fermer
Fondation pour la recherche sur la biodiversité
Chercher
Menu
fermer
retour en haut de la page

Source: Cesab

Social justice and equitable governance: keys to successful conservation

Posted on by Fanny Lavastrou

To address this knowledge gap, a group of international researchers, including several members of the Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), have been working together for several years within the FRB’s Cesab (Center for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity). In May 2024, they published a major study in One Earth, drawing on nearly 650 scientific articles. They provide a better understanding of what works best, for humans and for nature, and call for a profound change in favour of social justice and equitable governance.  

  

By examining 648 studies, the team first identified six ways in which Indigenous Peoples and local communities are involved in conservation and ranked them on a scale, from exclusion to partnership to autonomy. They then looked at the 170 studies highlighting the links between those six roles and the success or failure of projects (see figure below). The results are clear: 

 

When Indigenous Peoples and local communities are excluded or involved only as participants or stakeholders, they may find themselves unable to influence decisions of great importance to their daily lives, may have their rights violated, or be denied access to lands of cultural importance, etc. In those cases, the big majority of ecological results are sub-optimal or even counter-productive. 

 

In contrast, as one moves up the ladder and equal partnerships are established with conservation authorities, with greater control and cultural recognition for the communities, ecological success goes hand in hand with this recognition. Communities can experience respect for their values, rights, identity and culture, empowerment, cooperation and trust, all of which enable them to connect with and be stewards of nature and the land, while improving their quality of life, both individually and collectively.   

 

Figure : The role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in conservation projects and associated ecological results.

 

 

According to the authors, empowering Indigenous Peoples and local communities as partners and leaders is now essential for fair and effective conservation in order to achieve the objectives of the Global Biodiversity Framework. Although transforming the strategic approaches, design, capacities, processes and interactions, financing and implementation of conservation processes will take time, they highlight various existing and interesting initiatives, such as the growing inclusion of territories and areas conserved by Indigenous Peoples and local communities (ICCAs), also known as territories of life.   

 

<<

 A collaborative effort based on rights and justice is needed to achieve a transformative change. This applies to all initiatives to conserve species and habitats, including the emerging wave of initiatives aiming to achieve the 30% by 2030 conservation target, and to restore the world’s degraded landscapes.

>>

 

[FRB-CESAB] Analyzing ecological network data – 2024

The CESAB – Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis – and the ANR EcoNet are organizing the first edition of the workshop “Analyzing ecological network data”. The objective of this five-day course is to train young researchers in analyzing ecological network data. The course covers a general introduction to networks, classical metrics (including modularity, nesteness, clustering), null models, generative models (including SBM), multilayer networks, as well as an overview of newer techniques (such as embedding). Each topic is explored through lectures followed by practicals.

 

The training course, in English, will take place from the 22nd to the 26th of April 2024 at the CESAB in Montpellier. The price is 150 € for the week, including lunches. Travel, accommodation and evening meals are at the expense of the participants.

 

Thanks for your interest, pre-registrations are now closed.

Please note, the number of participants being limited, acceptance of applications will be confirmed in February. 

 

List of organizers (by alphabetical order):

[FRB-CESAB] Theory-driven Analysis of Ecological Data – 2024

 

The CESAB – Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis – and the GdR TheoMoDive organize the third edition of the training course “Theory-driven Analysis of Ecological Data”. The objective of this five-day course is to train young researchers in building and analyzing mathematical models that will help them better understand ecological data. By contrast with purely statistical models, this course emphasizes a process-driven approach based on ecological theory. The course covers a general introduction to ecological modeling and thematic sessions focused on three topics of interest (time series, spatial data, interaction networks). Each topic is explored through mathematical models as well as inferential and predictive approaches, with a mix of courses and practical.

 

The training course, in English, will take place from the 11th to the 15th of March 2024 in the CESAB premises in Montpellier. The price is 150 € for the week, including lunch. Travel, accommodation and evening meals are at the expense of the participants.

 

 

Find the training course on GitHub

 

 

Pre-registrations are now closed. If you have already pre-registered, please note that the number of places is limited.

Your registration will be confirmed in January after assessment of your application.

A good knowledge of the R software is required.

 

List of organizers (by alphabetical order):

  • Vincent CALCAGNO (INRAE, ISA) 
  • Emanuel FRONHOFER (CNRS, ISEM) 
  • Isabelle GOUNAND (CNRS, iEES-Paris) 
  • Claire JACQUET (CNRS, ISEM) 
  • Sonia KEFI (CNRS, ISEM)
  • François MASSOL (CNRS, CIIL) 

[FRB-Cesab] Newsletter 10 CESAB – January 2024

Editorial

CESAB_inviter les chercheurs

 

Faced with the booming of environmental challenges, the need to carry out rigorous and independent synthesis on biodiversity data has never been so high. With CESAB, the Foundation for Biodiversity Research is proud to offer a place where this synthesis is made possible, with the support of its founding members. We can now provide the scientific community with regular calls for proposals, combining “classical” SYNTHESIS calls and DATASHARE calls. The latter opened in 2023 and has proved very popular among the scientific community, once again showing its maturity regarding the importance of bringing together open access biodiversity databases to the biggest number.

 

We’d also like to celebrate the success of Sandra Lavorel, former member of FRB’s scientific council and member of CESAB DIVGRASS group, who recently won the prestigious CNRS gold medal, and Lucie Mahaut, post-doc for the FREE2 group, and winner of the young researcher award for the French society of ecology and evolution. These prizes are showcasing the cutting edge biodiversity research carried out in France, the maturity level of its scientific community and its recognition by the most regarded scientific bodies, an excellence to which FRB and its CESAB, are contributing.

 

Finally, FRB’s and CESAB’s heads would like to address their warmest wishes to the whole of CESAB’s team, which constitutes the buzzing heart of our center. Their expertise, engagement and passion, contribute to making CESAB a dynamic and innovative place for biodiversity research: they are the pillars of our successes and advances. To all, huge thanks for your constant work and engagement in our mission. Finally, we’d like to warmly welcome Maija Mikkola, who recently joined our administrative team, welcome Maija!

 

Together, the FRB and its CESAB, thanks to the continuous support and its founding members and partners, will continue its mission and provide the scientific community with the direct and indirect means to advance biodiversity synthesis, which is key to the wider community of stakeholders. The key role of data synthesis and biodiversity knowledge makes CESAB more relevant than ever.

 

 

Plus d'informations sur le Cesab

 

[FRB-CESAB] Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology – 2023

Pre-registrations for this training course are now closed. 

Please beware, the number of places being limited, successful applications will be confirmed in September 2023.

 
 
The CESAB – Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis – and the RT EcoStat organize the fourth edition of the training course “Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology”. The objective of this five-day course is to train young researchers in reproducibility, software development and version management tools (Git, GitHub, R Markdown, Quarto, renv, Docker), applied to biodiversity research. 

 

This training will be given in French and will take place from November 20 to 24th, 2023 at CESAB in Montpellier. Its price is 150 € for the week – lunch included. Transportation, accommodation and evening meals are at the charge of the participants.

 

 

 

 

Find the training course on GitHub

 

 

List of speakers (in alphabetical order):
  • Iago BONNICI (CNRS ISEM)
  • Nicolas CASAJUS (FRB-CESAB)
  • François GUILHAUMON (IRD Entropie)
  • Aurélie SIBERCHICOT (UCBL LBBE)

[FRB-CESAB] Biodiversity knowledge synthesis: an introduction to meta-analyses and systematic reviews – 2023

Pre-registrations for this training course are now closed.

