| Introduction and objectives of the study: Understanding the operating modes of the coastline systems requires the study of the hydrodynamics responsible for transporting the whole of the geobiological compartments of which they are composed. The idea of maintaining a close connexion between the physics, biology, geology and chemistry of the oceans is not new, and was for that matter the subject of a note in the first report of the International Council for the Study of the Oceans (ICSS) in 1902 (Sverdrup et al., 1954): ... it was seen from the beginning that the study of the physical conditions, of the chemical nature of the ocean waters, of the currents, etc., was of the greatest importance for the investigation of the problems connected with life, that... |
