Le développement croissant de l’urbanisme et des activités anthropiques fait peser une pression de plus en plus importante sur les zones côtières, touchant particulièrement les régions méditerranéennes. Les processus liés au changement climatique et aux activités humaines impactent en profondeur les écosystèmes marins et tout particulièrement les systèmes planctoniques qui présentent une sensibilité accrue aux perturbations du milieu. Toutefois, les effets de ces processus agissant de concert à long terme sur la structure et le fonctionnement des écosystèmes côtiers sont encore mal compris. Ainsi, les séries temporelles planctoniques représentent des outils précieux pour la compréhension des processus impactant le milieu marin. Les séries temporelles du laboratoire EBMA-PROTEE de Toulon font partie des séries les plus anciennes de Méditerranée et présentent l’intérêt de combiner l’impact des processus naturels et anthropiques sur les communautés phyto- et zooplanctoniques. C’est dans ce contexte que ce travail a pour objectif de préciser le rôle de ces facteurs sur la dynamique et la composition phyto- et zooplanctonique en Méditerranée nord-occidentale (Toulon, France). Une première partie a ainsi consisté à évaluer le rôle des mélanges verticaux se produisant au sein du bassin Ligure, comme moteur de la dynamique printanière du plancton au sein de la Rade de Toulon. Cette étude a permis d’identifier des variations significatives du régime des précipitations associées à des modifications de la salinité au sein du site de la Grande Rade de Toulon (« LaB ») sur la période 2005-2013. Variations retrouvées également sur 2 autres sites côtiers du bassin Ligure (« SOFCOM » and « Point B »). Conformément à l’hypothèse énoncée, les années conditionnées par un automne et un hiver secs ont présenté en moyenne une production phytoplanctonique printanière supérieure au sein des 3 sites, comparées aux années les plus humides. Toutefois, la présence de différences entre les sites a souligné l’impact important de mécanismes locaux sur le conditionnement de la dynamique phytoplanctonique. L’impact des changements de régime des précipitations sur la composition micro-phytoplanctonique et méso-zooplanctonique a été étudié au cours d’une seconde partie. Les résultats ont suggéré un changement profond des communautés phytoplanctoniques lié à l’augmentation des précipitations, impactant également la structure des communautés zooplanctoniques. Ainsi, ces résultats semblent indiquer que les précipitations interviennent au sein de deux processus, impactant différemment les communautés planctoniques : d’une part, une absence de précipitations participerait à la mise en place de mélanges hivernaux et à la fertilisation des eaux de surfaces au sein de bassin Ligure profitant à la rade de Toulon; d’autre part, les changements dans la composition phytoplanctonique ont évoqué la mise en place d’un processus d’eutrophisation durant les périodes pluvieuses, alimenté par les apports des rivières locales. En parallèle de cet aspect temporel, le suivi de la Petite et Grande Rade de Toulon caractérisés par un degré différent de la pression anthropique a permis, au cours d’une troisième partie, de tester le potentiel des compartiments phyto- et zooplanctoniques en tant qu’indicateur de l’augmentation de la pression anthropique. Cette étude a identifié une sensibilité accrue de la composition du zooplancton par rapport au phytoplancton. Enfin, des indicateurs de pression anthropique des zones côtières, basés sur les familles de copépodes, ont été proposés. / The growing development of urbanism and anthropogenic activities is source of increasing environmental pressure on marine coastal area and especially the Mediterranean Sea. Both human activities and climate change deeply impact marine ecosystems and particularly planktonic systems, which were sensitive to environmental change. However, the combined effect of these two processes on coastal systems functioning and structure over time remains poorly understood. Therefore, planktonic time series provide powerful tools for investigating the impacts of these perturbations. The PROTEE-EBMA laboratory planktonic time series from Toulon (France) are among the oldest from the Mediterranean Sea and provide records of effects for both natural and anthropogenic pressures on planktonic communities. In the context of global change, the present work aim to determine the role of these factors on dynamic and composition of phyto- and zooplankton in NW Mediterranean (Toulon, France). The first part focused on the role of vertical mixing in the Ligurian Sea as inter annual variation driver of the spring plankton bloom in Toulon Bay. The results revealed significant shifts in precipitation regime associated with salinity change into the Large Bay (Toulon) over the period 2005-2013. Same changes were observed into 2 Ligurian basin sites (”SOFCOM” and “Point B”). According to previous hypothesis, spring blooms of phytoplankton conditioned by dry autumns and winters were on average more intense than those from wet conditions. However, differences among sites highlighted importance of local drivers affecting phytoplanktonic dynamics. The second part aimed to investigate impact of precipitation and salinity changes on plankton composition. Results showed a dramatic change in phytoplankton community composition triggering by increasing