 

The CESAB – Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis – of the FRB is offering the second edition of the following training course: “Biodiversity knowledge synthesis: an introduction to meta-analyses and systematic reviews“. This five-day course aims to train young researchers on the methods and techniques of meta-analyses and systematic reviews/maps applied to the field of biodiversity.

 

In addition, it will be an opportunity to become familiar with the various  different tools available, both bibliographic (e.g., WOS; Zotero/Mendeley/Endnote) and statistical (R packages: metaDigisitise, metafor…), necessary for undertaking a review and meta-analysis.

 

The training course will be given in French and will take place from 2 to 6 October 2023 at CESAB, in Montpellier. The price will be 150 € for the week, including lunch. Travel, accommodation and evening meals are at the expense of the participants. 

 

 

Find the training course on GitHub

 

 

Proficiency in R software is required but no experience in meta-analysis or systematic review is necessary.

 

List of organizers (by alphabetical order):

Autres intervenants (Guest speaker) : Frédéric GOSSELIN (INRAE)

[FRB-Cesab] This summer at CESAB, researchers from the three continents gathered to advance knowledge on soil macrofauna in the tropics

The FAUNASERVICES CESAB group, which research looks at the links between biodiversity of soil macrofauna and the delivery of ecosystem services in the tropics, brings together scientists from Southern America, Europe and Canada during four workshops, two being held at CESAB offices, France and two in São Paulo state, Brazil. This partnership is allowing a first data synthesis looking at the links between soil biodiversity and five major ecosystem services delivered by soils, such as fertility, carbon sequestration, water retention or pest and parasite control.

 

 

This unique partnership benefitted, this year, from the additional contribution of the French embassy in Canada, which funded the participation of a Canadian researcher to a workshop. From the University of Western Ontario, Canada, Zoe Lindo specializes in soil biodiversity and ecosystem function and provided major contributions to the group’s research, more specifically by sharing recently published R packages modelling food webs in soil ecology.

 

 

This second workshop, during which experts in soil ecology shared their complementary skills for a week, could not have happened without the support of the partners involved in the project.

[FRB-CESAB] Newsletter 9 CESAB – July 2023

A word from Claire SALOMON, CESAB’s deputy director

FRB - Claire Salomon

Since its creation in 2010 within the Foundation for Biodiversity Research (I was there!), CESAB has passed several milestones. Firstly seen as a non-identified, yet relevant, object by some in the biodiversity research community, CESAB appeared very abstract to others. The first few groups who stayed at CESAB sometimes doubted themselves of the added-value of gathering in “one place, one time for biodiversity research”. Yet, results were quick to emerge and far beyond our hopes! New networks were created, young researchers acquired an international experience, not to mention all the publications at the cutting edge of research. The biodiversity crisis and IPBES have also, unfortunately, shed light on the relevance of synthesis centers, increasing the appeal of the industry and stakeholders. The number of co-funding opportunities, requests and projects grew from year to year, bringing closer together stakeholders and the scientific community and vice versa.

 

From the 4 initial CESAB groups, we have now reached 30 today, corresponding to a community of 450 researchers of all nationalities spending two weeks a year at CESAB offices. To ensure the best possible working conditions during the entire length of the projects, CESAB is necessarily run by teams from the FRB in Montpellier and Paris, with a new administrative support this year to maintain the same quality of work. CESAB is also a cohort of post-docs, and will welcome four new members at the start of the academic year within the groups ACOUCENE, BIOFOREST, FOOD-WEBS and IMAPCTS. And to keep all this work consistent, CESAB’s scientific committee keeps an oversight and anticipation of the scientific work conducted, the administrative council of the Foundation and its funding members drive the development of the center and give us the means to act via a wide variety of calls for proposals: from the DATASHARE to OPEN calls, not to mention targeted calls.

 

 

More information about CESAB

 

[Call for proposals FRB-MTE-OFB 2022] Nine projects selected within the call “Impacts on terrestrial biodiversity in the Anthropocene”

As part of the implementation of the national “terrestrial biodiversity monitoring” programme carried out by the French Biodiversity Office (OFB), which aims to measure, identify and monitor the influence of human activities on biodiversity and the best practices to be promoted, the Ministry of Ecological Transition (MTE) and the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) launched a call for research projects on the “Impacts on terrestrial biodiversity in the Anthropocene“. 

 

Three types of projects are funded by this 2022-call:

 

SYNTHESIS PROJECTS

 

  • Discar – Population consequences of human DISturbance on small CARnivores ; Olivier Gimenez (CNRS) and Sandrine Ruete (OFB),
  • Dragon – Dragonflies as bellwether for the human impact on interface ecosystems ; Colin Fontaine (CNRS) and Reto Schmuki (UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology),
  • Motiver – Developing agri-environmental Indicators to MOnitor The Impact of human-driven landscape changes on biodiVERsity in European farmland ; Gaël Caro (Univ de Lorraine) and Ronan Marrec (Univ de Picardie)

 

These 3-years projects will develop syntheses of ideas and/or concepts, analyses of existing data, and will focus on factors affecting the state, evolution and dynamics of biodiversity.

 

SYNERGY PROJECTS

 

  • Comepi – COmprendre les patrons de biodiversité et leurs impacts fonctionnels, MEsurer des indicateurs pour PIloter les habitats par la gestion anthropique ; Anne BONNIS (CNRS)
  • Indicators – Plant reproductive strategies as new diversity indicators – proof of concept in agricultural landscapes ; Sylvain GLEMIN (CNRS)
  • Pppirec – Pollinisateurs, Pesticides, et Paysages : Indicateurs de Réponses, des Espèces aux Communautés ; Nicolas DEGUINES (CNRS, Université de Poitiers)
  • Rodexpo – Anticoagulant rodenticides in rodent communities sampled along a gradient of forest anthropisation : exposure and resistance ; Virginie LATTARD (Vet-Agrosup)

 

These 1-year projects will provide complementary answers to a question that emerges from research projects that has been finalized or is underway and will help stakeholders with indicators and practices to be promoted or abandoned to preserve biodiversity.

 

SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS PROJECTS

 

  • Desybel – A SYstematic review on the impact of anthropogenic noise on terrestrial biodiversity ; Yorick REYJOL (MNHN)
  • Tres-Pratic – Trait-based responses of soil fauna to agricultural practices & agricultural management strategies: a systematic review and meta-analysis ; Mickael HEDDE (Inrae)

 

[Call for proposals] Two calls on biodiversity opening «DataShare» and «Anthropogenic pressures and impacts on terrestrial biodiversity»

Two calls for proposals will fund 1 to 3-years research projects on biodiversity.

 

Call for proposals DataShare 2023

 

The aim of this DATASHARE joint call is to accelerate the sharing of open-access and large scale ‘novel’ biodiversity related datasets. This call complements classical biodiversity synthesis calls, which aim at fostering the analysis of existing data and the synthesis of ideas and concepts, with a specific focus on data compilation and sharing. It can be considered as a preliminary step, but not mandatory, before submitting a research proposal to a classical biodiversity synthesis call (e.g. CESAB, sDiv, NCEAS). 

 

For its second 2023 edition, the DATASHARE joint call will fund four 2-year projects.

 

More information

 

 

Call for proposals Anthropogenic pressures and impacts on terrestrial biodiversity 2023

 

As part of the implementation of the national “terrestrial biodiversity monitoring” programme carried out by the French Biodiversity Office (OFB), which aims to measure, identify and monitor the influence of human activities on biodiversity and the best practices to be promoted, the Ministry of Ecological Transition (MTE) and the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) are launching a call for research projects on the “Anthropogenic pressures and impacts on terrestrial biodiversity“. The call aims to characterize the positive, negative or non-existent impacts of human activities and induced pressures on the state and dynamics of terrestrial biodiversity.

