Particularly suited to the purpose of measuring the sensitivity of benthic communities to trawling, a trawl disturbance indicator (de Juan and Demestre, 2012, de Juan et al. 2009) was proposed based on benthic species biological traits to evaluate the sensibility of mega- and epifaunal community to fishing pressure known to have a physical impact on the seafloor (such as dredging and bottom trawling). The selected biological traits were chosen as they determine vulnerability to trawling: mobility, fragility, position on substrata, average size and feeding mode that can easily be related to the fragility, recoverability and vulnerability ecological concepts. The five categories retained are functional traits that were selected based on the knowledge of the response of benthic taxa to trawling disturbance (de Juan et al., 2009). They reflect respectively the possibility to avoid direct gear impact, to benefit from trawling for feeding, to escape gear, to get caught by the net and to resist trawling/dredging action, each of these characteristics being either advantageous or sensitive to trawling. To expand this approach to that proposed by Certain et al. (2015), the protection status of certain species was also indicated. To enable quantitative analysis, a score was assigned to each category: from low sensitivity (0) to high sensitivity (3). Biological traits of species have been defined, from the BIOTIC database (MARLIN, 2014) and from information given by Garcia (2010), Le Pape et al. (2007) and Brind’Amour et al. (2009). For missing traits, additional information from literature has been considered. The protection status of each taxa was also scored: Atlantic species listed in OSPAR List of Threatened and/or Declining Species and Habitats (https://www.ospar.org/work-areas/bdc/species-habitats/list-of-threatened-declining-species-habitats) and Mediterranean species listed in Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (FAO, 2018 and Oceana, 2017) were scored 3 and other species were scored 1. The scores of 1085 taxa commonly found in bottom trawl by-catch in the southern North Sea, English Channel and north-western Mediterranean were described.

New results acquired in south-Brittany (MD08-3204 CQ core: Bay of Quiberon and VK03-58bis core: south Glénan islands) allow depicting Holocene paleoenvironmental changes from 8.5 ka BP to present through a multi-proxy dataset including sedimentological and palynological data. First, grain-size analyses and AMS-14C dates highlight a common sedimentary history for both study cores. The relative sea level (RSL) slowdown was accompanied by a significant drop of the sedimentation rates between ca. 8.3 and 5.7 ka BP, after being relatively higher at the onset of the Holocene. This interval led to the establishment of a shell-condensed level, identified in core VK03-58bis by the “Turritella layer” and interpreted as a marker for the maximum flooding surface. Palynological data (pollen grains and dinoflagellate cyst assemblages) acquired in core MD08-3204 CQ argue for an amplification of the fluvial influence since 5.7 ka BP; the establishment of the highstand system tract (i.e., mixed marine and fluviatile influences on the platform) then accompanying the slowdown of the RSL rise-rates. On the shelf, the amplification of Anthropogenic Pollen Indicators (API) is then better detected since 4.2 ka BP, not only due to human impact increase but also due to a stronger fluvial influence on the shelf during the Late Holocene. Palynological data, recorded on the 8.5–8.3 ka BP interval along an inshore-offshore gradient, also demonstrate the complexity of the palynological signal such as i) the fluvial influence that promotes some pollinic taxa (i.e., Corylus, Alnus) from proximal areas and ii) the macro-regionalization of palynomorph sources in distal cores. In addition, the comparison of palynological tracers, including API, over the last 7 kyrs, with south-Brittany coastal and mid-shelf sites subjected to northern vs. southern Loire catchment areas, allowed discussing a major hydro-climatic effect on the reconstructed palynological signals. Strengthened subpolar gyre dynamics (SPG), combined with recurrent positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) configurations, appear responsible for increased winter precipitations and fluvial discharges over northern Europe, such as in Brittany. Conversely, weakened SPG intervals, associated with negative NAO-like modes, are characterized by intensified winter fluvial discharges over southern Europe. Interestingly, we record, at an infra-orbital timescale, major peaks of API during periods of strengthened (/weakened) SPG dynamics in sites subjects to Brittany watersheds (/Loire watersheds) inputs.

This dataset consists of metatranscriptomic sequencing reads corresponding to coastal micro-eukaryote communities sampled in Western Europe in 2018 and 2019.

Raw reads for the assembly of Gambusia holbrooki genome.