precipitations and consequently lower salinity and subsequently leading to zooplankton community shifts. In addition, these results suggested that precipitation involved in two specific processes, affecting in a different manner the plankton communities: firstly, low precipitation could contribute on the triggering of winter mixing and thus in surface water fertilization of the Ligurian Basin impacting the Toulon Bays. On the other hand, phytoplankton community shifts also suggested a developing eutrophication processes in Toulon Bay during important precipitation periods driven by increasing local river inputs. In the third part, impact of anthropogenic pressure on both phyto- and zooplankton communities was investigated based on monitoring of two neighboring coastal systems characterized by distinct levels of human activities. Zooplankton communities showed higher sensibility to anthropogenic activities than phytoplankton communities. Finally, indicators of anthropogenic pressure based on copepod families were proposed.

Ne couvrant que 8% de l’océan mondial mais offrant 85% des ressources marines exploitées, les systèmes côtiers sont d’importantes plaques tournantes d’échanges de matières et d’énergie, jouant un rôle capital dans les cycles biogéochimiques. De plus, ces milieux sont marqués par une forte hétérogénéité spatio-temporelle des facteurs environnementaux, contribuant ainsi à leur complexité. Au cours des dernières décennies, les changements globaux s'exerçant sur ces systèmes sont devenus si intenses, que la mise en place de réseaux d'observation à long-terme est devenue cruciale afin d'extraire les grandes tendances et de prédire les changements potentiels. La question de l'identification de la réponse spécifique de ces zones d'interfaces littorales reste cependant posée. En France, le suivi des paramètres physiques et chimiques des eaux côtières est assuré depuis 1997 par le programme SOMLIT (Service d’Observation en Milieu LIToral). L'objectif de cette thèse est de donc caractériser l'évolution physico-chimique, à l'échelle décennale, des systèmes côtiers français et d'estimer les parts respectives de la variabilité naturelle et de l'influence anthropique. Dans un premier temps, l'analyse de ces séries chronologiques montre que les systèmes côtiers français présentent une variabilité temporelle importante, liée en partie aux fluctuations hydro-climatiques à méso-échelle, mais également à des échelles plus régionales. Dans un deuxième temps, le développement d'une nouvelle procédure multivariée non paramétrique, aboutissant à la construction d'états de référence relatifs et à la détection rapide des changements, permet de quantifier le phénomène de fertilisation en nutriments. Il est montré que la fertilisation peut être fortement influencée par le forçage climatique. Dans un troisième temps, après soustraction de la part de variabilité climatique naturelle, des indicateurs de fertilisation anthropique sont proposés, permettant la quantification de l'impact des activités humaines sur les systèmes côtiers français. Ce travail propose une nouvelle approche qui permet de détecter dès que les données deviennent accessibles les perturbations potentielles dans tous types de systèmes, avec plus particulièrement pour objectif de répondre aux attentes, scientifiques et sociétales, d'une gestion adaptée des milieux côtiers. / Covering only 8% of the World Ocean but with 85% of exploited marine resources, coastal systems are important areas for the exchange of materials and energy, playing a crucial role in biogeochemical cycles. Moreover, these environments are marked by strong spatial and temporal heterogeneity of environmental factors, contributing to their complexity. In recent decades, global change exerted on these systems has become so intense that the implementation of long-term monitoring programmes has become essential to extract major trends and predict potential changes. However, the identification of the specific response of these coastal systems remains posed. In France, monitoring of physical and chemical parameters of coastal waters is provided since 1997 by the programme SOMLIT (Service d'Observation en Milieu LITtoral). The aim of this PhD Thesis is therefore to characterize year-to-year variability in physic-chemical properties of the surface layer, at a decadal scale, of the French coastal systems, and to evaluate the respective influence of natural and anthropogenic variability. Firstly, the analysis of these time series shows that the French coastal systems exhibit significant temporal variability, due to hydro-climatic fluctuations at meso and regional scales. Secondly, the development of a new nonparametric multivariate procedure, resulting in the constitution of relative reference states for the rapid detection of changes, allows quantifying the fertilization in nutrient concentrations. Moreover, it is shown that fertilization can be strongly influenced by climate forcing. Thirdly, after the removal of natural climate variability, indicators of human fertilisation are proposed, allowing the quantification of the impact of human activities on French coastal systems. This study proposes a new approach to detect as soon as data become available, potential alterations in all types of systems, with the aim of meeting the scientific and societal assumptions and allowing the adaptive management of coastal environments.

