This study details the sedimentary infilling of an original tidal-dominated estuary system during the final stage of the last marine transgression. The Bay of Brest is confined and connects the rivers Elorn and Aulne, to the sea of Iroise by a narrow strait encasing a well preserved paleo-channel. The compilation of high-and very-high-resolution bathymetric and seismic data, constrained by sediments datations, allows us to classify the paleo-morphology of the bay into three stepped domains: the paleo-valley floor surrounded by fluvial terraces, the central plateau, and the shallow embayments. Taking into account the main factors controlling the infilling, including sea-level rise, substratum morphology, and hydrodynamics, the stratigraphic scheme of the bay has been reconstructed. The lowstand system track (LST) is assumed to correspond to relict Pleistocene continental deposits associated with the last low sea level around 21,000 cal yr B.P. The transgressive phase, represented by the transgressive system track (TST), is divided into two parts. The lower part (TST1) constitutes the first stage of transgressive deposition in the bay. Starting around 9000 cal yr B.P. and currently conserved in the shallowest parts, it is characterized by tidal flats associated with deposits in the inner estuary. This stage ends at about 7000 cal yr B.P. and is separated from the upper part (TST2) by a tidal ravinement surface that occurs around 7700 cal yr B.P. at the foot slope. TST2 formed sand bodies in the central part of the bay between 6800 and 3000 cal yr B.P. These deposits, interpreted as tidal banks, are associated with the outer estuarine environment. The maximum flooding surface (MFS), dated around 3000 and 2000 cal yr B.P., marked the installation of a highstand system track (HST) under the combined influence of tidal currents, storms events, and anthropogenic activity. The geometry deposition of each system track is controlled at the first order by the combination of the irregular Holocene sea level rise and the inherited rocky substratum morphology. The retreat of the shoreline, and estuarine environments, is function of the successive flooding of stepped domains. The direct evolution of the volume of the assumed accumulated sea water in the bay favoured the gradual installation of the present-day hydrodynamic circulation. Highlights ► Sedimentary records retrace the landward retreat of tidal processes at the Holocene. ► The stepped bedrock allows unique preservation of depositional environments. ► The bed-rock morphology has a key-role on the conservation of sediment deposition.
Long-studied with respect to its sedimentological features (1897), the Bay of Brest (Western Britanny, France) is a textbook example of a tide-dominated estuary. Characterised by macrotidal conditions, this estuary system is sheltered from the open sea (Iroise Sea) by a narrow strait that partitions the wave tide influences and continental/marine inputs. Sediments are supplied to the bay both by rivers (the Aulne and Elorn rivers) and by marine tidal currents. This study presents new analyses of detailed facies and morphological patterns, based on the integration of multisource data compiling seabed sampling, swath and LIDAR bathymetry, and backscatter imagery. The Main Map, at a scale of 1:90,000, contains (1) a sedimentological distribution using the 'Code Manche' classification, (2) a morphological map, and (3) bathymetric mapping which presents the morphology of marine and terrestrial landforms. This work may lay the foundation for a future study on sedimentary transport in a unique and confined coastal environment. ARTICLE HISTORY
For the first time a very high resolution palynological study (mean resolution of 1 to 5 years) was carried out over the last 150 years in a French estuarine environment (Bay of Brest; NW France), allowing direct comparison between the evolution of landscapes, surface water, and human practices on Bay of Brest watersheds, through continental (especially pollen grains) and marine (phytoplanktonic microalgae: cysts of dinoflagellates or dinocysts) microfossils. Thanks to the small size of the watersheds and the close proximity of the depositional environment to the mainland, the Bay of Brest represents an ideal case study for palynological investigations. Palynological data were then compared to published palaeo-genetic analyses conducted on the same core and to various available instrumental data, allowing us to better characterize past environmental variability since the second half of the 19th century in Western Brittany. We provide evidence of some clues of recent eutrophication and/or pollution that affected phytoplankton communities and which appears linked with increased runoff (higher precipitations, higher percentages of riparian forest pollen, decline of salt marsh-type indicators, and higher values of the XRF Ti/Ca signal), mainly explained by the evolution of agricultural practices since 1945 superimposed on the warming climate trend. We assume that the significant relay observed between dinocyst taxa: Lingulodinium machaerophorum and Spiniferites bentorii around 1965 then followed by Spiniferites membranaceus after 1985, attests to a strong and recent eutrophication of Bay of Brest surface waters induced by high river runoff combined with abnormally elevated air temperatures, especially obvious in the data from 1990. The structure of the dinocyst community has thus been deeply altered, accompanied by an unprecedented increase of Alexandrium minutum toxic form at the same period, as confirmed by the genetic quantification. Despite this recent major anthropogenic forcing, the fossil pollen sequence also records natural climate variability. We highlight, for the first time, a possible connection between climate (AMO modes) and fossil pollen records (especially tree pollination rates) in coastal sediments using tree percentage fluctuations as an indirect Highlights ► High resolution palynological study (last 150 yrs) in a French estuary ► Increased runoff on mainland since 1945 ► Increased eutrophication indices since 1980 ► Changes in phytoplankton communities and increased toxic algal blooms ► Connection between AMO modes and fossil pollen records (tree pollination rates)
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