Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : The variability of fluvial activity in the Northwestern Mediterranean coastal lowlands and its relationship with modes of climate change were analysed from the late 9th to the 18th centuries CE. Geochemical analyses were undertaken from a lagoonal sequence and surrounding sediments in order to track the fluvial inputs into the lagoon. An index based on the K/S and Rb/S ratios was used to evidence the main periods of fluvial activity. This index reveals that the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) was a drier period characterized by a lower fluvial activity, while the Little Ice Age (LIA) was a wetter period with an increase of the river dynamics. Three periods of higher than average fluvial activity were evidenced at the end of the first millennium CE (ca. 900–950 cal yr CE), in the first half of the second millennium CE (ca. 1150–1550 cal yr CE), and during the 1600s–1700s CE (ca. 1650–1800 cal yr CE). The comparison of these fluvial periods with other records of riverine or lacustrine floods in Spain, Italy, and South of France seems to indicate a general increase in fluvial and flood patterns in the Northwestern Mediterranean in response to the climate change from the MCA to the LIA, although some episodes of flooding are not found in all records. Besides, the phases of higher than average fluvial dynamics are in good agreement with the North Atlantic cold events evidenced from records of ice-rafted debris. The evolution of fluvial activity in the Northwestern Mediterranean coastlands during the last millennium could have been driven by atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns.Keywords
ISSN: 0921-8181

hal-01571958
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01571958
DOI : 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2017.03.008

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Société géologique de France
Résumé : International audience
The central part of the Gulf of Lions shoreline is characterized by many coastal wetlands that resulted from the interaction between a process of shoreline regularization by migrations of littoral barriers and a slow filling of the back-barrier areas by the riverine and marine inputs. Analyses of Late-Holocene deposits with a very high-resolution multi-proxy study of two sediment cores, allow us to reconstruct the evolution of this coastal system. Two main Holocene sediment units are identified overlying a Pliocene carbonate continental formation. The lower unit consists of sandy and pebbly marine sediments deposited around 7800 B.P., during the final stand of the last sea level rise. Just above, the upper unit displays lagoonal grey clay silts with shells and some intercalated layers of silty sands related to paleostorm events. The age model was established from radiocarbon dating, for the oldest part of the core. Over the last century, sedimentation rates were calculated using the CFCS Pb-210 model, together with Cs-137 data. Radiocarbon data show an increase in he accumulation rate from the base to the top of cores. Marine sand units related to the last transgressive deposit allow to refine the curve of Holocene post-glacial sea level rise. Sedimentological and faunal analyses associated with chronological data provide a means for reconstructing the Late-Holocene paleoenvironments along this part of the coast and suggest that the final closure of the coastal lagoon by the sandy barrier occurred at around 730 +/- 120 yr cal B.P. The beginning of this closure, together with the progradation of the coastal plain, could be responsible for the decline in economic activity of the Lattara harbour during the Roman period.
La partie centrale du littoral du golfe du Lion est caractérisée par de nombreuses lagunes qui résultent de l'interaction entre un processus de régularisation du trait de côte par migration de barrières littorales et d'un lent remplissage des zones situées en arrière des barrières par des apports continentaux et marins. Les analyses des dépôts tardi-holocènes avec une étude multi-traceurs à très haute résolution de deux carottes sédimentaires nous permettent de reconstruire l'évolution de ce système côtier. Deux unités sédimentaires holocènes sont identifiées recouvrant une formation pliocène carbonatée. L'unité inférieure est constituée de sables et de galets d'origine marine déposés vers 7800 B.P., durant les stades ultimes de la dernière remontée marine. Audessus, l'unité supérieure montre des dépôts d'argile et de silt gris coquilliers d'origine lagunaire, dans lesquels sont intercalés des niveaux de sable silteux révélant la présence d'événements de tempêtes. Le modèle d'âge est établi à partir de dates radiocarbones pour les parties les plus anciennes des archives sédimentaires, tandis que pour le dernier siècle, les taux de sédimentation sont calculés en utilisant le modèle CFCS pour le 210Pb, associé aux données de 137Cs. Les données 14C montrent une augmentation du taux d'accumulation depuis la base jusqu'en surface des carottes. Les unités de sables marins liées aux dépôts de la dernière transgression marine permettent de préciser la courbe post-glaciaire de remontée du niveau marin. Les analyses sédimentologiques et faunistiques associées aux données chronologiques fournissent une méthode permettant de reconstituer les paléoenvironnements littoraux tardi-holocènes dans la zone d'étude et suggèrent que la fermeture finale de ces lagunes par le cordon sableux survient autour de 730 ± 120 ans cal B.P. Le début de cette fermeture, associée à la une progradation deltaïque, pourrait être responsable du déclin des activités économiques du port de Lattara durant la période Romaine.
EISSN: 1777-5817

halshs-00740923
https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00740923
DOI : 10.2113/gssgfbull.181.1.27

