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MEPS 408:129-148 (2010)  -  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08564

Climate-driven changes in coastal marine systems of western Europe

Eric Goberville1,2,*, Grégory Beaugrand1,3, Benoit Sautour2, Paul Tréguer4, SOMLIT Team5

1Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences, UMR CNRS 8187 (LOG), 28 avenue Foch, 62930 Wimereux, France
2Université Bordeaux I – Laboratoire d’Océanographie Biologique UMR CNRS 5805, Rue du Pr Jolyet, 33120 Arcachon, France
3Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, Lille 1, France
4Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer, UMS CNRS 3113, Université Européenne de Bretagne, Technopole Brest-Iroise, Place Nicolas Copernic, 29280 Plouzané, France
5Coordinators of the team in 2009: Pascal Claquin and Sébastien Lefebvre (Luc-sur-mer), Eva Bucciarelli and Jacques Guillou (Brest), Pascal Morin (Roscoff), Laure Mousseau (Villefranche-sur-Mer), Patrick Raimbault (Marseille), Nicolas Savoye (Arcachon), Sami Souissi (Wimereux), Renaud Vuillemin and Stéphane Blain (Banyuls)

ABSTRACT: Coastal marine systems, the interface between the ocean and terrestrial realms, are among the most important systems on the planet both ecologically and economically because of their crucial role in earth system functioning. Although direct impacts of human activities on physical, chemical and biological components of these systems have been widely documented, the potential influence of climate variability is less well known. Here, we used data from Service d’Observation en Milieu Littoral (SOMLIT), a marine monitoring programme that has since 1997 collected samples at 12 sites located along the French coasts from 42° to 51°N. Applying standardised principal component analysis (PCA), we documented the year-to-year fluctuations in these coastal systems and evaluated the potential influence of climate variability using data on atmospheric circulation (wind intensity and direction), precipitation and temperature. Our study revealed a pronounced sensitivity of these systems to climate variability. As the impact of climate change may become more prominent in the next decades, this study suggests that climate might strongly influence the marine coastal environment and act in synergism with other anthropogenic pressures to alter the state and functioning of biological and ecological systems and the services they provide.


KEY WORDS: Coastal systems · Climate change · SOMLIT · Anthropogenic impact · Multivariate analyses


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Cite this article as: Goberville E, Beaugrand G, Sautour B, Tréguer P, SOMLIT Team (2010) Climate-driven changes in coastal marine systems of western Europe. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 408:129-148. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps08564

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