The United States coastline contain some of the most valued ecological resources, the most populated urban areas, the most complex infrastructure systems, the most prolific economic engines, and the busiest ports of trade. However important the coastline may be to our nation, the history of our coastal communities suggests that they are extremely vulnerable to natural disasters, including hurricane landfall. There are many potential reasons for this vulnerability, and several of them are considered in this work. The common goal of research presented here is to better understand the hydrodynamic forces developed as hurricanes impact the coast so that the resulting effects on coastal resources can be better understood and managed, and vulnerability can be significantly minimized. This work begins with consideration of the hydraulic domain at the interface between inland riverine and coastal environments. Regulators, and therefore those being regulated, generally prefer to separate riverine systems from coastal systems in the design and analysis of coastal infrastructure. Although analysis is greatly simplified, important synergistic hydrodynamic effects are not considered which can have dramatic negative effects on the ability of infrastructure to withstand hurricane impact. Research continues by evaluating how society delineates the coastal flood hazard. Current methods apply a deterministic, steady-state approach to defining this highly dynamic feature influenced by multiple uncertain and variable parameters. By ignoring the variability inherent in the coastal floodplain, society is not able to correctly define the flood hazard, and therefore cannot fully asses the risk to which it is exposed. A methodology is presented to more realistically quantify the coastal flood hazard and to calculate an appropriate flood risk metric. Finally, this research considers the reliability of a coastal community's water distribution system under hurricane impact. By understanding system vulnerability and system interdependence, community leaders can provide more reliable infrastructure systems, thereby reducing the magnitude of disaster and shortening the recovery time. A methodology is presented to quantify the reliability of a water system under several hurricane impact scenarios.

To study the ecology of organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts, the changes in species composition, diversity, and seasonal variations of cyst flux in the sediment trap deployed in the Strait of Georgia (BC, Canada) were examined. The cyst production rate varied from ~600 to 336,200 cysts m-2 day-1, with an average of 20,000 cysts m-2 day-1. Throughout the study period (March, 1996 - January, 1999), cyst assemblages were mostly dominated by cysts produced by heterotrophic dinoflagellates, such as Protoperidineaceae (Brigantedinium spp., Quinquequspis concreta, and cysts of Protoperidinium americanum). Cysts produced by heterotrophic dinoflagellates peaked in June each year, whereas cysts produced by autotrophic taxa were most abundant during August-September. The total annual dinoflagellate cyst flux was higher in 1996 than in 1997 and 1998, being enhanced by the bloom of Alexandrium spp. The warmer sea-surface temperature in 1998 had a positive effect on the production of both autotrophic and heterotrophic dinoflagellates, as inferred from the cyst fluxes.