 

The results of the research funded by the programme should help to strengthen the actions of society as a whole, to halt the decline of biodiversity and promote sustainable human development. 

 

This call for proposals will allow the funding of:

  • 3 data SYNTHESIS projects of three years – these projects should develop syntheses of ideas and/or concepts, analyses of existing data, and should focus on factors affecting the state, evolution and dynamics of biodiversity.
  • 4 to 6 one-year SYNERGY projects – these projects should provide complementary answers to a question that emerges from a research project that has been finalized or is underway, and should help stakeholders with indicators and practices to be promoted or abandoned to preserve biodiversity.
  • 1 to 2 SYSTEMATIC REVIEW projects of two years – these projects must present an inventory of human practices that have an impact on biodiversity and a summary of the state of knowledge on the impacts considered.

 

More information

[FRB-CESAB] Theory-driven Analysis of Ecological Data – 2023

 

The CESAB – Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis – and the GdR TheoMoDive organize the second edition of the training course “Theory-driven Analysis of Ecological Data”. The objective of this five-day course is to train young researchers in mathematical modelling (differential equations, Lotka Volterra, Jacobian matrices), and in the statistical links between models and biodiversity data.

 

The training course, in English, will take place from the 3rd to the 7th of April 2023 in the CESAB premises in Montpellier. The price is 100 € for the week, including lunch. Travel, accommodation and evening meals are at the expense of the participants. 

 

 

Find the training course on GitHub

 

 

A good knowledge of the R software is required.

 

List of organizers (by alphabetical order):
  • Vincent CALCAGNO (INRAE, ISA) 
  • Emanuel FRONHOFER (CNRS, ISEM) 
  • Isabelle GOUNAND (CNRS, iEES-Paris) 
  • Claire JACQUET (CNRS, ISEM) 
  • Sonia KEFI (CNRS, ISEM)
  • François MASSOL (CNRS, CIIL) 

 

[Press release] Blue Justice: a new movement in favor of coastal communities, often excluded from decisions in conservation

Posted on by Cécile Thiaucourt

Coastal communities are on the frontline of three important and accelerating global change processes: climate change, “blue economy” development, and the rapid expansion of area-based conservation initiatives – a phenomena recently coined as ‘triple exposure’. While these change processes and the approaches used to address them (e.g., climate adaptation projects) can support sustainability and well-being in some cases, in others these external processes can converge to amplify vulnerabilities and inequalities. Moreover, pre-existing environmental or political social injustices may increase the vulnerability of people to change processes, and may decrease their capacity to adapt to, or benefit from, interactive impacts of ‘triple exposure’. This topic is described in an article published in One Earth on February 17th 2023, by the interdisciplinary research group Blue Justice, funded by the French Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB) within its Centre for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity (CESAB). This group represents a global network of researchers and practitioners to examine the linkages between ocean conservation, climate change, and equity. The authors argue that social justice and local resilience must be prioritized in order to address the negative impacts of ‘triple exposure’, and reach the objectives of effective and equitable climate adaptation, blue economy, and conservation initiatives.

 

In order to achieve this shift towards social justice and resilience, David Gill, Assistant Professor at Duke University, and his colleagues recommend that climate, economic, and conservation actors seek to:

  • Tackle the root causes of vulnerability, namely pre-existing social injustices;
  • Use participatory systems approaches to improve the understanding of the local context and potential unintentional consequences of suggested initiatives;
  • And develop inclusive partnerships between diverse actors for the capacity and coordination to facilitate effective and more equitable design and implementation.

 

In a fast changing world, these strategies, applied together and adapted to the local context, provide an opportunity to develop coastal initiatives that support wellbeing, justice, and resilience of coastal communities.

 

These measures become all the more significant during catastrophes.

To illustrate their recommendations, the authors identify several examples, including some linked to catastrophes. In 2020, while international efforts were constrained by the pandemic related border closures, an oil spill happened in Mauritius, causing severe impacts on local reefs and threatening the livelihoods of those who depend on them. A local NGO activated its network of volunteers within the community and opened their doors to available resources – necessary for the first clean-up actions.The perceived institutional vacuum for a clean up response in the immediate aftermath of the spill led to strong community engagement in the making of artisanal booms and their deployment at sea. Government institutions did not hinder and instead provided support to the volunteer groups until clean up companies were appointed formally and official clean up efforts began. This shows the importance of inclusive partnerships in tackling environmental or human-caused stressors.

 

The Blue Justice working group gathers an international panel (North America, UK, France, Australia, Fiji, Italy, Spain etc.) of specialists in marine biology, conservation biology, social science and environmental law.

 

Link to the article

Justice bleue : un nouveau mouvement en faveur des communautés côtières, exclues des prises de décision en matière de conservation

Les communautés côtières sont en première ligne de deux facteurs importants et croissants du changement global : le changement climatique, le développement économique, qui peuvent interagir avec la possible expansion de la conservation par zone, conduisant à ce que certains auteurs appellent la « triple exposition ». Si les stratégies visant à maximiser les avantages sociaux des politiques d’adaptation à ces trois facteurs diffèrent, des processus externes peuvent parfois converger pour amplifier les vulnérabilités et les inégalités. Les injustices sociales préexistantes peuvent augmenter la sensibilité des populations aux changements sociaux, environnementaux et politiques, et peuvent limiter leur capacité à s’adapter ou à bénéficier des impacts interactifs de ce qui est parfois appelé “la triple exposition”.

 

Dans un article publié dans la revue One Earth le 17 février 2023, le groupe de recherche en socio-écologie Blue Justice, financé par la Fondation pour la recherche sur la biodiversité (FRB) au sein de son Centre de synthèse et d’analyse de la biodiversité (Cesab), soutient, au-delà de la reconnaissance d’une telle “triple exposition”, que les agences de mise en œuvre externes ne peuvent pas atteindre efficacement et équitablement les objectifs d’adaptation climatique, économiques et de conservation sans donner la priorité à la justice sociale et au renforcement de la résilience en générale.

 

Pour faire avancer cette orientation vers la justice et la résilience, Joachim Claudet – chercheur CNRS, David Gill, chercheur à Duke University (États-Unis), Jessica Blythe – chercheuse à Brock University (Canada), porteurs du projet Blue Justice, recommandent que les acteurs du climat, du développement et de la conservation ambitionnent :

  • de s’attaquer aux causes profondes de la vulnérabilité, à savoir les injustices sociales préexistantes ;
  • d’utiliser des approches systémiques participatives pour améliorer la compréhension du contexte local et des conséquences potentielles (non) intentionnelles des initiatives proposées ;
  • et de développer et tirer parti de partenariats inclusifs entre divers acteurs pour faciliter la conception et la mise en œuvre collaboratives des stratégies identifiées.

 

Dans un monde en mutation rapide, ces stratégies, appliquées ensemble et adaptées au contexte local, offrent une opportunité de développer des initiatives côtières qui soutiennent le bien-être, la justice et la résilience des populations côtières.

