%0 Journal Article %J Ecological Indicators %D 2019 %T Changes in marine phytoplankton diversity: Assessment under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive %A Rombouts, I. %A Nathalie Simon %A Anais Aubert %A T. Cariou %A Eric Feunteun %A Laurent Guerin %A M. Hoebeke %A A. McQuatters-Gollop %A F. Rigaut-Jalabert %A Luis Felipe Artigas %K community composition %K Good environmental status %K Indicators %K Marine policy %K MSFD %K OSPAR %K Pelagic habitat %K Plankton %X The Marine Strategy Framework Directive requires EU Member States to assess the Good Environmental Status (GES) of their marine waters in a coherent and strategic manner. For the regional assessment of biodiversity, the OSPAR Intersessional Coordination Group of Biodiversity Assessment and Monitoring (ICG-COBAM) provides substantial advice. Through expert working groups, phytoplankton indicators are currently being developed to measure the state and the change in pelagic diversity, to quantify food web dynamics and to measure the extent of eutrophication impacts. We developed a multi-metric indicator that is compliant with the common OSPAR indicator “Changes in plankton diversity” (PH3). The aim was to describe the structure of the phytoplankton community (alpha diversity) and to detect significant temporal changes (beta diversity) to evaluate the health of pelagic habitats. In this pilot study, we used three coastal time-series in the Western Channel and the north of the Bay of Biscay (North Atlantic, France) to test the efficiency and the performance of several existing diversity indices. We validated two alpha diversity indices, namely the Menhinick Index (D) and the Hulburt Index (δ), based on their complementary ecological information, their strong relationship with habitat characteristics, and their relative ease of interpretation for stakeholders. Temporal shifts or rate of change in community structure were detected by the Local Contributions to Beta Diversity index (LCBD; a beta diversity measure). For the years where significantly high LCBD values were found, the Importance Value Index (IVI) was calculated to potentially identify the taxa (genus) responsible for the “unusual” community structure. For example, at the Ouest Loscolo site in 2008, an elevated LCBD (0.45) coincided with a high dominance value (Hulburt’s Index) caused by the occurrence of a monospecific bloom of Leptocylindrus spp. (IVI = 73%) in July (2.22 × 106 cells L−1) and October (8 × 106 cells L−1). In this way, PH3 informs on different aspects of phytoplankton diversity from a community to a genus level. At the current stage of development, however, PH3 acts as a “surveillance” rather than an operational indicator since the relationship to GES is not directly tracked. In the future, by additional testing of PH3 and extending the geographical scope, the robustness of the assessment could be further determined across the OSPAR Maritime Area. %B Ecological Indicators %V 102 %P 265 - 277 %G eng %U http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X19301190 %R https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.02.009 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Sea Research %D 2017 %T Regional and latitudinal patterns of soft-bottom macrobenthic invertebrates along French coasts: Results from the RESOMAR database %A Régis K. Gallon %A Nicolas Lavesque %A Jacques Grall %A Céline Labrune %A Antoine Grémare %A Guy Bachelet %A Hugues Blanchet %A Paulo Bonifácio %A Vincent M.P. Bouchet %A Jean-Claude Dauvin %A Nicolas Desroy %A Franck Gentil %A Laurent Guerin %A Céline Houbin %A Jérôme Jourde %A Sandrine Laurand %A Michel Le Duff %A Vincent Le Garrec %A Xavier de Montaudouin %A Frédéric Olivier %A Francis Orvain %A Pierre-Guy Sauriau %A Eric Thiébaut %A Olivier Gauthier %K France %K Latitudinal pattern %K Regional pattern %K Soft-bottom %K Species richness %K Zoobenthos %X

This study aims to describe the patterns of soft bottom macrozoobenthic richness along French coasts. It is based on a collaborative database developed by the “Réseau des Stations et Observatoires Marins” (RESOMAR). We investigated patterns of species richness in sublittoral soft bottom habitats (EUNIS level 3) at two different spatial scales: 1) seaboards: English Channel, Bay of Biscay and Mediterranean Sea and 2) 0.5° latitudinal and longitudinal grid. Total observed richness, rarefaction curves and three incidence-based richness estimators (Chao2, ICE and Jacknife1) were used to compare soft bottom habitats species richness in each seaboard. Overall, the Mediterranean Sea has the highest richness and despite higher sampling effort, the English Channel hosts the lowest number of species. The distribution of species occurrence within and between seaboards was assessed for each major phylum using constrained rarefaction curves. The Mediterranean Sea hosts the highest number of exclusive species. In pairwise comparisons, it also shares a lower proportion of taxa with the Bay of Biscay (34.1%) or the English Channel (27.6%) than that shared between these two seaboards (49.7%). Latitudinal species richness patterns along the Atlantic and English Channel coasts were investigated for each major phylum using partial LOESS regression controlling for sampling effort. This showed the existence of a bell-shaped latitudinal pattern, highlighting Brittany as a hotspot for macrobenthic richness at the confluence of two biogeographic provinces.

%B Journal of Sea Research %V 130 %P 96 - 106 %G eng %U http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1385110116302660 %R https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seares.2017.03.011