Research Article A Multibiomarker Approach to Assess the Health State of Coastal Ecosystem Receiving Desalination Plants in Agadir Bay, Morocco Ahmed Elazzaoui , Abdellatif Moukrim, and Latifa Lefrere Laboratory of Aquatic Systems: Marine and Continental Ecosystems, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Ibn Zohr University, BP 8106, Agadir, Morocco Correspondence should be addressed to Ahmed Elazzaoui; ah.elazzaoui@gmail.com Received 9 April 2019; Revised 17 September 2019; Accepted 19 November 2019; Published 16 December 2019 Academic Editor: Rizwan Hasan Khan Copyright © 2019 Ahmed Elazzaoui et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. e present study aims to evaluate the initial health status of two stations receiving seawater desalination plants in Agadir Bay (Tifnit-Douira and Cap Ghir) and to assess their potential environmental impact on the marine ecosystem health. Six pairs of mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) were collected at six sampling sites on a monthly basis over two years. Each pair was homogenized to obtain the postmitochondrial fractions (S9). Toxicological effects were measured using a multibiomarker approach based on either acetylcholinesterase (AChE), glutathione S-transferase (GST), catalase (CAT), and malondial- dehyde (MDA) rate. e results show a seasonal variation of the biomarkers: their activities increase in summer and decrease in spring and winter. High activities were recorded during summer in Cap Ghir (17.94 ± 0.88; 5.91 ± 052 nmol/min/mg of protein) for CAT and MDA, respectively. In Tifnit-Douira, low activities were recorded during winter for GST (3.74 ± 0.52 nmol/min/mg of protein) and during spring for the CAT (3.52 ± 0.45 nmol/min/mg of protein). e fluctuations in the activities of measured biomarkers could be attributed to different factors including the changes in environmental parameters, the influence of seasonal variation, and the contamination of the aquatic ecosystem. e data obtained in this study should be taken into account in the monitoring and management of the health of the ecosystems when the desalination plants are established. 1. Introduction e national and regional sectoral strategy makers (Green Morocco Plan, Plan Azur, Halieutis, etc.) were planned to realize many development programs and projects in the Souss-Massa region [1–5]. However, water availability is a limiting factor for the implementation of these projects and for any regional development [6, 7], particularly in regions that are characterized by dry climate conditions and over- exploitation of water resources (dam and groundwater). To overcome these problems, the regional council, as a part of its strategy, has invested in the installation of seawater desalination plants, in Agadir Ida Outanane (Cap Ghir) and Chtouka Ait Baha Province (Tifnit-Douira), to produce water and to meet the requirements of development projects [8, 9]. Besides the fact that scientific data of Tifnit-Douira and those of Cap Ghir are not available, the importance of ecological coastal ecosystems and the potential impact of the desalination plants prompted us to launch a new study to assess the initial health status of the ecosystems. is study was established by using a multidisciplinary approach to assess the coastal ecosystem health by several environmental monitoring programs such as Mussel Watch Program [10–13]. It will be useful to follow the environ- mental changes of these ecosystems after the implementa- tion of projects. Our research laboratory has often used this approach for several years to evaluate and to follow-up the environmental quality of Agadir Bay ecosystems [14–22]. It is based on the use of many biomarkers, such as acetyl- cholinesterase, catalase, glutathione S-transferase, and malondialdehyde, as pollution indicators of seawater quality Hindawi e Scientific World Journal Volume 2019, Article ID 5875027, 9 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/5875027