| Since 25 years, an increasing number of beaches and coves along the Britanny coast are invaded from spring until autumn by proliferating green macroalgae (free ulvae, fixed enteromorphae). This typical case of eutrophication, which has been well studied in the bays of Saint-Brieuc, Lannion, Douarnenez and Brest, could be explained by the conjunction of a natural containment of shallow water masses with a recent enrichment of them by nitrate river loadings. In the naturally confined sites, field measurements of summer biomass showed a good correlation with the spring nitrate river loadings ; furthermore, the summer rarefaction of these loadings explains the fall of the nitrogen content of the ulvae, which induces the summer stop of the algal growth. The... |
