Biomonitoring of two marine mollusks, the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis and the limpet Patella sp. in three North Corsican ports and inter-annual comparisons

Abstract

More than 80% of the pollution present in ocean comes from land and human activities carried out there. Coastal waters, containing a large part of marine biodiversity, are directly impacted by these anthropogenic pressures. More especially, port areas, which constitute living place to numerous marine species, are subject to additional risks of pollution specific to port activities (maritime traffic, chronic pollution by hydrocarbons or antifouling paints, etc.). Monitoring contamination in these port areas is an important issue, especially in Corsica where the coastal population can double in summer season, considerably increasing the risks of pollution. The QUAMPO project, set up in the context of achieving of maintaining the good ecological status proposed by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), aims to assess the quality of water in the North Corsica ports. To do so, the use of a multibiomarker approach was carried out on two different marine mollusks: the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis and the limpet Patella sp. As part of the QUAMPO project, the present master thesis aims at providing the last data, of January 2022. Organisms were sampled in three ports areas (Calvi, Île Rousse and St-Florent) and a battery of biomarkers of exposure (traces elements, organic pollutants) and biomarkers of effect focusing oxidative stress, energetic metabolism, immunity, neurotoxicity, and energy stock was analyzed to evaluate the induced-effect of chronic pollution in those ports, to confirm or no the potential of limpet as a reliable bioindicators, but also used an integrative index: the integrative biomarker response (IBR) to communicate results to ports managers in a simpler way. As results, some limpet biomarkers well respond to the different pollutant present in ports. Even if trace of pollution could be observed in all port, from different nature or concentration, North Corsica ports present globally good quality waters. Finally, the IBR index appears to be a useful tool to summarise all biomarkers responses.