 

Des mesures qui prennent tout leur sens lors de catastrophes naturelles

 

Pour illustrer leurs recommandations, les auteurs mettent en avant plusieurs exemples, notamment en lien avec les catastrophes naturelles. Ainsi, en 2020, alors que les efforts internationaux étaient mobilisés par la pandémie, une marée noire est survenue à l’île Maurice. C’est un groupe d’ONG locales qui s’est mis en place pour activer son réseau de bénévoles et fournir les ressources nécessaires aux premières actions de nettoyage. Le vide institutionnel initialement ressenti a contribué à la large mobilisation des communautés locales pour la fabrication et le déploiement d’un filtre “anti-marée” dans la mer. Loin d’entraver cet engagement, les institutions gouvernementales ont ensuite fourni du soutien aux groupes bénévoles jusqu’à ce que des services spécialisés de nettoyage soient formellement mobilisés et que les efforts officiels commencent. Ceci illustre donc bien l’importance des partenariats inclusifs dans la lutte face aux pressions environnementales.

 

Le projet Blue Justice réunit un panel international (Amérique du Nord, Angleterre, France, Australie, Fidji, Italie, etc.) de spécialistes en biologie marine, biologie de la conservation, socio-écologie et lois environnementales.

 

Retrouvez l'article

[FRB-CESAB] Newsletter 8 CESAB – January 2023

A word from Nicolas MOUQUET, CESAB’s scientific director

Left: graph showing the number of research groups hosted by the CESAB and the yearly calls for proposals. Right: bar showing the cumulated funds secured towards CESAB projects since its arrival in Montpellier in 2019.

The year of 2022 has been particularly prosperous for the CESAB. We have:

 

  • Gained in maturity. After the move to Montpellier in 2019, we’ve explored several patterns for the synthesis groups with news partners. This has enabled us to considerably increase the number of active groups from 8 in 2019 to 28 in 2023. We are now working on consolidating this model to make it self-sustaining in the long-run.
  • Started up again with in person meetings. The COVID period has allowed us to improve our ability to guide groups in their online work, but also to see the limits of what is conceivable online. Biodiversity data synthesis is a human adventure above all, made of contacts and surprises, which mostly take place when groups gather and live together during an entire week!
  • Renewed the scientific council of the CESAB, which has very quickly been involved in the assessment of the applications for the call for proposals.
  • Finally, we’ve experimented the setup of a new call for proposals, the Datashare, which focuses on the gathering of biodiversity data and should be reconducted in 2023.

 

I am convinced that 2023 will be a pivotal year for us to reach another stepping stone in our development, with initiatives already in preparation, and, I hope, the realisation of a joint call for proposals with several synthesis centres supported by Biodiversa+.

In the past four years since the arrival of the CESAB in Montpellier, more than 6 million euros have been secured for the synthesis of data on biodiversity, thereby allowing 474 academics to work in the best possible conditions.

 

In addition to the synthesis groups, we organise three annual workshops from which 115 PhD students and post-docs have benefitted. In 2023, a new workshop will be introduced on artificial intelligence and biodiversity.

This enthusiasm is possible thanks to the unconditional support of the FRB, its founding members, our partners and the FRB staff involved in the CESAB, whose professionalism and efficiency most often go hand in hand with benevolence and cheerfulness! I thank them dearly for what they bring to the CESAB with its scientific community in particular and biodiversity in general.

 

Happy new year 2023!

 

 

Learn more about CESAB

 

[Course] Opening of pre-registration for the training course “Theory-driven Analysis of Ecological Data” – 2023

This 5-days training course, organized by the CESAB and the GdR TheoMoDive aims to train young researchers in mathematical modelling (differential equations, Lotka-Volterra, Jacobian matrices), and the statistical links between models and biodiversity data. 

 

The training course, in English, will take place from the 3rd to the 7th of April 2022 in the CESAB premises in Montpellier. Its price is 100 € for the week, including lunch. Travel, accommodation and evening meals are at the expense of the participants. 

 

You can pre-register for this course by filling in the form available on the event page until Wednesday 8th of February at midnight (CET). As the number of places is limited, registrations will be confirmed in February. 

 

 

Pre-registration and programme

[Call for projects FRB-CESAB 2022 and DataShare] Five projects selected

Five innovative projects have been selected for the synthesis of ideas and concepts and the analysis of currently existing biodiversity data.

 

Three in the context of the call for proposals FRB-CESAB 2022. The selected projects will be funded for a duration of three years, including the recruitment of a post-doctoral researcher for two years, the organisation of 6 meetings at the CESAB, the promotion of results, and a logistical, technical and administrative support.

 

 

  • Bioforest

 

Interactions between tree Biodiversity, Forest dynamics and climate in managed tropical forests: a pan tropical approach.

Principal Investigators: Maria PEÑA-CLAROS (Wageningen University, NL), et Camille PIPONIOT (Cirad, France)

 

 

 

  • Food-Webs

 

Food-webs in the Anthropocene: a stable isotope synthesis to understand the global response of freshwater ecosystems.

Principal Investigators: Julien CUCHEROUSSET (CNRS, France), and Michelle JACKSON (Oxford University, UK)

 

 

 

  • Rivage

 

Revisit Island Vulnerability during the Anthropocene Geologic Era.

Principal Investigators: Céline BELLARD (Paris-Saclay University, France), et Daniel KISSLING (Amsterdam University, NL)

 

 

AAP_DATASHARE_web

 

Two in the context of the call for proposals DataShare. The selected projects will be funded for a duration of two years.

 

 

  • Islets

 

ISland Leaf Ecophysiological Trait Synthesis.

Principal investigators: Kasey BARTON (Hawaii University, United States), et Claire FORTUNEL (IRD, France)

 

 

 

  • Phenofish

 

Creating a global database of fish functional traits: integrating physiology and ecology across aquatic ecosystems.

Principal investigators: Sébastien BROSS (Toulouse University, France), et Nicolas LOISEAU (CNRS, France)

 

[FRB-CESAB] Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology – 2022

 
The CESAB – Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis – and the GdR EcoStat organize the fourth edition of the training course “Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology”. The objective of this five-day course is to train young researchers in reproducibility, software development and version management tools (Git, R Markdown, renv, Docker), applied to biodiversity research. The RStudio IDE will be used throughout the training.

 

This training will be given in French and will take place from November 28 to December 2, 2022 at CESAB in Montpellier. Its price is 200 € for the week – lunch included. Transportation, accommodation and evening meals are at the charge of the participants.

 

The GdR EcoStat offers financial support to those whose funds available through the supervisor/laboratory would not be sufficient. These scholarships are primarily intended for PhD students and post-doctoral fellows. In order to benefit from these grants, the participant must belong to a laboratory member of the GdR. The amount of the financial support granted will depend on the number of applications. 

 

 

Find the training course on GitHub

 

 

List of speakers (in alphabetical order):
  • Iago BONNICI (CNRS ISEM)
  • Nicolas CASAJUS (FRB-CESAB)
  • François GUILHAUMON (IRD Entropie)
  • Aurélie SIBERCHICOT (UCBL LBBE)

[FRB-CESAB] Biodiversity knowledge synthesis: an introduction to meta-analyses and systematic reviews – 2022

The CESAB – Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis – of the FRB is offering the first edition of the following training course: “Biodiversity knowledge synthesis: an introduction to meta-analyses and systematic reviews“. This five-day course aims to train young researchers on the methods and techniques of meta-analyses and systematic reviews/maps applied to the field of biodiversity.

 

In addition, it will be an opportunity to become familiar with the various  different tools available, both bibliographic (e.g., WOS; Zotero/Mendeley/Endnote) and statistical (R packages: metaDigisitise, metafor…), necessary for undertaking a review and meta-analysis.

 

The training course will be given in French and will take place from 3 to 7 October 2022 at CESAB, in Montpellier. The price will be 350 € for the week, including lunch. Travel, accommodation and evening meals are at the expense of the participants. 

 

 

Find the training course on GitHub

 

 

Proficiency in R software is required but no experience in meta-analysis or systematic review is necessary.

