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The Well Sorted Fine Sand Community from the Western Mediterranean

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The Well Sorted Fine Sand Community from the Western Mediterranean The well sorted fine sand community from the western Mediterranean Sea: A resistant and resilient marine habitat under diverse human pressures Jean-Claude Dauvin, Ali Bakalem, Alexandrine Baffreau, Claire Delecrin, Gérard Bellan, Claudio Lardicci, Elena Balestri, Rafael Sarda, Samir Grimes To cite this version: Jean-Claude Dauvin, Ali Bakalem, Alexandrine Baffreau, Claire Delecrin, Gérard Bellan, et al.. The well sorted fine sand community from the western Mediterranean Sea: A resistant and resilient marine habitat under diverse human pressures. Environmental Pollution, Elsevier, 2017, 224, pp.336-351. 10.1016/j.envpol.2017.02.013. hal-01681545 HAL Id: hal-01681545 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01681545 Submitted on 14 May 2018 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. fi The well sorted ne sand community from the western Mediterranean Sea: A resistant and resilient marine habitat under diverse human pressures * Jean-Claude Dauvin a, , Ali Bakalem b, Alexandrine Baffreau a, Claire Delecrin a, Gerard Bellan c, Claudio Lardicci d, Elena Balestri d, Rafael Sarda e, Samir Grimes f a Normandie Univ, France, UNICAEN, UNIROUEN, CNRS UMR 6143 M2C, Laboratoire Morphodynamique Continentale et Coti^ ere, 24 rue des Tilleuls, 14000 Caen, France b Ecole Nationale Superieure Agronomique (ENSA), Avenue Hassan Badi, 16200, El Harrach, Algiers, Algeria c Universited’Aix-Marseille, IMBE, Station Marine d'Endoume, Rue Batterie des Lions, 13007, Marseille, France d Universita di Pisa, Dipartimento di Biologia, Via Derna, 56126, Pisa, Italy e Centre d'Estudis, Avançats de Blanes, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Carrer d'acces a la Cala Sant Fransesc, Blanes 17300, Spain f Ecole Nationale Superieure des Sciences de la Mer et de l’Amenagement du Littoral (ENSSMAL), BP 19, Campus universitaire de Dely Brahim, Bois des Cars, Algiers, Algeria Abstract: The Biocoenosis of Well Sorted Fine Sands (WSFS) (SFBC, Sables Fins Bien Calibres in French) is a Mediterranean community very well delimited by bathymetry (2e25 m) and sedimentology (>90% of fine sand) occurring in zones with relatively strong hydrodynamics. In this study focused on sites located along the Algerian, French, Italian and Spanish coasts of the Western Basin of the Mediterranean Sea (WBMS) we aim to compare the structure, ecological status and diversity of the macrofauna of the WSFS and examine the effects of recent human pressures on the state of this shallow macrobenthic commu-nity. We assess the ecological status and functioning of these WSFS using three categories of benthic indices: a) five indices based on classification of species into ecological groups, AMBI, BO2A, BPOFA, IQ and IP, b) the ITI index based on classification of species in trophic groups, and c) the Shannon H’ index, and the Biological Traits Analysis (BTA), which is an alternative method to relative taxon composition analysis and integrative indices. Cluster analyses show that each zone show a particular taxonomic richness and dominant species. The seven benthic indices reveal that the macrobenthos of the WSFS of the four coastal zones show good or high Quality Status, except for one location on the Algerian coast (the Djendjen site) in 1997. BTA highlights the presence of three groups of species: 1) typical charac-teristic species; 2) indicator species of enrichment of fine particles and organic matter, and 3) coarse sand species which are accessorily found on fine sand. Finally, the WSFS which are naturally subject to regular natural physical perturbations show a high resilience after human pressures but are very sensitive to changes in the input of organic matter. Keywords: Mediterranean Sea, Diversity, Benthic structure, Benthic indices, Biological Traits, Analysis Human pressures 1. Introduction and sedimentology (very low proportion of fine particles < 63 mm; Organic Matter < 2%; and proportion of fine sand >90%) occurring The Biocenosis of Well Sorted Fine Sands (WSFS) (SFBC, Sables in zones with a relatively strong hydrodynamic regime. Its typology Fins Bien Calibres in French, Per es and Picard, 1964) is a Mediter- is well recognized at the scale of the western basin of the Medi- ranean community very well delimited by bathymetry (2e25 m) terranean Sea and has been studied at numerous locations mainly along the French coast (Masse, 1970, 1971a,b,c, 1972, 1996, 1998, 2000; Guille, 1970, 1971; Gremare et al., 1998a,b, 2003; Labrune et al., 2007a, b, 2008; Sarda et al., 2014), Spanish (De-la-Ossa- Carretero et al., 2008, 2010; Sarda et al., 1999, 2000, 2001; * Corresponding author. Sanchez-Moyana et al., 2004), and Italian (Fresi et al., 1983; E-mail address: [email protected] (J.