Benthic biocenoses of the Bay of La Ciotat

This mapping of the biocenosis in the sector of the Ciotat (Capuchin cove on the west edge of Défens east, to the bathymetric boundary of 35m) represents phase 1 of the study conducted by the General Council of Bouches-du-Rhône on the heritage in the surrounding areas of the departmental l'Ile Verte (Green Island) and Mugel.

All information collected on marine biotic communities of the Bay of La has helped to highlight the main evolutionary population trends in place, but also to identify gaps in terms of knowledge, including previous work in this sector.

This mapping is a synthesis of existing data associated with the processing of aerial photographs (BDORTHO IGN 1998), sonograms (campaign POSICART 2000) and recent video images. It incorporates the data on the bay of St-Cyr-sur-Mer (Var) from a study of the Posidonia Herbarium: " Cartographie des biocénoses marines de la baie de Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer. Volet n°1 : l'Herbier à Posidonia océanica", February 2003, Agence de l'eau RM&C, Région PACA, DIREN PACA, Gis Posidonie, Ifremer, Centre d'Océanologie de Marseille.

The reference used of the coastline is unique to the study, probably from digitized aerial photographs and various campaigns in the sector.