 

List of organizers (by alphabetical order):

 

Other speakers: Dakis-Yaoba OUEDRAOGO, Romain SORDELLO, Frédéric GOSSELIN.

[FRB-CESAB] Newsletter 7 CESAB- Septembre 2022

A word from Verena TRENKEL and François MASSOL, co-presidents of CESAB scientific committee

 

The 22 members of the new CESAB Scientific Committee (CS) have recently started their work for a four-year term. We are honored to lead this multidisciplinary (and parity!) committee as co-presidents. This is the first time that the CESAB CS is led by a co-chair and we intend to demonstrate that two co-chairs are more than the sum of two. We would like to start this mandate by thanking the CS members for their trust and the FRB for the freedom and the human and financial means made available to the CS to carry out efficiently the evaluation and monitoring of projects.

 

Our co-presidency comes at a time when the support of the FRB, the founding members and the collaboration with other funders allow CESAB to expand its role as a catalyst for science and international collaborations. 22 projects are underway at CESAB and many more are to come. The dynamics of the projects at CESAB and its partnerships with other institutions around the world, largely driven by its director Nicolas Mouquet, is a sign of good health and we are proud to be able to contribute to it in the four years to come. The international training courses offered by CESAB, notably on reproducibility, the use of theories and meta-analyses in ecology and environmental sciences, are also the mark of a stronger involvement of CESAB in the scientific ecology landscape. Finally, other CESAB activities, such as hosting researchers on sabbatical or conference days around a project, also contribute to CESAB’s influence in the context of research on biodiversity and the environment, both in France and internationally.

 

The CS is currently following the 2022 CESAB call for proposals which will allow, at the end of the evaluation procedure, three new projects to gather and compare their data and ideas. Other calls for projects are already open, including an FRB-MTE-OFB call “Impacts on Biodiversity in the Anthropocene” and an FRB-TULIP-PNDB-BiodivOc call “Datashare”. As in previous years, CESAB will fund about 15 projects that will contribute to building scientific consensus on a large number of crucial issues in view of the current climate and ecological crisis. To meet the challenges posed by the Agenda 2030 and its 17 sustainable development goals, the contributions of CESAB projects will be needed.

 

Without wishing to give away too much about the program of the future CS meetings, and beyond the management of calls for projects, we can already announce that the CS will be thinking about new ideas to contribute to the advancement of science, based on the synthesis of data, models, concepts… One of our wishes is also to create more opportunities to disseminate the results of Cesab projects to the public. Let’s hope that the next four years of the CS will allow us to work in this direction.

 

We wish you all a good start to the new school year and look forward to seeing you soon at Cesab.

Verena Trenkel and François Massol

 

 

More information about CESAB

 

[Press release] A new method to assess ecosystem vulnerability and protect biodiversity

As states committed to creating protected areas on at least 30% of their land and sea territories by 2030, an international team of researchers has developed a new tool to quantify the vulnerability of species communities. Combined with future ecosystem risk assessment studies, this tool should help decision-makers identify management priorities and guide protection efforts where they are most needed. Setting appropriate conservation strategies is a challenging goal, especially because of the complexity of threats and responses from species, and budget limitations. To overcome this challenge, the team of scientists, including researchers from CNRS, IFREMER, IRD and international organizations, has simulated the response of species communities to a wide range of disturbances, providing a robust estimation of their vulnerability, in a world where future threats are diverse and difficult to predict.

 

Quantifying the vulnerability of biodiversity is crucial to safeguard the most threatened ecosystems. Published in Nature Communications on the 1st of September 2022, this new tool stands out from previous work as it estimates the degree to which functional diversity, that is biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions, is likely to change when exposed to multiple pressures. It was developed as part of two projects funded by the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) within its Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB) and with the support of Electricité de France (EDF) and France Filière Pêche (FFP).

 

 

Read the press release

[Press release] A new method to assess ecosystem vulnerability and protect biodiversity

Posted on by Marie-Claire Danner

Setting appropriate conservation strategies is a challenging goal, especially because of the complexity of threats and responses from species, and budget limitations. To overcome this challenge, the team of scientists, including researchers from CNRS, IFREMER, IRD and international organizations, has simulated the response of species communities to a wide range of disturbances, providing a robust estimation of their vulnerability, in a world where future threats are diverse and difficult to predict.

 

Quantifying the vulnerability of biodiversity is crucial to safeguard the most threatened ecosystems. Published in Nature Communications on the 1st of September 2022, this new tool stands out from previous work as it estimates the degree to which functional diversity, that is biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions, is likely to change when exposed to multiple pressures. It was developed as part of two projects funded by the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) within its Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB) and with the support of Electricité de France (EDF) and France Filière Pêche (FFP).

 

The team of 20 scientists used repeated computer simulations of disturbances on species communities to calculate the ecosystem’s vulnerability. From climate change and land use changes to pollution or resource overexploitation, these disturbances simulate the impacts of a large range of potential threats on species communities. “By simulating all possible scenarios, even the worst ones, explains Arnaud Auber, researcher at IFREMER and first author of the publication, we are able to identify the most vulnerable ecosystems from a functional view-point. Moreover, we can now estimate their vulnerability by taking into account unknown, unpredictable or poorly documented pressures, which is a major advance over previous work.” This safer approach offers decision-makers the possibility to classify various sites according to their associated functional vulnerability, which is now urgently needed to move forward adaptive management of biodiversity.

 

In this study, the functional diversity of communities was made central to the calculation of vulnerability. Overall, biodiversity conservation has mainly focused on taxonomic diversity (e.g., the number of species in an ecosystem). However, recent studies including work from the FREE project, have shown that examining functional diversity can provide a more precise assessment of whether or not an ecosystem is functioning properly. Indeed, a species may have the same function as another (e.g. the same preys or reproductive cycle) and so if one species disappears, another may still fulfil its role in the ecosystem. But if all species sharing the same essential function disappear, the ecosystem will become less functionally diverse, less resilient to threats and thus more vulnerable. In other words, taxonomic diversity in an ecosystem is important but not sufficient to properly assess ecosystem vulnerability. Parrotfishes for example, are one of the only fish species that can directly feed on corals. If they disappear, an essential component of the carbon cycle in coral reefs will be lost. Functional and taxonomic diversity are therefore complementary and should be used together to better guide decision-makers in identifying priority areas for biodiversity protection.

 

This new approach can be applied to all ecosystems, whether marine, terrestrial or freshwater. “As an example, explains Arnaud Auber, we applied our functional vulnerability framework to the past temporal dynamics of the North Sea fish community. Using fish abundance data and species traits linked to ecosystem functioning such as fecundity, offspring size and feeding mode, our tool revealed a high functional vulnerability of fish communities in the North Sea. However, we found a significant decrease in functional vulnerability throughout the last four decades, dropping from 92 to 86%. During the same period, the North Sea fishing pressure had decreased, following the Common Fisheries Policy, with a progressive decrease in catch quotas and improvement in gears’ selectivity.”

 

Finally, this tool is open access and can be used to predict ecosystem vulnerability using for example future climate change scenarios or to compare different ecosystems. This highlights the need for synthesis as we continue to improve our understanding of the complexity of nature. Only when put together will data and knowledge help quantify the impact of multiple threats on the world’s ecosystems and assist decision-makers in rationalizing ecosystem management and conservation actions in an uncertain future.

