The FRB in action
Project finished in 2017
RAINBIO
African biodiversity dynamics: interactions between ecological processes and conservation actions
As a result of climate change and anthropogenic pressures such as deforestation for timber exploitation or urbanization, Africa’s tropical rainforests are undergoing major changes. In order to be able to effectively preserve these fragile environments with a high diversity of species, it is essential to be able to assess their current state and estimate their evolution in the coming years.
Sustainable management of an environment requires a complete and up-to-date database on the abundance, nature and distribution of the species present in this environment. These information can be linked with other factors to develop models and scenarios. As for Africa’s tropical rainforests, a large amount of data has already been collected, but these remain difficult to access and incomplete.
The project RAINBIO has notably allowed :
- to create, for researchers, an open access database gathering the current knowledge available on the flora of tropical rainforests,
- to draw up an inventory and an inventory of biodiversity in these areas,
- to identify sensitive areas (high proportion of threatened species and/or important future upheavals such as disappearances, migrations, species substitutions, etc.)
- to establish exploratory scenarios of biodiversity evolution in these regions in order to make informed and appropriate decisions.
Three studies published in 2019 are based on the results of RAINBIO and have provided an unprecedented overview of rare plants in the world, the future of African tropical flora and the conservation measures to be implemented. They fill a gap in fundamental knowledge and confirm the importance of rapidly implementing sustainable management solutions that will allow the conservation of the rich biodiversity of African tropical forests.
Spatial distribution of threatened plant species across tropical Africa (Stévart et al., 2019)
© CESAB Rainbio
Watch a video on the publication “Exploring the floristic diversity of tropical Africa” in BMC Biology on YouTube:
researchers
PI:
Thomas COUVREUR – IRD Montpellier (France)
Postdoc:
Gilles DAUBY – IRD Montpellier (France)
ouvrir/fermer
Participants:
RAINBIO brings together experts in tropical ecology, phylogeny, modelling, phytogeography, conservation biology, botany, statistics and political sciences.
project
RAINBIO was selected from the 2012 call for proposals. The project selection process was carried out by a committee of independent experts.
COMMUNICATION
La synthèse de données au service de la flore tropicale africaine menacée (in French – 2019)
publications
[11] Couvreur TLP, Dauby G, Blach-Overgaard A, Deblauwe V, Dessein S, Droissart V, Hardy OJ, Harris DJ, Janssens SB, Ley AC, Mackinder BA, Sonké B, Sosef MSM, Stévart T, Svenning J-C, Wieringa JJ & Faye A (2021) Tectonics, climate and the diversification of the tropical African terrestrial flora and fauna. Biological Reviews, 96, 16–51. DOI: 10.1111/brv.12644.
[10] Dagallier LM, Janssens SB, Dauby G, Blach-Overgaard A, MacKinder BA, Droissart V, Svenning J-C, Sosef MSM, Stévart T, Harris DJ, Sonké B, Wieringa JJ, Hardy OJ & Couvreur TLP (2020) Cradles and museums of generic plant diversity across tropical Africa. New Phytologist, 225, 2196–2213. DOI: 10.1111/nph.16293.
[09] Enquist BJ, Feng X, Boyle B, Maitner BS, Newman EA, Jorgensen PM, Roehrdanz PR, Thiers BM, Burger JR, Corlett RT, Couvreur TLP, Dauby G, Donoghue JC, Foden W, Lovett JC, Marquet PA, Merow C, Midgley G, Morueta-Holme N, Neves DM, Oliveira-Filho AT, Kraft NJB, Park DS, Peet RK, Pillet M, Serra-Diaz JM, Sandel B, Schildhauer MP, Símová I, Violle C, Wieringa JJ, Wiser SK, Hannah L, Svenning J-C & McGill BJ (2019) The commonness of rarity: Global and future distribution of rarity across land plants. Science Advances, 5, eaaz0414. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz0414.
[08] Stévart T, Dauby G, Lowry PP, Blach-Overgaard A, Droissart V, Harris DJ, MacKinder BA, Schatz GE, Sonké B, Sosef MSM, Svenning J-C, Wieringa JJ & Couvreur TLP (2019) A third of the tropical African flora is potentially threatened with extinction. Science Advances, 5, eaax9444. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax9444.
