In France, REPHY (Observation and Surveillance Network for Phytoplankton and Hydrology in coastal waters) and REPHYTOX (Monitoring Network for Phycotoxins in marine organisms) have been contributing to long-term time series on ocean health for more than 30 years. The aim of this paper is to describe these networks and to highlight their key results. Over the last 20 years, phytoplankton flora analysis on French coasts from the Channel to Mediterranean has shown that the five “emblematic” taxa are Chaetoceros, Skeletonema, Cryptophyceae, Leptocylindrus and Pseudo-nitzschia. The latter, together with the taxa of interest Dinophysis + Phalacroma, Alexandrium, and Karenia, have been consistently recorded along the entire French coastline. However, when taking... |