Les systèmes côtiers, où le transport sédimentaire est perturbé par les aménagements côtiers sur la côte et l’avant côte, fournissent généralement d'excellents exemples permettant de mettre en lumière ces liens. Cela est faisable lorsque l’ensemble des données bathymétriques d’avant-côte, qui ne sont pas toujours disponibles, sont recueillies au fil du temps. La baie et la ville d'Agadir forment ensemble un des pôles de développement économique le plus important de la côte atlantique du Maroc. En utilisant une approche méthodologique basée sur la modélisation de la houle et des courants, le différentiel de levées topo-bathymétriques, la détermination de l’évolution du trait de côte et le suivi topographique de la zone intertidale, nous mettons en évidence les liens étroits entre les variations des petits fonds et la ligne du trait de côte. Ces liens impliquent à la fois les voies de transport cross-shore et longshore, les variations du budget sédimentaire et la détermination de cellules sédimentaires. Nous avons également suivi l’évolution morphologique de la zone intertidale de la baie en réponse à huit tempêtes qui ont lieu entre Janvier 2014 et Mars 2014. Les résultats obtenus par les simulations numériques montrent que les deux premières tempêtes sont responsables des changements morphologiques majeurs au niveau de la zone intertidale. / Coastal systems where sediment transport is perturbed by engineering interventions on the shoreline and shoreface commonly provide fine examples liable to throw light on these links. This is especially so where shoreface bathymetric datasets, which are generally lacking, are collected over time, enabling more or less fine resolution of the meso-scale coastal sediment budget. Agadir Bay and the city of Agadir together form one of the two most important economic development poles on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Using a combined methodological approach based on wave–current modelling, bathymetric chart-differencing, determination of shoreline fluctuations, and beach topographic surveying, we highlight the close links between variations in the bed of the inner shoreface and the bay shoreline involving both cross-shore and longshore sand transport pathways, sediment budget variations and new sediment cell patterns. This work discusses also the morphological changes and evolution of Agadir Bay beach (Morocco) in response to eight storms between January 2014 and March 2014. A comparison is carried out of the evolution and variability of the beach in a sector of the bay protected by the commercial harbour of Agadir relative to a sector down drift of the harbour that is more exposed to waves, and changes affecting the beach following these storms are examined. Wave influence is evaluated using numerical simulations. The results show that despite being of relatively low intensity, the two first storm events, and especially storm 1, are responsible for major beach morphological changes.

Les systèmes côtiers pélagiques sont caractérisés par de multiples apports de matière organique particulaire (MOP) d’origine autochtone (phytoplancton) ou allochtone (continentale, benthique) dont la variabilité spatiale et temporelle peut être forte. L’objectif de ma thèse était 1) de quantifier la composition de la MOP des systèmes côtiers pélagiques, 2) de déterminer les forçages à sa dynamique spatio-temporelle et 3) d’investiguer le lien entre bactéries et composition de la MOP. Cette étude a été menée sur douze systèmes (estuaire, lagune, rias, baies, littoraux) distribués sur les trois façades maritimes françaises, en combinant rapports isotopiques et élémentaires (composition), acides gras (lien MOP-bactéries) et statistiques multivariées (forçages).A l’échelle multi-systémique et/ou intra-systémique, deux grands gradients sont observés :- un gradient côte (plus forte contribution continentale et benthique) – large (MOP phytoplanctonique), principalement lié à l’hydrodynamique sédimentaire (débits des fleuves, remise en suspension du matériel benthique) et à la proximité des sources allochtones- un gradient Sud (présence de MOP issue de la diazotrophie) – Nord (absence de cette MOP), en lien avec le statut trophique (oligo vs méso/eutrophie) des systèmes.La saisonnalité de la dynamique temporelle de la composition de la MOP est fortement variable selon les sites. Elle est généralement plus forte près de la côte et plus faible au large et en zone amont de l’estuaire étudié. Cette dynamique est également reliée à l’hydrodynamique sédimentaire.Enfin, l’étude a révélé que la biomasse bactérienne est principalement associée à la MOP continentale et benthique. / Pelagic coastal systems are characterized by multiple inputs of particulate organic matter (POM) from autochthonous (phytoplankton) and allochthonous (continental, benthic) origin whose spatial and temporal variability can be high. The aims of my PhD were to 1) quantify POM composition in pelagic coastal systems, 2) determine the forcings to its spatio-temporal dynamics and 3) investigate the link between bacteria and POM composition. This study was conducted on twelve systems (estuary, lagoon, bays, rias, littoral) distributed over the three maritime facades of France by combining the use of elemental and isotopic ratios (composition), fatty acids (POM-bacteria link) and multivariate analysis (forcings).At multi-systems and/or intra-system scale, two main gradients are observed:- an inshore (higher continental and benthic contribution) - offshore gradient (phytoplanktonic POM) mainly related to hydrodynamics and sedimentary hydrodynamics (river flow, resuspension of benthic material) and to the proximity to allochthonous sources- a South (POM related to diazotrophy) – North (absence of this POM) gradient, associated to the trophic status (oligo vs meso/eutrophy) of the studied systems.The seasonality of spatio-temporal dynamics of POM composition is highly variable depending on the station. It is in general higher near the coast and lower offshore and upstream in the studied estuary. This dynamic is also strongly associated to sedimentary hydrodynamics.Finally, this study highlight that bacterial biomass is mainly associated to continental and benthic POM.

