The Help2Lib project aims to better understand the impacts of the multiple crises in Lebanon (COVID-19, economic, explosion of the port of Beirut, oil spill) on Lebanese coastal fisheries and marine habitats through an inventory and the implementation of 'actions to restore essential habitats such as nurseries. This will notably involve better understanding the changes in the behavior of Lebanese artisanal fishermen in connection with the crises and helping to improve their income in the long term and make their activity more sustainable by reducing environmental impacts. This work should help prioritize environmental needs, as well as improve the development of indicators for assessing the ecological state of coastal systems. It could also help to better apply and coordinate management measures at an appropriate scale for ecosystem conservation.

The quantification of suspended matter concentrations and fluxes is a major challenge in order to better understand the role of coastal areas in the storage and transfer of matter to the deep ocean. These materials concern the elements of biogeochemical cycles (C, N, P, P, Si,...) but also the organic materials, nutrients and contaminants that control and influence the functioning of coastal ecosystems. These material fluxes occur mainly during intense meteorological events (floods and storms) from the catchment areas to the coastal zone where they are temporarily stored and then exported by currents and tides. However, there are very few measurements of these fluxes during intense events and are mainly derived from measurements from satellite images, buoys and other fixed anchorages. The ASTRID-MATURATION "MELANGE" project (real-time Measurement of sEdiment fLuxes in coAstal zoNe using GlidErs) is a follow-up to the ASTRID "MATUGLI" project (autonomous Measurements of coAstal TUrbidity using GLIders) during which was developed a prototype glider for autonomous turbidity measurements. Within the framework of the MELANGE project, it is planned to make this prototype more reliable with the help of an industrialist (ALSEAMAR) and an PME (CENTRALWEB) in order to produce a tool capable of measuring and transmitting measurements of current, turbidity and in fine material fluxes at various spatial (from metre to hundred kilometres) and temporal (from second to several months) scales of the coastal zone. This tool could eventually be used to monitor coastal water quality under the Water Framework Directive and the Marine Environment Strategy Framework Directive for marine parks, for example, and to monitor underwater current and visibility for military applications, but these data will also be used to feed hydrodynamic models for coastal forecasting.

All multicellular organisms harbour a microbiota that plays a role that is still sometimes poorly known but crucial for many functions of their hosts, especially in relation to their pathogens. We have recently shown that the bacterial community of the external mucus of teleost fish is involved in the relationship with their monogenean ectoparasites. With the MONAMI project, we will better understand through a laboratory approach whether the modification of the microbiota is a cause or a consequence of the presence of monogeneans, and whether the molecules that attract these ectoparasites are of bacterial origin. We will also monitor the response of the microbiota and the holobiont to parasitic infection through a multi-omics approach. Using teleost fish of commercial interest, the red porgy (Pagrus pagrus) and the golden sea bream (Sparus aurata), we will conduct experimental approaches to study for the first time how parasite attraction is modulated by hosts with characterised microflora, as well as the transcripts and metabolites they produce. The MONAMI project will provide an understanding of how the microbiota influences the relationship between ectoparasites and their hosts, paving the way for the development of new antiparasitic treatments.