 

Reference

 

Arnaud Auber1, Conor Waldock2,3, Anthony Maire4, Eric Goberville5, Camille Albouy6,7, Adam C. Algar8, Matthew McLean9, Anik Brind’Amour10, Alison L. Green11, Mark Tupper12,13, Laurent Vigliola14, Kristin Kaschner15, Kathleen Kesner-Reyes16, Maria Beger17,18, Jerry Tjiputra19, Aurèle Toussaint20, Cyrille Violle21, Nicolas Mouquet22,23, Wilfried Thuiller24, David Mouillot23,25. “A functional vulnerability framework for biodiversity conservation”. 2022. Nature Communications. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32331-y/

Une nouvelle méthode pour évaluer la vulnérabilité des écosystèmes et protéger la biodiversité

Définir des stratégies de conservation appropriées est un objectif difficile à atteindre, notamment en raison de la complexité des menaces et des réponses des espèces, ainsi que des limitations budgétaires. Pour surmonter ce défi, l’équipe de scientifiques, dont des chercheurs du CNRS, de l’Ifremer, de l’IRD et d’organisations internationales, a simulé la réponse des communautés d’espèces à un large éventail de perturbations, pour fournir une estimation robuste de leur vulnérabilité dans un monde où les menaces futures sont diverses et difficiles à prévoir.

 

Quantifier la vulnérabilité de la biodiversité est crucial pour sauvegarder les écosystèmes les plus menacés. Publié dans Nature Communications le 1er septembre 2022, ce nouvel outil se distingue des travaux précédents car il estime le degré de changement de la diversité fonctionnelle, c’est-à-dire la biodiversité et les fonctions associées des écosystèmes, lorsqu’elle est exposée à des pressions multiples. Il a été développé dans le cadre de deux projets financés par la Fondation pour la recherche sur la biodiversité (FRB) au sein de son Centre de synthèse et d’analyse de la biodiversité (Cesab) et avec le soutien d’Électricité de France (EDF) et de France Filière Pêche (FFP).

 

Pour calculer la vulnérabilité des écosystèmes, l’équipe de 20 scientifiques a utilisé des simulations répétées par ordinateur de perturbations sur des communautés d’espèces. Qu’il s’agisse du changement climatique, de changement d’usage des terres, de pollution ou de surexploitation des ressources, ces perturbations simulent les impacts d’un large éventail de menaces potentielles sur les communautés d’espèces. « En simulant tous les scénarios possibles, même les pires, explique Arnaud Auber, chercheur à l’Ifremer et premier auteur de la publication, nous sommes en mesure d’identifier les écosystèmes les plus vulnérables d’un point de vue fonctionnel. De plus, nous pouvons désormais estimer leur vulnérabilité en tenant compte des pressions inconnues, imprévisibles ou mal documentées, ce qui constitue une avancée majeure par rapport aux travaux précédents. » Cette approche, plus sûre, offre aux décideurs la possibilité de classer plusieurs sites en fonction de la vulnérabilité fonctionnelle qui leur est associée, et ainsi de permettre une gestion adaptative de la biodiversité.

 

Dans cette étude, la diversité fonctionnelle des communautés a été placée au centre du calcul de la vulnérabilité. Historiquement, la conservation de la biodiversité s’est principalement concentrée sur la diversité taxonomique (par exemple, le nombre d’espèces dans un écosystème). Cependant, des études récentes, dont des travaux du projet Free, ont montré que l’étude de la diversité fonctionnelle peut fournir une évaluation plus précise du fonctionnement d’un écosystème. En effet, une espèce peut avoir la même fonction qu’une autre (par exemple, les mêmes proies ou le même cycle de reproduction) et donc si une espèce disparaît, une autre peut toujours remplir son rôle dans l’écosystème. Mais si toutes les espèces partageant une même fonction essentielle disparaissent, l’écosystème deviendra moins diversifié sur le plan fonctionnel, moins résilient aux menaces et donc plus vulnérable. En d’autres termes, la diversité taxonomique dans un écosystème est importante mais pas suffisante pour évaluer correctement la vulnérabilité de l’écosystème. Les poissons-perroquets, par exemple, sont l’une des seules espèces de poissons qui peuvent se nourrir directement de coraux. S’ils disparaissent, une composante essentielle du cycle du carbone dans les récifs coralliens sera perdue. La diversité fonctionnelle et la diversité taxonomique sont donc complémentaires et doivent être utilisées ensemble pour mieux guider les décideurs dans l’identification des zones prioritaires pour la protection de la biodiversité.

 

Cette nouvelle approche peut être appliquée à tous les écosystèmes, qu’ils soient marins, terrestres ou d’eau douce. « À titre d’exemple, explique Arnaud Auber, nous avons utilisé notre outil de vulnérabilité fonctionnelle pour étudier la dynamique temporelle passée de la communauté de poissons de la mer du Nord. En utilisant les données sur l’abondance des poissons et les traits des espèces liés au fonctionnement de l’écosystème, tels que la fécondité, la taille de la progéniture et le mode d’alimentation, notre outil a révélé une vulnérabilité fonctionnelle élevée des communautés de poissons de la mer du Nord. Cependant, nous avons constaté une diminution significative de la vulnérabilité fonctionnelle au cours des quatre dernières décennies, passant de 92 à 86 %. Au cours de la même période, la pression de pêche en mer du Nord a diminué, suite à la politique commune de la pêche (en anglais Common Fisheries Policy), avec une diminution progressive des quotas de capture et une amélioration de la sélectivité des équipements. »

 

De plus, cet outil est en libre-accès et peut être utilisé pour prédire la vulnérabilité des écosystèmes en utilisant par exemple les scénarios de changement climatique ou pour comparer différents écosystèmes. Cette étude souligne le besoin de synthèse alors que nous cherchons à démêler la complexité de la nature. Ce n’est qu’une fois réunies que les données et les connaissances permettront de quantifier l’impact des multiples menaces qui pèsent sur les écosystèmes et d’aider les décideurs dans leurs actions de gestion et de conservation de la biodiversité dans un avenir incertain.

 

Référence de l’article

 

Arnaud Auber1, Conor Waldock2,3, Anthony Maire4, Eric Goberville5, Camille Albouy6,7, Adam C. Algar8, Matthew McLean9, Anik Brind’Amour10, Alison L. Green11, Mark Tupper12,13, Laurent Vigliola14, Kristin Kaschner15, Kathleen Kesner-Reyes16, Maria Beger17,18, Jerry Tjiputra19, Aurèle Toussaint20, Cyrille Violle21, Nicolas Mouquet22,23, Wilfried Thuiller24, David Mouillot23,25. “A functional vulnerability framework for biodiversity conservation”. 2022. Nature Communications. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32331-y/

[Course] Opening of the 2022 training course – Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology

The CESAB and the GdR EcoStat organize the third edition of the training course “Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology“. The objective of this five-day course is to train young researchers in reproducibility, software development and version management tools, applied to biodiversity research.

 

This training will be given in French and will take place from November 28 to December 2, 2022 at CESAB in Montpellier. Its price is 200 € for the week – lunch included. Transportation, accommodation and evening meals are at the charge of the participants.

 

You can pre-register for this course by filling in the form available on the event page until Tuesday 26th of July at midnight (CEST). As the number of places is limited, registrations will be confirmed during in September. 

 

 

Pre-registration and programme

[FRB-CESAB] From species to functions: towards a paradigm shift for biodiversity conservation?

The working group FREE, from the FRB’s Centre for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity (CESAB), invites you to Montpellier for a conference in English on Thursday the 16th of June 2022 at 2pm, entitled “From species to functions: towards a paradigm shift for biodiversity conservation?”

 

This conference will present a new facet of biological rarity – functional rarity – and will lay the foundations for biodiversity and rarity conservation policies, revisited in the light of functional ecology. The working group FREE has largely contributed to the development of the conceptual basis of functional rarity and has proposed global analyses attempting to identify areas of the globe with a significant proportion of ecologically unique species.