[07] Cosiaux A, Gardiner LM, Stauffer FW, Bachman SP, Sonké B, Baker WJ & Couvreur TLP (2018) Low extinction risk for an important plant resource: Conservation assessments of continental African palms (Arecaceae/Palmae). Biological Conservation, 221, 323–333. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2018.02.025.
[06] Couvreur TLP (2018) Unraveling rain forest biodiversity: An interview with Thomas Couvreur. BMC Biology, 16, 127. DOI: 10.1186/s12915-018-0594-4.
[05] Droissart V, Dauby G, Hardy OJ, Deblauwe V, Harris DJ, Janssens SB, MacKinder BA, Blach-Overgaard A, Sonké B, Sosef MSM, Stévart T, Svenning J-C, Wieringa JJ & Couvreur TLP (2018) Beyond trees: Biogeographical regionalization of tropical Africa. Journal of Biogeography, 45, 1153–1167. DOI: 10.1111/jbi.13190.
[04] Dauby G, Stévart T, Droissart V, Cosiaux A, Deblauwe V, Simo-Droissart M, Sosef MSM, Lowry PP, Schatz GE, Gereau RE & Couvreur TLP (2017) ConR: An R package to assist large-scale multispecies preliminary conservation assessments using distribution data. Ecology and Evolution, 7, 11292–11303. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.3704.
[03] Sosef MSM, Dauby G, Blach-Overgaard A, van der Burgt X, Catarino L, Damen T, Deblauwe V, Dessein S, Dransfield J, Droissart V, Duarte MC, Engledow H, Fadeur G, Figueira R, Gereau RE, Hardy OJ, Harris DJ, de Heij J, Janssens SB, Klomberg Y, Ley AC, MacKinder BA, Meerts P, van de Poel JL, Sonké B, Stévart T, Stoffelen P, Svenning J-C, Sepulchre P, Zaiss R, Wieringa JJ & Couvreur TLP (2017) Exploring the floristic diversity of tropical Africa. BMC Biology, 15, 15. DOI: 10.1186/s12915-017-0356-8.
[02] Dauby G, Zaiss R, Blach-Overgaard A, Catarino L, Damen T, Deblauwe V, Dessein S, Dransfield J, Droissart V, Duarte MC, Engledow H, Fadeur G, Figueira R, Gereau RE, Hardy OJ, Harris DJ, de Heij J, Janssens SB, Klomberg Y, Ley AC, MacKinder BA, Meerts P, van de Poel JL, Sonké B, Sosef MSM, Stévart T, Stoffelen P, Svenning J-C, Sepulchre P, van der Burgt X, Wieringa JJ & Couvreur TLP (2016) RAINBIO: A mega-database of tropical African vascular plants distributions. PhytoKeys, 74, 1–18. DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.74.9723.
[01] Deblauwe V, Droissart V, Bose R, Sonké B, Blach-Overgaard A, Svenning J-C, Wieringa JJ, Ramesh BR, Stévart T & Couvreur TLP (2016) Remotely sensed temperature and precipitation data improve species distribution modelling in the tropics. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 25, 443–454. DOI: 10.1111/geb.12426.
RAINBIO in the media
Stévart T, et al. (2019) A third of the tropical African flora is potentially threatened with extinction. Science Advances, 5, eaax9444. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aax9444.
- Press release: La synthèse de données au service de la flore tropicale africaine menacée
- French media: Ouest France, Orange, Boursorama, RFI, Futura-Sciences, Le HuffPost, Le Monde, 20 minutes, Yahoo Actualités, Sud Ouest, Vivafrik, GoodPlanet, Jambonburst, Demotivateur, France Info, RTL, 24 heures, swissinfo, La Presse, Libération, La Libre Afrique, Sans Frontières, Rtbf.
- International media : BBC News, The Guardian, Daily Mail, Phys Org, The Japan Times, New Scientist, RFI, cgtn, Cosmos, Breitbart, Headlinez Pro, Mongabay, Nation, Daily Nation, IOL, Yale environment, Independent, Sciencemag, Science Daily, Down to Earth, The Chronicle, IPP Media.
Enquist BJ, et al. (2019) The commonness of rarity: Global and future distribution of rarity across land plants. Science Advances, 5, eaaz0414. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz0414.
- French media: SciencePost
- International media: Science Advance, Science Daily, ZME Science, SciTechDaily, UFMG, Press Release University of Leeds
RFI (Radio France International) (2017), La flore africaine enfin dévoilée.
Co-financeur