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Chemical Society
Résumé : International audience
A sediment core encompassing 3500 years of continuous sedimentation has been collected from a coastal lagoon located on the southwestern French Mediterranean coast. Lead concentrations and stable isotopes show that the sediments have recorded the three major periods of Pb pollution: the Etruscan-Greek-Roman period (650 BC to AD 50), the medieval period (AD 650 to AD 1450), and the modern period (from around AD 1850 to the present). These periods were separated by low pollution periods during the Dark Ages (between AD 50 and 650) and during the 16th century. From the end of the 19th century to the 1960s, Pb pollution increased exponentially. Coal combustion was the major source of Pb in the lagoon in the second half of the 20th century. Both the decrease in coal consumption and the ban on leaded gasoline resulted in a decrease in Pb pollution by a factor of 1.5 between 1973 and 1995. From 1991, sewage treatment plants and incinerators could be the major source of Pb. The average baseline Hg concentration from 1525 BC to AD 900 was 0.017 ± 0.003 μg g(-1) (n = 54). The Hg concentrations profile shows three major peaks: in AD 1150, AD 1660, and AD 1969, with the concentrations being respectively 8, 5, and 34 times higher than the baseline levels. The medieval peak (AD 1150) is attributed the medical use of Hg in the town of Montpellier and/or the burning of soil and vegetation. Noticeable Hg pollution was also detected during the 17th century in relation to gold and silver amalgamation in Europe. From the end of the 19th century, Hg concentrations increased exponentially until 1969. This modern pollution is attributed to the burning of coal.
ISSN: 0013-936X

halsde-00639280
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halsde-00639280

Éditeur(s) : Springer
Résumé : The great fecundity and very high larval mortality of most marine invertebrates and fish make possible substantial variance in the number of offspring contributed by adults to subsequent generations. The reproductive success of such organisms may thus resemble a sweepstakes lottery, in which a minority of progenitors succeeds in replacing an entire population, while the majority fails to procreate. One specific prediction of this hypothesis, that genetic diversity of newly settled cohorts should be less than that of the adult population, is tested in the present study. Microsatellite DNA markers were examined in naturally spawned juvenile European flat oysters Ostrea edulis (L.), collected over a 12-day period in 1993 from the western Mediterranean Sea, near Sete, France (43 degrees 32'N, 3 degrees 56'E) and grown out for a period of up to 10 months. Variation in these juveniles was compared to that in a pooled sample of adults collected in 1994 from two locations (Thau Lagoon and Port St. Louis) that had statistically homogeneous allelic frequencies. Though nearly twice as large as the pooled adult sample, the juvenile sample had only 60% of the adult allelic diversity. Analyses of linkage disequilibrium and kinship, as well as estimation of the effective number of parents, suggested that 10-20 adults produced this juvenile cohort. This observation supports the hypothesis of sweepstakes reproductive success and suggests that partial inbreeding may occur even in species with large populations and dispersing planktonic larvae.
Marine Biology (0025-3162) (Springer), 2007-03 , Vol. 150 , N. 6 , P. 1173-1182

Droits : 2007 Springer
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2007/publication-2616.pdf
DOI:10.1007/s00227-006-0441-y
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/2616/

Résumé : Fishing activity in the french mediterranean lagoon Etang de Berre is actually allowed in spite of a degradation of the environment during the last fifty years. To analyse the results and the working of the fishery, a study based on a sampling survey of catches and fishing effort has been conducted in the various landing ports over a two years period. Annual weight and value productions by species and gear have been evaluated by mean of statistical calculation procedures. The results show that the fishery is based on the exploitation of two main species (anguilla and grey mullet) and that important variations exist between the two sampled years. The limits to be reached by the working of this fishery are prompted in the scope of a future regulation.
La pratique de l'exploitation halieutique dans l'étang lagunaire de Berre (Méditerranée française) est actuellement tolérée malgré la dégradation du milieu au cours des cinquante dernières années. Pour réaliser une analyse des résultats et du fonctionnement de la pêcherie, une étude par enquête basée sur le suivi des captures et des efforts de pêche a été menée aux différents ports de débarquements pendant une durée de deux ans. On calcule par évaluation les productions annuelles spécifiques et par métiers, en poids et en valeurs. Ces résultats montrent que la pêcherie est basée sur l'exploitation de deux espèces principales (anguille et mulets) et qu'il existe de fortes variations entre les deux années d'études. Dans l'optique d'une réglementation on suggère les limites résultant du mode de fonctionnement de cette pêcherie.

