- Liège, Liege, Belgium
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Human activities generate large volumes of waste that supply marine coastal environments in pathogens, organic matter, nutrients and toxicants. Among the wide range of toxicants are trace elements. Since the latter are toxic for aquatic... more
Human activities generate large volumes of waste that supply marine coastal environments in pathogens, organic matter, nutrients and toxicants. Among the wide range of toxicants are trace elements. Since the latter are toxic for aquatic organisms from threshold levels and as they are therefore likely to cause multiple damage to the population, the community and the ecosystem levels, their environmental occurrence has to be accurately monitored in order to guarantee appropriate environmental management of coastal zones and to preserve marine coastal ecosystems and the goods and services they provide. In the framework of the STARECAPMED project, the present study aimed to monitor, for the first time, the coastal contamination of the entire Mediterranean by As, Ag, Cd, Cu, Hg, Ni and Pb, using Posidonia oceanica as bioindicator species. But sustainable coastal management also requires the development of appropriate contamination classification systems intended, among other purposes, fo...
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The seagrass Posidonia oceanica is widely recognized as an effective bioindicator of the health status of Mediterranean coastal waters. Chlorophyll fluorescence measurements, in particular through the Pulse Amplitude Modulated (PAM)... more
The seagrass Posidonia oceanica is widely recognized as an effective bioindicator of the health status of Mediterranean coastal waters. Chlorophyll fluorescence measurements, in particular through the Pulse Amplitude Modulated (PAM) fluorometry method, are performed to study aquatic plant ecology and vitality and to assess their responses to diverse stressful factors. However, the current understanding of P. oceanica photosynthetic responses to environmental stresses does only allow scientists to use the PAM-method as a complementary tool to other more-robust monitoring techniques. Consequently, a more in-depth knowledge of the natural causes of variability of P. oceanica photosynthetic responses are a prerequisite to any surveys relying on that time and cost-effective method. In the framework of the STARECAPMED project, this work aimed to determine the influence of several environmental (depth, daytime, season) and plant-specific characteristics (leaf age, leaf part analyzed, epiph...
Biological indicators have the capacity to integrate the temporal changes of contaminants, concentrations or fluxes over various time-scales, and are thus considered as interesting tools for water quality biomonitoring. Since the... more
Biological indicators have the capacity to integrate the temporal changes of contaminants, concentrations or fluxes over various time-scales, and are thus considered as interesting tools for water quality biomonitoring. Since the mid-70ies, French programs have developed water monitoring approaches based on the use of bivalve molluscs; and recently the natural background and the extent of water contamination were bioassessed at the scale of the whole western Mediterranean. But even if bivalve molluscs are viewed as reliable bioindicators, their use is not always made easy as a result of their absence in numerous coastal regions that force their transplantation (cages) during several months before their sampling and analysis. This weakness led several scientists to evaluate the bioindicator abilities of other marine organisms. Seagrasses, whose ability to bioaccumulate contaminants proportionally to environmental contamination levels has been clearly demonstrated, have thus been prop...
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Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile is a protected species, included in the Red list of marine threatened species of the Mediterranean. Because of its sensitivity to disturbance, P. oceanica is used as a bioindicator to define the health... more
Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile is a protected species, included in the Red list of marine threatened species of the Mediterranean. Because of its sensitivity to disturbance, P. oceanica is used as a bioindicator to define the health status of coastal waters. Monitoring methods generally require to sample plants, followed by measurements on picked shoots. This implies the total destruction of several tens of shoots. This study presents a method, “The Non Destructive Shoot Methodology”: NDSM, that permits the measurement of (1) the most used seagrass metrics, (2) the determination of C, N, P contents and (3) the measurement of the trace metal levels in P. oceanica leaves. Our technic has been firstly tested by comparison with the results obtained with classic method of biometry. Secondly, differences between levels of C, N, P and trace metals obtained with classic picking and our methodology were tested. Thirdly, the physiological consequences on the shoots were investigated (% of sur...
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The present study gives a summary using state-of-the-art technology to monitor Posidonia oceanica and Mytilus galloprovincialis as bioindicators of the pollution of the Mediterranean littoral with trace elements (TEs), and discusses their... more
The present study gives a summary using state-of-the-art technology to monitor Posidonia oceanica and Mytilus galloprovincialis as bioindicators of the pollution of the Mediterranean littoral with trace elements (TEs), and discusses their complementarity and specificities in terms of TE bioaccumulation. Furthermore, this study presents two complementary indices, the Trace Element Spatial Variation Index (TESVI) and the Trace Element Pollution Index (TEPI): these indices were shown to be relevant monitoring tools since they led to the ordering of TEs according to the overall spatial variability of their environmental levels (TESVI) and to the relevant comparison of the global TE pollution between monitored sites (TEPI). In addition, this study also discusses some underestimated aspects of P. oceanica and M. galloprovincialis bioaccumulation behaviour, with regard to their life style and ecophysiology. It finally points out the necessity of developing consensual protocols between moni...
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A large scale survey of the trace element (TE) contamination of Mediterranean coastal waters was performed from the analysis of Ag, As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Ni and Pb in the bioindicator Posidonia oceanica, sampled at 110 sites differing by their... more
A large scale survey of the trace element (TE) contamination of Mediterranean coastal waters was performed from the analysis of Ag, As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Ni and Pb in the bioindicator Posidonia oceanica, sampled at 110 sites differing by their levels of exposure to contaminants. The holistic approach developed in this study, based on the combined utilization of several complementary monitoring tools, i.e. water quality scale, pollution index and spatial analysis, accurately assessed the TE contamination rate of Mediterranean coastal waters. In particular, the mapping of the TE contamination according to a new proposed 5-level water quality scale precisely outlined the contamination severity along Mediterranean coasts and facilitated interregional comparisons. Finally, the reliability of the use of P. oceanica as bioindicator species was again demonstrated through several global, regional and local detailed case studies. NB: The designations employed and the presentation of the information in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the authors concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.