Author
Aurore Raoux
Géraldine Lassalle
Jean-Philippe Pezy
Samuele Tecchio
Georges Safi
Bruno Ernande
C. Mazé
Francois Le Loc'h
Justine Lequesne
Valerie Girardin
Jean-Claude Dauvin
Nathalie Niquil
Year of Publication
2019

Journal

Ecological Indicators
Volume
96
Number of Pages
728-738
DOI
10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.07.014
URL
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1470160X1830534X
ISSN Number
1470160X
HCERES category
ACL - Articles in international or national peer-reviewed journals indexed by HCERES or in international databases
Abstract

A combination of modelling tools was applied to simulate the impacts of the future Courseulles-sur-mer offshore wind farm (OWF) construction (Bay of Seine, English Channel) on the ecosystem structure and functioning. To do so, food-web models of the ecosystem under three scenarios were constructed to investigate the effect caused by the OWF of added substrate (reef effect), fishing restriction (reserve effect), and their combined effect. Further, Ecological Network Analysis indices and Mean Trophic Level were derived to investigate their suitability for detecting changes in the ecosystem state. Our analysis suggests changes in the ecosystem structure and functioning after the OWF construction, the ecosystem maturity was predicted to increase, but no alterations in its overall resilience capacity. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd

Keywords
English Channel
Marine environment
France
coastal zone
food web
trophic level
ecosystem function
Ecosystems
Ecological network analysis
ecosystem structure
Barium compounds
Electric utilities
Reefs
Ecopath with Ecosim
Marine renewable energy
Reserve effect
Offshore wind farms
in situ measurement
measurement method
model
sensitivity analysis
wind farm
Bay of Seine