continually move the grains, draw ripples and erase tracks, while much of its life remains buried or inconspicuous. Imprints, burrows, shells and movements of sediment then become clues to the organisms inhabiting this environment.
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Available1/3 public · licence required for the restBiotope · Environment
Maerl is a distinctive habitat, slowly built by calcareous red algae living freely on the seabed. As they grow, their branches intertwine and form a complex carpet with an abundance of shelters, gaps and refuges. This fragile architecture thus supports remarkable biodiversity.
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Available1/3 public · licence required for the restBiotope · Environment
Beneath the surface, some meadows are centuries old. Posidonia is neither an alga nor mere underwater scenery. It is a true flowering plant that slowly builds one of the Mediterranean's most important ecosystems. An oxygen producer, refuge, nursery, carbon trap and seabed stabiliser: an entire world is organised around it. Understanding the meadow means learning to look differently at a landscape that divers sometimes think they already know.
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Available1/3 public · licence required for the restBiotope · Environment
In the dim light of the Mediterranean, one of its richest ecosystems develops millimetre by millimetre: the coralligenous habitat. Towering walls or sculpted platforms, these landscapes result from centuries, sometimes millennia, of construction, erosion and interactions among organisms. Let us explore how this living structure works to understand how it begins, grows and supports exceptional biodiversity.
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Available1/3 public · licence required for the restMiscellaneous · Natural history
We have all experienced that awkward moment—to put it mildly—in marine biology diving training: the list of phyla. Strange names, an evolutionary timeline and a table we learn without understanding… then immediately forget. What if we stopped treating it like a badly digested biology lesson?
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Available1/3 public · licence required for the restAnatomy · Behaviour
In the clear, sunlit waters of the Mediterranean, marine life is in constant competition. Predation is an ever-present threat, and fish have developed different strategies to escape predators or, conversely, become formidable ambush hunters. Camouflage plays a key role among these strategies. From changing colour to adopting patterns that disrupt visual perception, Mediterranean fish use sophisticated techniques that exploit not only their own biological abilities but also the limits of their predators’ vision.
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Available1/3 public · licence required for the restEcology · Science
You are on a boat, somewhere between Port-Cros and Porquerolles. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine: beneath your feet, an entire world breathes, struggles, survives and dances. The Mediterranean waters, gentle and soothing at the surface, conceal a vast mechanism, a loop of life in which every organism, from the tiniest microbe to the largest predator, plays an essential part in this underwater symphony.
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AvailableFree accessWay of life · Behaviour
A school of fish is a gathering of individuals of the same species swimming together in a synchronised, coordinated way, forming a dynamic and harmonious unit. This social strategy relies on constant communication between fish, using visual and sensory signals to maintain cohesion.
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Available1/3 public · licence required for the restAnatomy · Science
The Mediterranean teems with astonishing fish, each with unique adaptations to its environment. Their skin, far more than a simple covering, plays an essential role in protection, communication and survival. Discover how this natural barrier reveals the complexity and beauty of Mediterranean species.
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Available1/3 public · licence required for the restAnatomy · Science
In the crystal-clear waters of the Mediterranean, where marine life has adapted to a wide range of conditions, the swim bladder plays an essential role for many bony fish. Often compared to an ‘internal air pocket’, this organ allows them to control their buoyancy with great precision. But what happens to those without one? How do these fish compensate for the absence of this physiological advantage?
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Available1/3 public · licence required for the restAnatomy · Science
Like humans, fish possess a complex range of senses that allows them to navigate, feed, reproduce and avoid predators in their aquatic environment.
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Available1/3 public · licence required for the restAnatomy · Science
The lateral line is a crucial sixth sense in fish, allowing them to detect movements and vibrations in the water. This sixth sense complements sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste.
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Available1/3 public · licence required for the restAnatomy · Science
Fish vision is highly developed. They use it to feed, reproduce, hunt and escape predators. Yet vision alone is nothing without their other senses, such as hearing, smell, touch, taste and the lateral line.
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AvailableFree accessMiscellaneous · Technique
Scuba diving offers a unique window onto the mysterious world of the seas and oceans. Beyond the simple pleasure of immersion, however, some divers develop a more specific approach by taking an interest in marine life and ecosystems.
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