The Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls: a century-old history, targeted research.

Fascinating biodiversity, a marine reserve that is home to many iconic species of the Mediterranean and a tide-free sea provide the marine station with an unparalleled field of investigation for oceanological research.

The marine station, also known as the Arago laboratory, houses five Sorbonne Université/CNRS associated units

• Laboratoire d’Océanographie Microbienne - LOMIC - UMR 7621
• Laboratoire d'Ecogéochimie des Environnements Benthiques - LECOB - UMR 8222
• Biologie Intégrative des Organismes Marins - BIOM - UMR 7232
• Laboratoire de Biodiversité et Biotechnologies Microbiennees - LBBM - USR 3579
• The Observatoire océanologique de Banyuls - UMS 2348 - which is a joint service unit.

These units are developing numerous research areas in the fields of biological oceanology and the biology of organisms (micro-organisms, invertebrates and vertebrates, etc.). They are interested in the study of biodiversity, its origin, its evolution, its role in the functioning of ecosystems, its response to global changes, but also in its leveraging in the field of marine biotechnologies through industrial partnerships.

Benefiting from an international influence and very active in scientific cooperation, each year the Arago laboratory welcomes about a hundred researchers of all nationalities, and over 1000 students, from the Sorbonne Université and about thirty European universities, for teaching in the field of marine and environmental sciences on site.

Three doctoral schools are attached to the Observatory:

• ED 129 - Environmental Sciences in the Paris Region
• ED 392 - Diversity of Life
• ED 394 - Physiology and Pathophysiology

The Institut de la Mer de Villefranche-sur-Mer (Imev), the most complete marine science campus in France, is the only one of its kind in France.

Strong geographical assets, an exceptional variety of fauna and the presence on the surface of plankton from great depths offer Imev the ideal conditions to fulfil its teaching, research and observation missions.

Fully committed to a multidisciplinary approach based on cell biology, biological and biochemical oceanography, marine physics and chemistry, and marine geosciences, IMEV houses three joint research units covering an area of 7700 m²:

• The Laboratoire de Biologie du Développement (Sorbonne Université/CNRS),
• The Laboratoire Géosciences Azur (Sorbonne Université/CNRS/IRD/UNSA),
• The Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche-sur-mer (Sorbonne Université/CNRS) and a joint service unit (management structure).
   

It provides teaching in the fields of oceanography and marine environments, geosciences, hydrogeology and geo-materials and offers teaching internships at sea combined with the immediate exploitation of acquired data, to masters students of Sorbonne Université as well as many French and foreign universities.

Imev is involved in two specialties of the Science and Technology Masters, specialising in the sciences of the universe, environment and ecology:

• Oceanography and marine environments specialisation,
• Geosciences, hydrogeology, geo-materials specialisation.

The Observatory also provides observation services to the French and international scientific community, in particular in hydro-climate matters and on the abundance and composition of planktonic stands.

The OOV is part of the Service d'observation du milieu littoral (SOMLIT) which gathers observations from the seven most important French marine stations.

The Roscoff Biological Station is a research and teaching centre in marine biology and oceanology located on the north coast of Brittany. It is part of the Sorbonne Université, CNRS and INSU.

Three Sorbonne Université laboratories are attached to the biological station:

• Laboratory of Integrated Biology of Marine Models  - UMR 8227
• Adaptation and diversity in the marine environment - UMR 7144
• Evolutionary Biology and the ecology of algae - UMI 3614

Research at the Roscoff Biological Station covers numerous areas of marine biology and oceanology. They cover four main themes:

• the study of marine organisms and ecosystems;  
• understanding the processes of adaptation and evolution; 
• the development of new biological models;  
• the search for active molecules (enzymes and natural products), for example for medical applications.

The research programmes developed in the four research units involve molecular and cell biology, the biology of organisms and populations and ecology, and use the latest technical advances in genomics, biophysics and chemistry. The marine organisms studied are eukaryotic and prokaryotic phytoplankton, macro-algae and invertebrates. The work focuses on the cell cycle of sea urchins, biochemistry and development of brown and red algae, eco-physiology of hydrothermal fauna, the diversity of phytoplankton and zooplankton, the evolution and genetics of populations and benthic ecology. In marine chemistry, research is conducted on chemical tracers to understand the phenomena of oceanic circulation of water masses.