 

 

During this conference, a group of international researchers will discuss the direct and major implications of this research for biodiversity conservation policies.

 

 

 

The conference will be held in the afternoon and will be preceded, in the morning, by a training workshop dedicated to the use of R packages that allows to calculate various functional rarity and diversity index and to map them. The workshop will be in English, free, and lunch will be included. Any other costs should be covered by the participants. A good knowledge of the R software is required.

 

[Call for proposals] Two calls on biodiversity opening «DataShare» and «Impacts on terrestrial biodiversity in the Anthropocene»

Two calls for proposals will fund 1 to 3-years research projects on biodiversity. deadline on the 22nd of September 2022.

 

Call for proposals DataShare 2022

 

The aim of this DATASHARE joint call between the CEntre for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity (CESAB) of the French Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB), the Laboratory of Excellence (LabEX) TULIP, the National Center for Biodiversity Data (PNDB) and the challenge BiodivOc, supported by the Occitanie region and the University of Montpellier is to accelerate the sharing of open-access and large scale ‘novel’ biodiversity related datasets. This call complements classical biodiversity synthesis calls, which aim at fostering the analysis of existing data and the synthesis of ideas and concepts, with a specific focus on data compilation and sharing. It can be considered as a preliminary step, but not mandatory, before submitting a research proposal to a classical biodiversity synthesis call (e.g. CESAB, sDiv, NCEAS).

 

For its first 2022 edition, the DATASHARE joint call will fund two 2-years projects.

 

More information

 

 

Call for proposals Impacts on terrestrial biodiversity in the Anthropocene 2022

 

As part of the implementation of the national “terrestrial biodiversity monitoring” programme carried out by the French Biodiversity Office (OFB), which aims to measure, identify and monitor the influence of human activities on biodiversity and the best practices to be promoted, the Ministry of Ecological Transition (MTE) and the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) are launching a call for research projects on the “Impacts on terrestrial biodiversity in the Anthropocene “. The call aims to characterize the positive, negative or non-existent impacts of human activities and induced pressures on the state and dynamics of terrestrial biodiversity.

 

The results of the research funded by the programme should help to strengthen the actions of society as a whole, to halt the decline of biodiversity and promote sustainable human development. 

 

This call for proposals will allow the funding of:

  • 3 data SYNTHESIS projects of three years – these projects should develop syntheses of ideas and/or concepts, analyses of existing data, and should focus on factors affecting the state, evolution and dynamics of biodiversity.
  • 4 to 6 one-year SYNERGY projects – these projects should provide complementary answers to a question that emerges from a research project that has been finalized or is underway, and should help stakeholders with indicators and practices to be promoted or abandoned to preserve biodiversity.
  • 1 to 2 SYSTEMATIC REVIEW projects of two years – these projects must present an inventory of human practices that have an impact on biodiversity and a summary of the state of knowledge on the impacts considered.

 

More information

[Course] Opening of pre-registration for the training course “Biodiversity knowledge synthesis: an introduction to meta-analyses and systematic reviews” – 2022

This new five-day course, organised by the CESAB – Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis – of the FRB,  aims to train young researchers on the methods and techniques of meta-analyses and systematic reviews/maps applied to the field of biodiversity.
 
The training course will be given in French and will take place from 3 to 7 October 2022 at CESAB, in Montpellier.

 

You can pre-register for this course by filling in the form available on the event page until Friday 24th of June 2022 at midnight (CEST). As the number of places is limited, registrations will be confirmed in July. 

 

 

Pré-inscription et programme

[FRB-CESAB] Theory-driven Analysis of Ecological Data – 2022

 

The CESAB – Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis – and the GdR TheoMoDive organize the first edition of the training course “Theory-driven Analysis of Ecological Data”. The objective of this five-day course is to train young researchers in analyzing ecological data using theory-driven approaches. 

 

The training course, in English, will take place from the 16th to the 20th of May 2022 in the CESAB premises in Montpellier. Price is 150 € for the week, including lunch. Travel, accommodation and evening meals are at the expense of the participants. 

 

 

Find the training course on GitHub

 

 

A good knowledge of the R software is required.

 

List of organizers (by alphabetical order):
  • Vincent CALCAGNO (INRAE, ISA) 
  • Emanuel FRONHOFER (CNRS, Isem)
  • Isabelle GOUNAND (CNRS, iEES-Paris) 
  • François MASSOL (CNRS, CIIL) 

 

Others speakers: Matthieu BARBIER, Maxime DUBART, Claire JACQUET, Benjamin ROSENBAUM.

[Joint call SYNERGY FRB-CESAB / SinBiose / FAPESP / CEBA] Two new projects on biodiversity in the neotropical realm

Two innovative projects relating to biodiversity in the neotropical realm were selected withing the call for proposals from the CEntre for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity of the French Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB-CESAB), the Brazilian Synthesis Center on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (SinBiose), the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and the French Laboratory of Excellence CEBA (CEnter for the study of Biodiversity in Amazonia).

 

 

The relationship between soil macrofauna biodiversity and ecosystem services delivery across land use systems in neotropical rainforest biomes

Principal investigators: Jérôme MATHIEU (Sorbonne Université, France) and Miguel COOPER (University of Sao Paulo, Brésil)

 

Networks of Fungal Interactions in the Neotropics

Principal investigators: Mélanie ROY (Université de Toulouse, France) and Paulo GUIMARAES (University of Sao Paulo, Brésil)

 

The two projects will be funded for a period of three years, including: the recruitment of a post-doctoral fellow based in Brazil and working on the project for two years, the organization of four meetings (two in France, at CESAB in Montpellier and two in Brazil in the state of São Paulo) and the promotion and publication of the results. Logistical, technical and administrative support will also be provided all along the project.  

[Call for proposals FRB-MTE-OFB 2021] Eight projects selected within the call “Impacts on terrestrial biodiversity in the Anthropocene”

As part of the implementation of the national “terrestrial biodiversity monitoring” programme carried out by the French Biodiversity Office (OFB), which aims to measure, identify and monitor the influence of human activities on biodiversity and the best practices to be promoted, the Ministry of Ecological Transition (MTE) and the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) launched a call for research projects on the “Impacts on terrestrial biodiversity in the Anthropocene“. 

 

Three types of projects are funded by this 2021-call:

 

SYNTHESIS PROJECTS

 

  • ACOUCENE, led by Jean-Yves BARNAGAUD (EPHE, France) and Solène CROCI (CNRS, France) – Towards a silent spring? Modeling and projecting the impacts of the Anthropocene on soundscapes with birds as an acoustic ecological indicator
  • IMPACTS, led by Wilfried THUILLER (CNRS, France) and Franziska SCHRODT (University of Nottingham, United Kingdom) – French biodiversity in the Anthropocene – impacts and drivers of spatial and temporal response
  • LANDWORM, led by Daniel CLUZEAU (University of Rennes, France) and Céline PELOSI (INRAE, France) – Impact of Land use and management on earthworm communities
  • SPATMAN, led by Isabelle BOULANGEAT (INRAE, France) and Mohamed HILAL (INRAE, France) – What role for the spatial organisation of human societies to modulate their pressures on biodiversity?

 

These 3-years projects will develop syntheses of ideas and/or concepts, analyses of existing data, and will focus on factors affecting the state, evolution and dynamics of biodiversity.

