Assessment of the biological quality of port areas: A case study on the three harbours of La Rochelle: The marina, the fishing harbour and the seaport

Abstract

This work was designed to investigate biological impacts at 3 dates (day 0, day 7 and day 21) on black scallops (Mimachlamys varia) in the three ports areas of La Rochelle town in winter 2017. In order to assess the biological effects on the wild population of black scallops, bivalves were place in four different locations: in the three ports (semi-closed areas), and in a marshland uncontaminated site (closed area). Biomarkers of effects (heavy metals) and exposure (oxidative stress and immunological effects) were assessed in the digestive glands of specimens in order to compare two techniques of sampling: “pool” technique and “inter-subject” technique. Our findings reported in the both techniques show significant modulation of GST (detoxification), SOD (antioxidant response) and MDA (lipid peroxidation) in bivalves exposed to a specific contamination in each port. Laccase-type enzyme also highlighted an important aspect in terms of biomarker response of the immune function at the 7th day of exposition. Overall, our study demonstrated that the “pool” technique using the same quality indicator M. varia could be used to obtain reliable results at lower costs. In contrast, in fundamental context, the “inter-subject” technique could bring more precise results to light. However, it requires burdensome and costly handling.

Characterisation of the Water Renewal in a Macro-Tidal Marina Using Several Transport Timescales

“…After an expansion in 2014 (corresponding to the NE basin in Figure 1), La Rochelle Marina, located in the southwestern part of France, is currently considered as the biggest marina on the European Atlantic coast. Despite the environmental policy and ecological awareness of the marina, equipment and maritime activities may be a source of the pollution [18]. The main objective of this study is, therefore, to characterise the water renewal of La Rochelle Marina due to the horizontal and vertical variability of its currents.…”

First characterization of seasonal variations in biomarkers baseline in Patella sp. from Mediterranean ports (North Corsica, France)

“…A wide diversity of biomarkers is used in a multi-biomarkers approach but the most common are usually enzymes involved in antioxidative defences (Breitwieser et al, 2018;Ghribi et al, 2020;Luna-Acosta et al, 2017b), in nervous system (Lionetto et al, 2013;Lionetto et al, 2003;Matozzo et al, 2005), in immunity (Luna-Acosta et al, 2017a) or in energetic metabolism (Falfushynska et al, 2019;Zebral et al, 2020). However, it is also demonstrated that biotic factors (length, weight, reproductive cycle, etc.)…”