Contaminants in the Food Web System: phytoplankton, zooplankton, Anchovy, Sardine

The main scientific aim of COSTAS is to bring useful knowledge to the understanding of the conditions which favor the accumulation and transfer of organic and metallic contaminants at the primary trophic levels (autotrophes and hetetrophes), and than within the food web of small pelagic fish (anchovies) in the <place>Gulf of Lions</place>.

This scientific topic belongs thus to the problems related to general environmental degradation of marine ecosystems, political willingness for sustainable management of resources at regional, European and global levels and to a need of increasing of knowledge in order to build sound scientific bases for such management.

The study will focus on marine ecosystems contamination by three groups of compounds and elements: persistent organic contaminants (polychlorobiphenyls PCBs and polybrominated diphenyl ethers PBDEs), mercury (Hg) and methylmercuryb (CH3Hg) and other metals (Pb, Cd, Cu, Ag, Zn…). In integral scheme of biogeochemical cycles of contaminants in the marine ecosystems, the assimilation of anthropic compounds and elements at primary trophic levels, and elements at primary trophic levelsin plankton is not yet well known.

However, planktonic populations play a key role in the trophic food webs in marine ecosystems in mobilizing and transfer of organic matter towards higher trophic levels. Thus our study will focus on the whole food web including water column/phytoplankton/zooplankton/and small pelagic fish (anchovy and sardine) in order to identify and parameterize the contaminants and elements transfer in this food web. The small pelagic fish represent exploited resource in the Golf of Lions and essential trophic chain between plankton and higher predators. The contamination of small pelagic fish is a pertinent vector for the transfer of contaminants to the open seas, and especially towards higher predators.

Ce projet was approved in April 2009