Launch of the French-Vietnamese oceanographic campaign “PLUME”

With an increasing world population and associated anthropogenic discharges also growing, as well as a perturbed hydrological cycle under climate change, a better knowledge and understanding of the riverine transport of natural and anthropogenic materials, their distribution and fate along the river-estuary-ocean continuum has become a major issue. The Vietnamese coastal environment and its riverine systems are important at the scale of South East Asia but also at the global scale, crystallizing all the environmental and socio-economic issues related to riverine discharges under monsoon climate and strong human pressure.

 
In this context, more than thirty French and Vietnamese scientists will take turns during the five legs and four stopovers of the PLUME oceanographic campaign to study river plumes (the surface tongue of turbid and less saline waters entering the sea at river mouths and floating over tens of kilometers) and their impact on the water quality and functioning of the coastal ocean. The team will carry out activities on board the Antea as diverse as the collection of water, sediments, benthic microorganisms, plankton, fish larvae, microplastics, measurements of physical, physico-chemical and optical parameters, tracking of drifting buoys, and altimeter measurements, all using an arsenal of cutting-edge scientific instruments and equipment. The spatial scales of studies will encompass from gene analysis (to estimate the resistance to antibiotics) to sea level variability (to better interpret their measurements by satellite in coastal waters).

The main scientific objectives of PLUME are to:

• evaluate the variability of estuarine hydro-sedimentary processes and improve the knowledge on mechanisms and processes acting in mixing zones; 
• investigate the transport, dispersion and evolution of the water masses and of their content in dissolved and particulate matters;
• determine the concentrations, distribution, potential sources and fluxes of various natural and anthropogenic materials (including nutrients, metals, mercury, emerging contaminants, black carbon, microplastics…) during the mixing of freshwaters into sea waters;
• determine the abundance, productivity and diversity of planktonic organisms, mainly bacterio- and phytoplankton, along the salinity gradient from rivers to the coastal ocean;
• estimate the effect of human activities on coastal ecosystems.

Several organizations contribute directly to the financing of PLUME, including the IRD, the FOF-IFREMER, through the provision of the ship and its crew Genavir, the VAST, the CNRS and Pure Ocean. 

The main French laboratories involved: LEGOS (Laboratoire d'Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales, CNES/CNRS/IRD/Université Toulouse Paul Sabatier), MIO (Institut Méditerranée d’Océanologie, Aix-Marseille Univ/CNRS/IRD/Université de Toulon), IGE (Institut de Géosciences de l’Environnement, CNRS/INRAE/IRD/Université Grenoble Alpes), LOG (Laboratoire d’Océanologie et de Géosciences, CNRS/Université de Lille / Université Littoral Côte d’Opale), MARBEC (Biodiversité Marine, Exploitation et Conservation, CNRS/Ifremer/IRD/Université de Montpellier) and Division technique de l’INSU (CNRS).

The main Vietnamese institutes involved: IMER (Institute of Marine Environment and Resources), USTH (University of Sciences and Technology of Hanoi), ISTEE (Institute of Science and Technology for Energy and Environment), and CARE/HCMUT (Center of Asian Research on watEr/Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology).

>> To consult the press release