[pt] A Lagoa de Marapendi integra, junto com as Lagoas de Camorim, de Jacarepaguá e da Tijuca, o Sistema Lagunar de Jacarepaguá que fica numa planície de mesmo nome localizada na zona oeste da cidade do Rio de Janeiro. Uma das características mais marcantes desse Sistema é sua proximidade com o mar, que o abastece por meio do Canal da Joatinga. Marapendi é a mais externa das três Lagoas, separando-se do mar apenas por um cordão arenoso de 9km de extensão e largura de cerca de 100m, onde está localizada a Praia da Reserva. O trabalho objetivou determinar se haveria aportes hídricos entre o mar e a Lagoa através do lençol nesse cordão, determinar se essa troca é pontual ou difusa, se é uniforme ou variada e quantificar sua influência no volume total da Lagoa. Para tal foram utilizados três diferentes grupos de traçadores. O primeiro foi a condutividade por ser mais convencional e com possibilidade de trabalho em campo, em seguida os isótopos estáveis da água (Delta D e Delta 18O) e por último os isótopos de Ra de meia-vida curta (223Ra e 224Ra), determinados pelo uso de RaDeCC – Radium Delayed Coincidence Counter. Como resultado conseguiu-se demonstrar que há um aporte pelo cordão e que ele é difuso e não uniforme. Também, pode-se demonstrar uma zona de elevada descarga no mesmo lugar onde foi observado um afloramento natural. Na quantificação desse aporte, em cálculos aproximados, considerando a água subterrânea no cordão e uma linha de base de Ra na entrada da Lagoa, determinou-se que esse aporte é cerca de 10 por cento do volume de água da Lagoa. / [en] Marapendi Lagoon forms, along with Camorim, Jacarepaguá and Tijuca Lagoon, the Jacarepaguá Lagoon System, located on a plain by the same name in Rio de Janeiro. This System its proximity to the sea that supplies it with water by Joatinga Canal. Marapendi is the most external off the three lagoons, being separated of the sea by just a sandspit of 9km of extension and about 100m wide, named Reserva Beach. The study aimed to determine if there was water contributions (SGD) between the sea and the lagoon through the groundwater in this spit, determine if this exchange is punctual or diffused and to quantify it s influence on the Marapendi volume. For such were used different geotracers as salinity, major ions in salt water, water s stable isotopes (Delta D and Delta 18O) and short half-life radium isotopes (223Ra and 224Ra), determined by RaDeCC – Radium Delayed Coincidence Counter. As a result, it was possible to demonstrate that there is a water contribution through the groundwater. It is also possible to demonstrate an elevated discharge zone on the same place where was observed a natural water outcrop. Quantifying this contribution in calculations considering the sandspit s underground water and a radium baseline on the lagoon s entrance it was determined that this contribution is approximated 10 percent of Marapendi volume, wich is a considerably representative amount.