Serveur wms sur les photos anciennes

The Mediterranean Sea is generally described as an oligotrophic area where primary productivity is limited to a few coastal environments with nutrient-enriched fluvial input. However, several studies have revealed that the hydrology of the western Mediterranean has major seasonal productive patterns linked either to significant riverine input or to seasonal upwelling cells. This study aims to: i) discuss organic microfossils (i.e. pollen and dinoflagellate cyst assemblages, as well as other non-pollen palynomorphs) from two different productive areas of the western Mediterranean Sea, and ii) examine the importance of the interconnections between marine and continental influences responsible for modern palynomorph distributions. Based on 25 samples from the Gulf of Lion (GoL) and Algerian Margin, this study key findings are: i) that GoL marine productivity is driven by the combination of discharges from the Rhône River and seasonal upwelling mechanisms, ii) that the strong productive pattern of the northern African coast is driven by water density front mixings and related upwellings. These two patterns are discussed in the light of major links that provide a better understanding of the signatures of marine and continental bio-indicators. The dinocyst Lingulodinium machaerophorum can be considered as a tracer of Rhône River plume influence in the GoL. Brigantedinium taxa are shown to be upwelling-sensitive in both studied areas. Typical differences in vegetation across the north–south climate gradient in the western Mediterranean Basin are highlighted by the larger ratio of Euro-Siberian to Mediterranean pollen taxa in the northern sector. Synoptic maps also illustrate the complex interactions of environmental drivers determining the distributions of continental and marine palynomorphs in the western Mediterranean Sea.

The ESA Sea State Climate Change Initiative (CCI) project has produced global multi-sensor time-series of along-track satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) integrated sea state parameters (ISSP) data from ENVISAT (referred to as SAR Wave Mode onboard ENVISAT Level 2P (L2P) ISSP data) with a particular focus for use in climate studies. This dataset contains the ENVISAT Remote Sensing Integrated Sea State Parameter product (version 1.1), which forms part of the ESA Sea State CCI version 3.0 release. This product provides along-track significant wave height (SWH) measurements at 5km resolution every 100km, processed using the Li et al., 2020 empirical model, separated per satellite and pass, including all measurements with flags and uncertainty estimates. These are expert products with rich content and no data loss. The SAR Wave Mode data used in the Sea State CCI SAR WV onboard ENVISAT Level 2P (L2P) ISSP v3 dataset come from the ENVISAT satellite mission spanning from 2002 to 2012.

We developed a panel of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for thornback ray Raja clavata using a RADSeq protocole. Demultiplexed sequences were aligned to the genome of Leucoraja erinacea which was used as reference genome. From an initial set of 389 483 putative SNPs, 7741 SNPs with the largest minor allele frequency were selected for implementation on an Infinium® XT iSelect-96 SNP-array implemented by LABOGENA DNA. For the array, SNPs [T/C] and [T/G] were replaced by those from the complementary strand [A/G] and [A/C] respectively. For some SNPs, a second SNP was found in the 50 nucleotide bases flanking sequence. In these cases, two SNP probes were developed with each of the two alleles of the second SNP. A SNP probe naming convention was adopted to identify these pairs of probes corresponding to the same SNP locus: “MAJ” or “MIN” followed by the corresponding base was included in the probe name. For some of these pairs, only one of the two markers could be developed, resulting in a total set of 9120 SNP probes, including 6360 single SNP probes, 10 MAJ or MIN probes for which a single probe was successfully developed, and 1375 pairs of probes with MAJ and MIN versions. The 9120 SNP genotypes were then scored using the clustering algorithm implemented in the Illumina® GenomeStudio Genotyping Analysis Module v2.0.3 for 7726 individual samples, including duplicates, mostly from the Bay of Biscay but also from the Mediterranean Sea and West Iberia. Overall, 1643 SNPs failed to be genotyped in all individuals, for 319 markers the minor allele was not found and 7158 markers (including 1974 for 987 MIN-MAJ pairs) produced bi-allelic genotypes. The majority of these SNPs had a minor allele frequency between 0.1 and 0.5. The MIN-MAJ probes can be used for quality checking the genotyping results

French Zostera Marina et Zostera Noltei abundance data are collected during monitoring surveys on the English Channel / Bay of Biscay coasts. Protocols are impletmented in the Water Framework Directive. Data are transmitted in a Seadatanet format (CDI + ODV) to EMODnet Biology european database. 35 ODV files have been generated from period 01/01/2004 to 31/12/2021 for Z. Marina and from 01/01/2011 to 31/12/2021 for Z. Noltei.  

In order to better characterize the genetic diversity of Cetaceans and especially the common Dolphin from the Bay of Biscay, sequences from the mitochondrial Cytochrome B region were obtained from water samples acquired close to groups of dolphins.