Biomass burning (BB) and wildfire-produced atmospheric particles are significant contributors to global atmospheric particulate matter, with strong impacts on ecosystems, public health and climate. Yet these impacts are highly uncertain, largely owing to our inability to track BB particulate matter and its evolution throughout ecosystems. Despite that BB particles are the major concern of several international programs and projects their marine dimension has been largely neglected. FIRETRAC is the first attempt that aims to shed light on BB and wildfire-produced atmospheric particles dynamics in marine waters and establish their link with the marine biological carbon pump (BCP). Such information is of great importance as it will give a very strong evidence if BB associated molecules (BB tracers such as anhydrosugars and polyaromatic hydrocarbons or PAHs) have the potential to be rapidly mineralized, and thus re-injected to C–cycle as CO2, or stored for several thousands of years in the dissolved organic matter (DOM) pool/or marine sediments. This will help to improve the global modeling on BB particles (transfer from air to sea and further fate at sea), improve carbon budgets with respect to CO2 emissions, and thus provide better estimates on possible local or global climate variations. FIRETRAC will provide the necessary breakthroughs in our understanding of BB particles dynamics in the marine environment by: (a) measuring anhydrosugar and PAHs concentrations over a 2-year period in the air at 2 contrasted land sites (urban and remote) and the sea in 3 marine stations located a few Km offshore the North Western Mediterranean coast. Analyses will be performed in total suspended particles, seawater, surface sediments and high molecular weight dissolved organic matter obtained after ultrafiltration. (b) performing radiocarbon dating (i.e. D14C) and d13C analysis on individual anhydrosugars isolated from the above matrices which will provide valuable information regarding their fate and sources in seawater. (c) assessing the bioavailability of BB particles performing biodegradation experiments on model BB compounds (e.g., levoglucosan, pyrene) under the presence of heterotrophic marine bacteria. Such information is complementary to molecular level D14C measurements as it provides in a short time scale the behavior of the same compounds in marine waters which is not feasible with D14C (half life 5730 yr). The results obtained from the 2-year monitoring will used for modeling to assess the transfer of BB particles from the atmosphere prior their deposition to sea. The project involves state–of–the–art instrumentation such as EA-AixMICADAS for radiocarbon dating, EA–IRMS for d13C analyses, LC–Q–TOF–MS for anhydrosugar analysis, and GC–MS for PAHs including flow cytometry and PCR for microbiological measurements. Overall, “FIRETRAC” involves 3 French institutional partners: MIO, CEREGE and CEFREM in collaboration with the EPFL (Switzerland). The strength of the consortium resides on the complementary of the team which assembles marine and atmospheric chemists, marine bio– and microbiologists, and geochemists. The expertise of this “interdisciplinary community” will be put together in an effort to obtain a complete picture of how environmental pressures (natural or anthropogenic) issued from the BB and wildfires particles may impact the composition of the Mediterranean atmosphere and what is the fate of their major compounds (anhydrosugars and PAHs) in the Mediterranean Sea (e.g., impact on BCP, accumulation or degradation ?). FIRETRAC is a valuable contribution to the SOLAS program and fully in line with the CHARMEX and MERMEX scientific programs for the Mediterranean Sea. Considering the increasing occurrence of wildfires, along with the emissions from fossil fuels, accurate prediction of the climate effects requires a better understanding of marine BCP functioning in relation with BB processes.

The main objective of the INTERACTION project, which fits with the One Health concept, is not only to improve the knowledge about the effects of an emerging contaminant on wildlife, but also to study its impact in combination with a biotic stressor on animal. This project will focus on the endangered species, Anguilla anguilla, experimentally exposed to realistic doses of bisphenol S as abiotic contaminant, and infected with the invasive nematode Anguillicola crassus (level of infection in accordance to our epidemiological data on European eels from Mediterranean lagoons). Bisphenol S (BPS), first presented originally as an environmentally-friendly alternative to BPA for a wide range of uses (additive to thermal paper and to dyes agents, a component of phenolic resins), is becoming an emerging environmental contaminant of concern. As the use of BPS as a BPA alternative grows, there is an urgent need to increase our understanding of the potential adverse effects of BPS under realistic conditions, in combination with biological stressors such as pathogens and parasites. The nematode parasite A. crassus, introduced in Europe in the early 1980s with imported Japanese eels, is recognized to negatively impact the European eels (A. anguilla). As we hypothesize that the combined effect of biotic and abiotic stressors affect eel physiology and decrease their fitness, compromising their ability to migrate and to reproduce, we consider that the impact of an emerging pollutant (BPS) in combination with an invasive parasite (A. crassus) constitutes a lack of knowledge that remains to be fulfilled. To reach the objective of the INTERACTION project, we will use a pluralistic approach to obtain an integrative view of the combined effects induced, through experimental controlled contaminations, on different processes (modifications of the microbiome, metabolome, transcriptome, peptidome, proteome). The expected results concern the identification of the main biological pathways of fish impacted by the multifactorial stress targeted in the project. At the swim bladder scale, we will also use an innovative approach in this field of research, MALDI mass spectrometry-based imaging, to reveal the local expression of the peptidome (histo-peptidomics) within the wall of this target organ in response to the developing parasite. As the mucus layer of the skin is the first barrier to the external environment for fish, continuously exposed to biotic and abiotic stressors, it appears relevant to explore the interrelationships between gene expression, metabolite production and variations in microbial community variations induced by BPS or/and A. crassus in this key protective barrier and to characterize biomarkers in order to provide a non-invasive proxy for the monitoring of eel’s health status. INTERACTION is an ambitious transdisciplinary project, conducted by a scientific consortium of high expertise, based on a relevant experimental approach with a pertinent biological model and using a wide range of high-end techniques.