CONDITIONS OF THE PERACARID POPULATIONS OF SUBTIDAL COMMUNITIES IN NORTHERN BRITTANY 10 YEARS AFTER THE AMOCO-CADIZ OIL-SPILL

Peracarid populations were greatly reduced in 1978 by oil from the Amoco Cadiz. Ten years after the spill, a benthic survey was conducted in the soft-bottom infralittoral communities of the bays of Morlaix and Lannion and the Aber Wrac'h channel to study the state of recovery of peracarid populations. Living in isolated populations in fine sand and muddy sand communities with low potential for immigration, the recolonization and the reconstitution of these perturbed populations was expected to be slow. The amphipod populations from the subtidal channel of Aber Wrac'h, which were initially the most affected by the oil spill were in the least advanced state of recovery. Some species present in abundance before the oil spill were not rediscovered. Nevertheless, ten years after the oil spill, most of the populations had completely recovered. © 1990.