Under the joint impetus of the Agence de l’eau Rhône Méditerranée Corse, the University of Montpellier and a joint laboratory funded by the ANR between the MARBEC Research Unit and the company SpyGen, the BioDivMed 2023 Mission will carry out a synchronised and standardised inventory of living organisms on the French Mediterranean coast and the Pelagos sanctuary using environmental DNA (eDNA). This unprecedented and exemplary partnership in the service of marine biodiversity also involves Andromède Océanologie, the Vigilife alliance and two philanthropic associations from Nice: OceanoScientific and We are Méditerranée.
This exceptional operation will make it possible to map marine biodiversity in the French Mediterranean for the first time, on a fine scale and synchronously, from the coastal zone, including lagoons, river mouths and ports, to the Pelagos sanctuary between Corsica and the mainland.
700 DNA samples over 2,000 kilometres
The aim of the BioDivMed Mission?
To determine and better understand the occurrence of species of fish, crustaceans and marine mammals, and then establish a true fine-scale map of marine biodiversity. To achieve this, environmental DNA (eDNA) technology will be used to carry out a standardised inventory of the Mediterranean in four synchronised sampling campaigns: over a period of four months, more than 700 eDNA filtrations will be carried out in marine and brackish waters covering more than 2,000 kilometres.
eDNA metabarcoding is a new technology that makes it possible to inventory aquatic biodiversity via the DNA traces left by species in their environment. The filtration and analysis of eDNA enables the detection of a large number of species and therefore has great potential for developing a new generation of indicators of the state of health of marine waters under human impact or protection measures.
“Never before has such a synchronised and standardised inventory of marine biodiversity been undertaken in France.”
This unprecedented effort is the result of the collaboration and synergy of four oceanographic campaigns planned this year between May and August 2023:
- PISCIS, a campaign to monitor the health of Posidonia meadows and coralligenous beds, which is being implemented by Andromède océanologie on behalf of the French Water Agency ;
- PIAF, a study of marine life on loose and sandy substrates, coordinated by the University of Montpellier ;
- The OceanoScientific expedition, which will sail along the Mediterranean coast from the Italian border to the Spanish border to collect samples of eDNA; to inform and raise awareness of the issues surrounding the ocean and its biodiversity by carrying out the SEA & TRADE Tour of the FAçade Méditerranéenne EXemplaire – FAMEX 2030 programme;
- The Pelagos expedition of the We are Méditerranée association, which aims to study marine life in the pelagic zone, in particular that of the Pelagos sanctuary, a marine protected area (SPAMI) designed to protect marine mammals in a triangle comprising the French and Italian continents and including Corsica at its apex.
Thanks to this cooperation, an initial map of marine biodiversity (10-kilometre resolution) will be made available to all coastal and marine stakeholders and managers on the MEDTRIX and Vigilife Maps mapping platforms in 2024.
Key dates in the BioDivMed 2023 Mission :
- 27 April 2023: Launch of the PIAF programme from Carnon
- 9 May 2023: Launch of the Pelagos expedition from the port of Nice
- 20 May 2023: Launch of the OceanoScientific Expedition from Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône
- 6 June 2023: Launch of the PISCIS programme from Carnon
- 8 June* 2023: Presentation of the BioDivMed 2023 Mission in Montpellier in the presence of partners and the press
- 8 June* 2024: Presentation of the final results and a map of French Mediterranean marine biodiversity
* June 8 is World Oceans Day
eDNA: an innovative technique for surveying marine biodiversity
Until now, marine fauna has mainly been monitored using techniques such as fishing, visual surveys by diving and underwater cameras, and acoustics. However, these techniques are invasive and even destructive, and are not exhaustive, as many species are not detected because they are stealthy, too small or rare.
Environmental DNA (eDNA) is a new technology that makes it possible to inventory aquatic biodiversity via DNA traces taken from the environment. All species constantly secrete fluids and cells containing DNA that can persist in the environment for several hours. These eDNA traces are used to identify all the species in a given taxonomic group present in the environment studied using a metabarcoding technique. For more information on the technology: https://www.vigilife.org/en/our-technologies/
The partners
This project is fully in line with the strategy of the University of Montpellier, which aims to bring together a scientific, institutional and economic community to respond to three major and interdependent challenges, aligned with the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 on sustainable development goals and the Paris Agreement on climate change: Feed, Care, Protect.
Our project is at the interface of the Feed and Protect challenges, as the sea is a source of food whose sustainable exploitation must be ensured through protection and management measures. This dual challenge is also central to the MARBEC laboratory, whose main objective is to reconcile the exploitation and conservation of marine biodiversity.
The Agence de l’Eau (Water Agency) is a public establishment under the supervision of the Ministry of the Environment, whose mission is to restore the good status of water and aquatic environments. In application of the ‘polluter pays’ principle, it collects taxes paid by all users: households, local authorities, industry and farmers, according to the volumes they withdraw and the pollution they discharge. The money collected in this way is reinvested in local authorities, industry, farmers and associations working to improve the quality of water and the environment: improving wastewater systems, reducing pollution by toxic substances, saving and sharing water, restoring water quality in catchments degraded by diffuse pollution (pesticides and nitrates), preserving strategic resources for drinking water, restoring the natural functioning of rivers, marine environments and degraded or threatened wetlands… The water agency acts within the framework of a 2019-2024 intervention programme that sets the main priorities for action over 6 years. The agency has an annual aid capacity of around €440 million and employs 330 people.
SPYGEN is a company with a mission specialising in rare environmental DNA. The first company in the world to offer environmental DNA expertise since its creation in 2011, SpyGen develops and deploys the most effective methods possible in this field to carry out programmes to inventory and monitor over time the aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity of all groups of living organisms. In marine environments, the studies and scientific expeditions carried out by SpyGen and its partners in the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic oceans have demonstrated the performance of environmental DNA methods for monitoring biodiversity, particularly megafauna. In 2021, in collaboration with several international public and private partners, SpyGen launched the Vigilife multi-stakeholder platform, which aims to set up a global observatory for monitoring biodiversity using its environmental DNA technologies and to improve our knowledge of all living things.
Since 2021, MARBEC and SPYGEN have set up a joint laboratory or LabCom (Diagnostic ADN environnemental des Milieux Marins: Diag-ADNe), funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR), which serves as a catalyst for the development of new tools to remove methodological barriers but also support a new long-term joint (industrial and academic) strategy with the aim of asserting leadership in a fast-growing field.
Andromède Océanologie is an SME founded in 2008 by Laurent Ballesta, Pierre Descamp and Florian Holon. Its objectives are to conduct all kinds of projects relating to the study and enhancement of the marine environment, to combine science and images and to raise awareness of the richness and fragility of the marine environment.
Andromède Océanologie’s activities focus on three main areas, with constant innovation:
- Imagery: scientific expeditions, films, books and photos, with over 25,000 images taken by Laurent Ballesta, an internationally renowned diver and underwater photographer;
- Biological monitoring and habitat mapping. Andromède is responsible for several networks for monitoring the ecological status of coastal waters.
- Ecological engineering: management and restoration of marine ecosystems, support, consultancy, expertise, etc.
Andromède Océanologie’s latest achievements include the MEDTRIX mapping platform, which makes available the results of various coastal water monitoring projects, most of the maps of coastal marine biocenoses in the French Mediterranean and the continuous mapping (1: 10,000) and their regular updating (DONIA Expert project), the mapping of coastal pressures/activities (IMPACT project), the DONIA community smartphone and tablet application to help yachting at sea, the transplantation of 500 m² of seagrass during the extension of the DONIA