Thesis title : Coastal ecosystems of the Lebanese shorlelines: Ecological status, evolution and conservation.

My PhD thesis is in codirection between the Université Nice Sophia-Antipolis (France) and the National Center of Marine Sciences (Lebanon).

The aim of my work is to assess the ecological status of Lebanese costal ecosystems and promote the conservation of the vermetid trottoirs, organogenic structures sensitive to several human impacts. The CARLIT index, conceived for the Water Framework Directive (WFD 2000/60/EU) will be applied along the whole shoreline (wherever possible), in order to have a complete assessment, to correlate with human activities, provide a baseline for future studies and give tools for the management of the shoreline (i.e. in the framework of risk associated to oil spills).