Gérard Bellan

Use of an Annelid Pollution Index for monitoring a moderately polluted littoral zone

Abstract After two sampling surveys, in 1974–1975 and 1984, and with the use of an Annelid Pollution Index, the existence of a degraded Cystoseira stricta community has been established. The community studied was present on superficial rocky substrates on the French Mediterranean coast in unpolluted or moderately polluted zones although, for the latter, pollution reduction measures had been put into effect. The most polluted station in 1984 was close to the effluent of a coastal village sewage treatment plant.

Effects of an artificial stream on marine communities

Abstract A brackish lagoon near Marseilles now receives an erratic inflow of fresh water. The fauna and flora were studied before and after the construction of a canal which introduces the fresh water. Instead of the expected change from a marine-dominated to a brackish biota, a general impoverishment has resulted. Increasing urbanization and industrialization of the area is causing extensive deterioration of the coastal environment of which this lagoon forms a part.

An attempted pollution abatement in the Gulf of La Napoule (Cannes, France)

Abstract A benthic survey was carried out in 1973 at the servicing of a 1285 m long submarine pipe designed to achieve pollution abatement in the Gulf of La Napoule (Cannes, French Mediterranean coast) and repeated 4 years later (1977). This last survey points to a good recovery of benthic communities in the eastern part of the Gulf (off Cannes) but a severe change in the western part of the Gulf with the appearance, in a deposition area, of the species Scolelepis fuliginosa and Capitella capitata which are highly characteristic of polluted areas and which had not been sampled during the first survey.

Interlaboratory calibration experiments using the polychaetous annelid Capitella capitata

Abstract An interlaboratory calibration experiment was conducted at three laboratories to test two sources of variation associated with bioassay experiments, variation due to the experimenter and to the natural seawater. Twenty-eight day static (with frequent media renewal) bioassays exposing the polychaete Capitella capitata to cadmium were conducted with synthetic and natural seawaters. Test results varied between the three laboratories; however, the variations are most probably explained by the shipment of the experimental animals to the participating laboratories.

Long-term (1998–2010) large-scale comparison of the ecological quality status of gulf of lions (NW Mediterranean) benthic habitats

A comprehensive Mediterranean data set has been used to address 3 questions associated with the use of sensitivity/tolerance based biotic indices to infer the Ecological Quality status (EcoQs) of benthic habitats. Our results showed: (1) a significant effect of the reference database on derived sensitivity/tolerance measure (ES500.05) as well as associated Benthic Quality Index values and derived EcoQs; (2) a lack of correlation neither between BQI and AZTI Marine Biotic Index values nor between BQI and Multivariate-AZTI Marine Biotic Index values; (3) a lack of correlation between the values of the Benthic Habitat Quality Index (index derived from Sediment Profile Imagery) and those of either of the 3 tested biotic indices; and (4) a general agreement between the 3 tested biotic indices in describing the lack of global trend for the EcoQs of the Gulf of Lions despite the occurrence of significant changes in benthic macrofauna composition between 1998 and 2010.

The genus Lindaspio (Annelida: Polychaeta: Spionidae), and a new species from an oil field off Congo, western Africa

A new species of the genus Lindaspio (Polychaeta: Spionidae) is described from an oil field off Congo (tropical eastern Atlantic). Lindaspio sebastiena n. sp. is easily distinguished from the two other known species of Lindaspio, L. dibranchiata Blake and Maciolek (1992) and L. southwardorum Blake and Maciolek (1992), by the presence of a conical palp, the first noto-hooks beginning on setiger 55, the number of dorsal spines on setigers 2–4 and the absence of a caruncle. A new diagnosis of the genus is put forward, and the two spionid genera, Lindaspio and Scolecolepides, are discussed.

Lucien Laubier (1936–2008)

Lucien Laubier was born on 22 September 1936 at Lille (département Nord, France). At that time, his father was head of the Lycée de la ville. His mother was a former student of the École Normale Supérieure de Jeunes Filles of Sèvres near Paris. The sexes were not only strictly separated in the French ‘Grandes écoles’ of that time, but also in the highschools where Lucien’s parents were teaching. To me, Lucien seemed always very reserved about his childhood, a peculiarity which he kept also regarding himself and his relatives during his whole life. After getting his Licence des Sciences Naturelles at what was at that time the ‘Sorbonne’ in Paris, he obtained a position as Assistant des Facultés at the Laboratoire Arago in Banyuls-sur-Mer, the laboratory of marine biology of the university in Paris. From the beginning he showed a strong interest in polychaetes and, as Professor DelamareDebouteville, the future director of the Laboratoire Arago, told me two years later, he insisted all the time that the Faune de France was too imprecise for what he was finding. This was rather original, even revolutionary. Having arrived in Marseille in 1957, I did not wait to contact him. A certain rivalry existed at that time between the Laboratoire Arago and the Station Marine d’Endoume, tolerated or even supported by the respective directors of these institutions, the Professors P. Drach and J.M. Pérès, who were best friends. In my Thèse des Sciences Naturelles presented in 1964, I listed a higher number of polychaetes new to the Mediterranean than Lucien had found at that time. In 1966, Laubier presented a Thèse de Doctorat des-Sciences on ‘Le Coralligène des Albères’, which was sensational because of the subject, the methods used and the results. Of course, our two respective bosses were members of the jury. In fact, our collaboration started more or less at this time, although I moved away for the troubled waters of ports and sewage pipes. It took 38 years before we became co-authors on a paper, a period of time which astonishes me still today! After his PhD thesis, Lucien, who had all the prerequisites to become a famous zoologist, concentrated even more on the systematics of polychaetes. He took several students who, under his guidance, became rather skilled, but unfortunately too few continued in this field. We can easily imagine Lucien taking the hierarchical steps in the French university system, until in 1969 he left Banyuls and was involved in the creation of the Centre d’Océanographie de Bretagne. This centre, established by the Centre National d’Exploitation des Océans (CNEXO), fused in 1984 with the old Institut Scientifique et Technique des Pêches Maritimes (ISTPM) to become the Institut Français pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER). IFREMER cannot be ignored, since it was due to Lucien’s personal effort and with the help of our colleague, D. Desbruyères, that it brought to science one of the most remarkable contributions regarding polychaetes, namely those of the hydrothermal vents. At that time, IFREMER was able to explore, very often in collaboration with our colleagues from the US or Japan, the enormous scientific potential of this habitat which revolutionized our knowledge about the bathyal and abyssal zones. Of course, Lucien was not only the first to describe polychaetes at the CNEXO and later at IFREMER. In 1984, with only modest aid of the CNRS but with the enthusiastic support of many scientists within this institution, he created the research group ‘Ecoprophyse’, which contributed so efficiently to