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/1989/rapport-1569.pdf
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/1569/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé : International audience
Most of the Mediterranean coastal porous aquifers are intensively exploited. Because of climatic and anthropogenic effects, understanding the physical and geological controls on groundwater distribution and flow dynamics in such aquifers is crucial. This study presents the results of a structural investigation of a system located along the coastline of the Gulf of Lions (NW Mediterranean). A key aspect of this study relies on an onshore-offshore integrated approach combining outcrops, seismic profiles, and borehole data analysis. This multidisciplinary approach provides constraints on pore-fluid salinity distribution and stratigraphic organization, which are crucial in assessing the modes of groundwater/seawater exchanges. Onshore, Lower Pliocene deposits dip gently seaward. They are unconformably overlain by Holocene clays in the lagoons. Offshore the Pliocene deposits either outcrop at the seabed or are buried below nonconsolidated sands infilling paleo-valleys. Beneath the lido, the groundwater salinity distribution consists of salty pore water, overlying fresher pore water. Active circulation of groundwater masses is inferred from the geophysical results. In particular, offshore outcrops and paleo-valleys may play an important role in salt water intrusion.
ISSN: 0017-467X

halsde-00866825
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halsde-00866825
DOI : 10.1111/j.1745-6584.2012.01011.x

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
New investigations in the Neogene Boudinar basin (Morocco) provide new information about the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) and Zanclean reflooding in the southern part of the Alboran realm (westernmost Mediterranean). Based on a new field, sedimentological and palaeontological analyses, the age and the geometry of both the Messinian erosional surface (MES) and the overlying deposits have been determined. The MES is of late Messinian age and was emplaced in subaerial settings. In the Boudinar basin, a maximum of 200 m of Miocene sediments was eroded, including late Messinian gypsum blocks. The original geometry of the MES is preserved only when it is overlain by late Messinian continental deposits, conglomeratic alluvial fans or lacustrine marly sediments. These sediments are interpreted as indicators of the sea-level fall during the MSC. Elsewhere in the basin, the contact between late Messinian and early Pliocene deposits is a low-angle dipping, smooth surface that corresponds to the early Pliocene transgression surface that subsequently re-shaped the regressive MES. The early Pliocene deposits are characterized by: (i) their onlap onto either the basement of the Rif chain or the late Miocene deposits; (ii) lagoonal deposits at the base to offshore marls and sands at the top (earliest Pliocene; 5.33–5.04 Ma interval; foraminifer zone PL1); (iii) marine recovery occurring in the 5.32–5.26 Ma interval; and (iv) the change from lagoonal to offshore environments occurring within deposits tens of metres thick. This information indicates that at least the end of the reflooding period was progressive, not catastrophic as previously thought.
ISSN: 0037-0738

hal-01306672
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01306672
DOI : 10.1016/j.sedgeo.2015.12.014

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé : International audience
Studies focusing on the effect of invasive species on the genetic diversity of native marine invertebrates remain scant. Here we report diversity among French populations of the intertidal gastropod Ocenebra erinacea (Linnaeus, 1758) sampled in the presence and absence of the invasive Ocenebra inornata (Recluz, 1851). Between 1999 and 2004, a total of 352 individuals of O. erinacea was collected from 15 sites, five of which had the invasive present, and genotyped at the mitochondrial locus cox1. No statistical difference was observed between polymorphism levels recorded within native populations exposed to the invasive, compared with populations sampled in the absence of O. inornata. No sign of native population decline was detected in response to the invader. While significant shifts in native O. erinacea population sizes have previously been reported in the literature, genetic effects may take longer to accumulate, or may be undetectable without a larger panel of genetic markers. By contrast, large genetic distances and significant population differentiation were recorded between Atlantic and Mediterranean O. erinacea samples, suggesting that these populations have distinct evolutionary histories. Comparison of genetic divergence within the closely related genus Nucella suggests that the Atlantic populations of O. erinacea and those from Thau Lagoon in the Mediterranean may belong to different species or subspecies.
ISSN: 0173-9565

hal-01064464
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01064464
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01064464/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01064464/file/Ocenebra_revision_submission_to_MarEcol.pdf
DOI : 10.1111/maec.12208

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Résumé : Avec l'augmentation récente de la population mondiale et des infrastructures en domaine littoral, les tempêtes et les cyclones sont devenus un des risques majeurs à l'échelle globale. La Méditerranée, et plus particulièrement le Golfe du Lion, ne sont pas épargnés par ces phénomènes. La tempête de 1982 par exemple, de catégorie 2 sur l'échelle de Saffir-Simpson est responsable du décès de quinze personnes et de plus de 400 millions d'euros de pertes économiques. La prévision de ces événements à partir de modèles climatiques est devenue primordiale. Le problème majeur dans cette approche est le manque de recul dans le temps pour calibrer ces modèles. Notre approche a donc été de reconstituer ces tempêtes du passé à partir de l'étude d'archives sédimentaires (paléotempestologie). Les lagunes du littoral languedocien sont les réceptacles de matériels terrigènes provenant des bassins versants en période de crues, mais aussi de sables transportés par la mer en période de tempêtes. L'étude des archives sédimentaires dans l'étang de Pierre Blanche nous a permis d'identifier et de reconstituer l'alternance des événements les plus extrêmes au cours des 2000 dernières années. La fréquence de ces tempêtes semble varier dans le temps et une augmentation significative est constatée durant la fin du Petit Âge Glaciaire.
ISSN: 1142-2904

hal-00486349
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00486349