-C. Dauvin). Somaschini, 1993; Somaschini et al., 1998; Diviacco and lines i.e. the classification of macrobenthic species in terms of Somaschini, 1994; De Biasi and Aliani, 2001; Simonini et al., ecological groups corresponding to the response to pollution is 2005), but also along the Algerian coast (Bakalem, 1979, 2008; mostly related to organic matter input from urban waste water Bakalem et al., 2009; Grimes, 2010; Grimes et al., 2010). Based on outfalls, Bellan (2007) proposed an environment quality index and polychaete assemblages near the French-Spanish border, Labrune a Pollution-Degradation index based on the percentage of six et al. (2007a) proposed a new terminology for the WSFS: Littoral groups of sentinel, indicative or characteristic species. However, the Fine Sands; however, this proposal has not yet been adopted. generalization of these OM benthic indicators to other human Therefore, we conserve here the classic WSFS terminology as pressures has hindered the search for specialized indicators based currently used in the European EUNIS classification (‘Mediterra- on the impact of pressures acting alone, i.e. a single type of pressure nean communities of well sorted fine sands’: http://eunis.eea. leading to a particular impact. europa.eu/habitats/2197). Studies on this benthic habitat concern As an alternative to analysing relative taxon composition or mainly the description of community structures, i.e. the species using integrative indices (Bremner et al., 2003, 2006), Biological living in the WSFS community and their abundances, as well as the Traits Analysis (BTA) takes into account the biological characteris- estimation of species or taxonomic richness in terms of diversity tics of the benthic species (life-history, morphological, behavioural index, particularly the Shannon H0 diversity index, and, in some aspects) to study the functioning of benthic communities cases, biomass and more rarely production (Masse, 1972). Some (Verissimo et al., 2012). In this way, BTA offers a motivating authors have also assessed ecological status using benthic in- approach that is complementary to benthic indicators for detecting dicators (Tataranni and Lardicci, 2010; Sarda et al., 2014). This changes in the functioning of benthic communities in response to oligotrophic community is well recognized and characterized by a human pressures. relatively low number of dominant species associated with a high This study is focused on some selected sites in the northern, diversity at the scale of the western basin of the Mediterranean Sea. south-western and eastern parts of the Western Basin of the Moreover, over the last few decades, WSFS communities located in Mediterranean Sea (WBMS) along the Algerian, French, Italian and shallow waters have been subject to a multitude of human pres- Spanish coasts. The main aim of the paper is to compare the sures: outfalls of treated and untreated urban waste, new con- structure, ecological status and diversity of the macrofauna and to structions of dykes, dredging and recharging of beaches with sand examine the effects of recent human pressures on the ecological collected in the WSFS at shallow depths (<10 m), as well as status of this shallow macrobenthic community established on embankment of terrestrial territories for urban development, in- Well Sorted Fine Fands (WSFS). In the results section, firstly, we dustries, harbours, airport extensions, etc. Fish trawling continues describe the assemblage classification and species composition of to have an impact, in spite of its prohibition at a distance of less the community as well as the quality status of the analysed sites, than three nautical miles from the coastline due to the importance and secondly, we perform a biological trait analysis to assess its of this habitat for flatfishes which depend on the WSFS community functionality. Then, we discuss the quality status and functionality for feeding. In addition, the WSFS is also changing in response to against human pressures in the regional area of analysis. Finally, we the global increase in sea temperatures leading to the warming of present some general concluding remarks to understand the status shallow waters in the Mediterranean Sea, which is mainly observed of the WSFS community. in summer (Nykjaer, 2009; Shaltout and Omstedt, 2014). Since the WSFS is located above the thermocline,
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