How would the loss of production due to an herbicide have repercussions in the food web of an intertidal mudflat? Sensitivity analysis of an inverse model for Brouage mudflat, Marennes-Oleron Bay, France

The presence of herbicides in the run-off water coming over Brouage mudflat (Marennes-Oleron Bay, France) is suspected to cause a loss of primary production by benthic diatom biofilm. Microphytobenthos being the main primary producer of this ecosystem, it was questioned about what could be the effect of such a modification of primary production on the entire food web that depends on it. The probable impacts were investigated through a sensitivity analysis conducted on the steady-state model of the Brouage mudflat, coupling two seasons and trophic-hydrodynamic flows. The loss of benthic primary production had an effect on compartments at a low trophic level, but was buffered at higher levels because of the compensation of herbivory by other pathways and especially detritivory. The consequences seemed more important on physical flows through resuspension and export by advection, but this should be apprehended through dynamic modeling coupling physics and biology.