A Biogeochemical Approach to Contamination of the Ligurian Sea

Cossa, Daniel; Fowler, Scott W.; Migon, Christophe; Heimbürger‐Boavida, Lars‐Éric; Dufour, Aurélie

doi:10.1002/9781119704782.ch6

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…In this context, pollution is increasingly present as a result of anthropogenic activities, making marine coasts, one of the most heavily contaminated aquatic environments by TMs (Förstner and Wittmann, 2012;de Souza Machado et al, 2016). Thus, TM concentrations in Mediterranean coastal surface waters, mainly due to atmospheric inputs, are higher than those, for example, in Atlantic Ocean (Heimbürger et al, 2011;Cossa et al, 2020). Rather than the atmospheric pathway, TM seawater contamination of the semi-enclosed Toulon Bay (Mediterranean Sea, France) is primarily caused by urban and industrial wastes (Levin et al, 2001;Oursel et al, 2013), antifouling coatings (Turner, 2010), fuel consumption (Callender, 2003), and sediment resuspension (Dang et al, 2015;Layglon et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rather than the atmospheric pathway, TM seawater contamination of the semi-enclosed Toulon Bay (Mediterranean Sea, France) is primarily caused by urban and industrial wastes (Levin et al, 2001;Oursel et al, 2013), antifouling coatings (Turner, 2010), fuel consumption (Callender, 2003), and sediment resuspension (Dang et al, 2015;Layglon et al, 2020). Then, seawater of the Toulon Bay is characterized by high levels of anthropogenic (Cd, Pb, and Zn) and intermediate (i.e., both anthropogenic and natural origins) (Cu and Ni) TMs (Jean et al, 2012;Coclet et al, 2018Coclet et al, , 2019Coclet et al, , 2020Layglon et al, 2020), which can be 100-fold above geochemical background levels of the Mediterranean Sea (Morley et al, 1997), and by far, upper than most of Mediterranean coastal zones (Cossa et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Trace Metal Contamination Impacts Predicted Functions More Than Structure of Marine Prokaryotic Biofilm Communities in an Anthropized Coastal Area

et al. 2021

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Trace metal (TM) contamination in marine coastal areas is a worldwide threat for aquatic communities. However, little is known about the influence of a multi-chemical contamination on both marine biofilm communities’ structure and functioning. To determine how TM contamination potentially impacted microbial biofilms’ structure and their functions, polycarbonate (PC) plates were immerged in both surface and bottom of the seawater column, at five sites, along strong TM contamination gradients, in Toulon Bay. The PC plates were incubated during 4 weeks to enable colonization by biofilm-forming microorganisms on artificial surfaces. Biofilms from the PC plates, as well as surrounding seawaters, were collected and analyzed by 16S rRNA amplicon gene sequencing to describe prokaryotic community diversity, structure and functions, and to determine the relationships between bacterioplankton and biofilm communities. Our results showed that prokaryotic biofilm structure was not significantly affected by the measured environmental variables, while the functional profiles of biofilms were significantly impacted by Cu, Mn, Zn, and salinity. Biofilms from the contaminated sites were dominated by tolerant taxa to contaminants and specialized hydrocarbon-degrading microorganisms. Functions related to major xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism, such as methane metabolism, degradation of aromatic compounds, and benzoate degradation, as well as functions involved in quorum sensing signaling, extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) matrix, and biofilm formation were significantly over-represented in the contaminated site relative to the uncontaminated one. Taken together, our results suggest that biofilms may be able to survive to strong multi-chemical contamination because of the presence of tolerant taxa in biofilms, as well as the functional responses of biofilm communities. Moreover, biofilm communities exhibited significant variations of structure and functional profiles along the seawater column, potentially explained by the contribution of taxa from surrounding sediments. Finally, we found that both structure and functions were significantly distinct between the biofilm and bacterioplankton, highlighting major differences between the both lifestyles, and the divergence of their responses facing to a multi-chemical contamination.

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