Abstract
The project looks at waterways in the Escaut catchment area, in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. Although these waterways are followed, in the framework of the European Framework Directive, for physicochemical factors and some biological indices (phytoplankton, macro-invertebrates...), nothing, to our knowledge, is known on the zooplankton diversity. As zooplankton plays a key role in the functioning of aquatic ecosystems, we suggest carrying out a first inventory of the zooplankton abundance and diversity on 9 stations upstream and 3 stations downstream of the Escaut catchment area. We will build on stations followed by the Artois-Picardie Water Agency for phytoplankton. Given the high level of metal contamination in the region, particular attention will be paid to the study of a broad range of metal contaminants compared to those followed by the European Framework Directive, and especially to their behaviour in relation to suspended matter (fractionation and bioavailability). The phytoplankton in this suspended matter being a food source for zooplankton, the comparison between the phytoplankton present in the water and in the zooplankton’s intestine through (intestinal) pigment dosage will provide us with information on the sites’ nutritional potential for zooplankton. The zooplankton’s morphological and reproductive condition will also be measured on individuals collected on the field. For some key species, the response to stress conditions will be tested using culture methods.
France