Research activities in the Gulf of Lion (NW Mediterranean) within the 1997-2001 PNEC project

The French national program on the coastal environment Programme National Environnement Cotier (PNEC) represented during the last decade a major support for the pluridisciplinary oceanographic research in the Gulf of Lion. During the second phase of the program, that lasted from 1997 to 2001, the main objective for this worksite was to establish an annual budget of carbon and associated biogenic elements to characterise the role of this region as source and the sink of elements. This introductory paper provides an over-view of the research framework and recapitulates the major scientific outcomes. (C) 2003 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS and Ifremer/CNRS/IRD. All rights reserved.