Littoral zone of Southern Brittany
(Brackish waters)
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°Introduction
Estuaries,
as well as rias, correspond to arms of the sea penetrating in a river
valley until the superior limit where the tide provokes a rise of the
water level. These mouths are places of accumulation of sediments of
river origin, which feed intertidal mud flats (slikke) appearing
as almost flat, grey and gleaming areas.
The slikke is also present in the submersible salty swamps where the schorre represents then the part dressed in a vegetable coverage, covered only during the high spring water tides.
In estuaries, the tide presents a dynamic constituent which corresponds to the penetration of the wave of tide and a salt constituent corresponding to the raid of the sea water. This last one induces a gradient of the salinity. In the salty swamps, often gone through by one or several brooks, the effect is the same although it is less marked. Animals and plants presents in estuaries and salty swamps thus have to be euryhaline, that is that they have to support variations of salinity of big amplitude. Indeed, in brackish waters, the species of marine origin tend to loss essential body salts whereas those of dulcicole origin tend to dehydrate. Besides the variations of salinity, the species living in these intertidal areas undergo violent variations of the illumination and the temperature.
In the South of Finistere, the triangle Bénodet-Quimper-Fouesnant presents one ria -that of the river Odet- with three long digitations, a salty swamp -the Mer Blanche- gone through by a little consequent brook and presenting a schorre rich in puddles reached by the sea at the time of the high water spring tides, and a micro-estuary -the Anse de Penfoulic- gone through by waters from a ground marsh. It seemed to me interesting to try to establish an inventory of the epipelic diatoms (living on the mud) presents on these areas.
The slikke is also present in the submersible salty swamps where the schorre represents then the part dressed in a vegetable coverage, covered only during the high spring water tides.
In estuaries, the tide presents a dynamic constituent which corresponds to the penetration of the wave of tide and a salt constituent corresponding to the raid of the sea water. This last one induces a gradient of the salinity. In the salty swamps, often gone through by one or several brooks, the effect is the same although it is less marked. Animals and plants presents in estuaries and salty swamps thus have to be euryhaline, that is that they have to support variations of salinity of big amplitude. Indeed, in brackish waters, the species of marine origin tend to loss essential body salts whereas those of dulcicole origin tend to dehydrate. Besides the variations of salinity, the species living in these intertidal areas undergo violent variations of the illumination and the temperature.
In the South of Finistere, the triangle Bénodet-Quimper-Fouesnant presents one ria -that of the river Odet- with three long digitations, a salty swamp -the Mer Blanche- gone through by a little consequent brook and presenting a schorre rich in puddles reached by the sea at the time of the high water spring tides, and a micro-estuary -the Anse de Penfoulic- gone through by waters from a ground marsh. It seemed to me interesting to try to establish an inventory of the epipelic diatoms (living on the mud) presents on these areas.
Porz guen mud flat on the left bank of Odet
Material and method
From february 2000 to May 2004, samples were collected, all the year round, on the 4 following stations :- ¨Porz Guen¨ : mud flat on the left bank of the river Odet, in 3 km upstream to the ¨Pointe de Combrit¨ (free sea) (7 samples),
- ¨Anse Saint Cadou¨ : mud flat 12 km upstream to the ¨Pointe de Combrit¨ and in 2 km of the main course of the river Odet ; this digitation of the
- ¨Anse Saint Cadou¨ : mud flat 12 km upstream to the ¨Pointe de Combrit¨ and in 2 km of the main course of the river Odet ; this digitation of the
valley is gone through by a brook (11 samples),
- ¨Mer Blanche¨ : slikke and puddles on the schorre, 1 to 2,5 km from the entry of the swamp (10 samples),
- ¨Anse de Penfoulic¨ : mud flat in 1 km of the entry of this small estuary (10 samples).
- ¨Anse de Penfoulic¨ : mud flat in 1 km of the entry of this small estuary (10 samples).
The 3-4 first mm of the sediment were taken in a dozen points (50 ml Falcon tubes). In some cases, the mud deposited on stones or dead wood was also collected. The samples were then diluted and shaken several times. Diatoms were separated from the sediment by 2 or 3 differential sedimentations and stored in the presence of 2 % formalin. After the frustules were prepared according to Loir (2004), the taxa present in every sample were identified.
Results
Total specific diversity :The 38 samples collected on the 4 stations have allowed to list a total of 221 species.
Le number of species found on every station was :
Pors Guen : 77
Penfoulic : 61
Mer Blanche : 69
St Cadou : 113
Penfoulic : 61
Mer Blanche : 69
St Cadou : 113
For each of the 4 stations, the percentage of species common to all the 3 others was of:
Porz Guen : 36 %
Penfoulic : 60 %
Mer Blanche : 53 %
St Cadou : 44 %
Penfoulic : 60 %
Mer Blanche : 53 %
St Cadou : 44 %
Composition of the diatom assemblage
We have not realized a quantitative study allowing to identify the dominant species. Only was considered the number of species for the genera represented by at least 4 species in one of the 4 stations:| Genera | Porz guen | Penfoulic | Mer Blanche | Saint Cadou | 4 stations |
| Amphora | 5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 12 |
| Caloneis | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 7 |
| Cocconeis | 5 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 7 |
| Diploneis | 0 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 14 |
| Gyrosigma | 6 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 12 |
| Lyrella | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 8 |
| Navicula | 7 | 5 | 9 | 10 | 19 |
| Nitzschia | 7 | 3 | 7 | 19 | 29 |
| Pinnularia | 0 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 9 |
| Stauroneis | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
| Surirella | 2 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 11 |
| Synedra | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
The
species present in the 4 stations are inevitably more or less
euryhaline. The some are generally met in sea (¨marine species
¨), whereas the others are present usually in fresh water
(¨dulcicole species ¨, see Diatoms of the fresh waters) ; Some ones (¨brackish
species¨) are considered as living in brackish waters (or in very
mineralized continental waters). These three types of species divided
up as follows in the 4 stations (in percentages):
| ¨ marine species¨ | ¨brackish species¨ | ¨dulcicole species¨ | |
| Porz Guen | 85 | 5 | 10 |
| Penfoulic | 78 | 7 | 15 |
| Mer Blanche | 70 | 8 | 22 |
| St Cadou | 46 | 4 | 50 |
Sixty five species are illustrated : Gallery, Littoral zone
Five non-identified taxa are illustrated : Littoral zone, non-identified taxa
Some taxa were photographed in vivo
Conclusion
Since Carter (1932), several studies dealed with the epipelic diatom flora of the littoral zones of Western Europa (Round 1960, Hendey 1964, Malissen 1973, Riaux et Germain 1980 ; see Bibliography). In the studied brackish zones (estuaries, mud flats, salt marshes), the number of epipelic species varies around 50 in hundred. The specific variety of the diatom flora of the 4 stations that we have considered is of the same order. Most of the species we have listed are characteristic of brackish littoral zones.We have not realized maesurements of salinity. Nevertheless, the differences observed by the proportion of marine diatoms and dulcicole diatoms in the 4 stations are coherent with 1) the situation of the stations with regard to the free sea and 2) with the relative importance of the contributions of fresh water. Notably, it is likely that St Cadou mud flat, where 50 % of the species are dulcicole species, undergoes salinity much weaker than that of Porz Guen where 85 % of the species are marine species. As for both swamps of Mer Blanche and of Penfoulic, they constitute intermediate situations. Let us mention that in a ditch fed by a source, situated in the Anse St Cadou, 26 (93 %) of the 28 diatom species listed were dulcicole species and 2 were brackish water species.