 

SYNERGY PROJECTS

 

  • FUNINDIC, led by Cyrille Violle (CEFE-CNRS, France) – Functional rarity as a marker of land use intensification and ecosystem functions in French permanent grasslands: towards new indicators for the monitoring and conservation of the French flora.
  • INTERFACE, led by Céline Clauzel (University Paris Diderot, France) – Multi-habitat network modelling for integrated conservation of interface environments.
  • LANBIO, led by Cendrine Mony (University of Rennes, France) –  Effect of human-driven landscape modification on biodiversity in bocage landscapes: toward integrative indicators. 

 

These 1-year projects will provide complementary answers to a question that emerges from research projects that has been finalized or is underway and will help stakeholders with indicators and practices to be promoted or abandoned to preserve biodiversity.

 

SYSTEMATIC MAP PROJECT 

 

  • SOLAIRE-BP, led by Yorick Reyjol (UMS PatriNat OFB-CNRS-MNHN, France) – Systematic overview of literature about the impacts of renewable energy : photovoltaic and biodiversity.

 

This 1-year project is a preliminary step to the “systematic review” and will  focus on pressure-impact links related to human practices in order to highlight whether the impacts on biodiversity are well established or suffer from a lack of data or literature.

[Call for proposals FRB-CESAB 2022] Opening of the call!

Through its Center for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB), the French Foundation for Biodiversity Research opens its 2022 call for research proposals, to fund three innovative projects relating to the synthesis of ideas and concepts and/or the analysis of existing data. The main aim of these projects should be to improve scientific knowledge of biodiversity and demonstrate how we can use this knowledge to better protect it. 

 

The submitted projects can deal with any topic related to biodiversity, in the fields of natural sciences and/or human and social sciences.

 

The selected projects will be funded for three years, including: the recruitment of a post-doctoral fellow for 24 months, the organization of six meetings of the working group at CESAB and the promotion and publication of the results. CESAB will also provide logistical, technical and administrative support all along the project.

 

  • Pre-proposal deadline : 19th May 2022, 18:00 CEST

 

 

More information

[FRB-CESAB] Newsletter 6 CESAB – January 2022

A WORD FROM BRUNO FADY, PRESIDENT OF CESAB’S SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

 

It is worth recalling that CESAB is an infrastructure of the FRB, a unique and original tool in the French research landscape. It is one of the rare scientific tools that have been created in the world over the last 30 years, based on the observation that the data generated, and collected during short-term projects, that classically finance research in ecology and biodiversity, are not very well used (Baron et al., 2017). We can only welcome this decision, given the scientific production of the working groups funded with the CESAB, the career path of the young scientists who have been part of and are often the core of these working groups, and the recognition of the work published by many private and institutional actors to improve biodiversity protection (see “CESAB in a Zoom in 2021”). 

 

The Covid-19 pandemic pointed out that scientific advances are not the work of an isolated individual, of an (unrecognized) genius who emerges in the midst of a crisis, but rather the work of collectives, manipulating and analyzing data that must be compiled and verified, re-testing and re-verifying hypotheses and concepts. A scientific fact only really becomes so when it finally emerges as an evidence, a consensus (in the statistical sense of the term) for the whole scientific community. At a time when the scientific approach and its results are being questioned by part of society, and beyond a relevant (re)development of data, concepts and their analysis for its scientific discipline, the role of CESAB is to disseminate scientific facts to better understand and protect biodiversity. 

 

After two mandates as president of the CESAB scientific committee, it is time for me to hand over. I would have gladly extended my mandate for a longer period of time as the dynamism of CESAB is so strong, reminding me a little of the enthusiastic state of mind that reigned when it was created more than 10 years ago. But, fortunately, our statutes do not allow it and a new scientific committee will be created in 2022. 

 

The CESAB is now a French institution, widely recognized. Scientists working in the field of ecology and biodiversity are not mistaken, they apply each year in greater numbers to the FRB-CESAB calls for proposals. I hope that the founding members of the FRB, the French public authorities and biodiversity stakeholders will continue to actively support the CESAB, financing at least several working groups per year and the structure itself. With France’s reaffirmed commitments to biodiversity protection at the World Conservation Congress in Marseille in September 2021, I have no doubt that this will be the case. 

 

Happy New Year to all, welcome to the new scientific committee and long live the CESAB.  

Bruno Fady

 

 

More information about CESAB

 

[Course] Opening of pre-registration for the training course “Theory-driven Analysis of Ecological Data” – 2022

This new 5-days training course, organized by the CESAB and the GdR TheoMoDive aims to train young researchers in analyzing ecological data using theory-driven approaches. 

 

The training course, in English, will take place from the 16th to the 20th of May 2022 in the CESAB premises in Montpellier. Price is 150 € for the week, including lunch. Travel, accommodation and evening meals are at the expense of the participants. 

 

You can pre-register for this course by filling in the form available on the event page until Monday 14th of February at midnight (CET). As the number of places is limited, registrations will be confirmed in March. 

 

 

Pre-registration and programme

[FRB-CESAB] Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology – 2021

The CESABand the GdR EcoStat organize the third edition of the training course “Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology“. The objective of this five-day course is to train young researchers in reproducibility, software development and version management tools (e.g. R, git, markdown, tidyverse, docker), applied to biodiversity research.

 

Price is 300 € for the week, including lunch. Travel, accommodation and evening meals are at the expense of the participants. Grants may be awarded to some participants (for an amount not exceeding the registration fee): one grant from the FRB and one grant from the GdR EcoStat (for students belonging to a laboratory member of the GdR). The training course, in French, took place from the 29th of November to the 3rd of December 2021 in the CESAB premises in Montpellier. 

 

The training course can be credited for students registered in the following doctoral schools:

  • GAIA (Montpellier)
  • EGAAL (Rennes)
  • ABIES (Paris)
  • Sciences and agrosciences (Avignon)
  • SEVAB (Toulouse) 
  • Sciences de l’environnement (Aix en Provence)
 
List of speakers (in alphabetical order):
  • Nicolas CASAJUS (FRB-CESAB)
  • Stéphane DRAY (CNRS LBBE)
  • Olivier GIMENEZ (CNRS Cefe)
  • Loreleï GUÉRY (CIRAD PHIM)
  • François GUILHAUMON (IRD Marbec)
  • Nina SCHIETTEKATTE (EPHE Criobe)

Lake Temperatures in the Time of Climate Change

Posted on by Marie-Claire Danner

People depend on lakes for many ecosystem services such as water, food, transportation, and recreation, but these services are at an unknown level of risk because we do not understand how lakes are affected by climate change. A network of 39 scientists from 20 countries on five continents are collaborating to put long-term and high-frequency data to work to understand, predict, and communicate the role and response of lakes in our changing global environment. This work was partly funded by the John Wesley Powell from U.S. Geological Survey and the Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB), through the research projects GEISHA of the FRB’s Center for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB).

 

Many of the scientists hypothesized that storms would have strong impacts on water temperature and water column mixing, based on a prior synthesis study. However, the team’s most recent study found that wind- and rainstorms do not cause major temperature changes in lakes.

 

They examined how wind- and rainstorms affected lake temperature across 18 lakes and 11 countries using meteorological and water column temperature data and found minimal changes to lake temperature from storms. In fact, they found that day-to-day changes in lake temperature during non-storm periods were often more extreme than storm-induced temperature changes. As expected, storms impacted the temperature of deep lakes less than shallow lakes because more energy is needed to mix layers of water with different temperatures in deep lakes than in shallow lakes. For example, storm-induced temperature changes in Lake Superior (average depth almost 500 feet) will be smaller than in Lake Okeechobee (average depth about 10 feet).

 

 

A storm rolls over Lake Superior. Photo credit: Jessica Wesolek, Lake Superior State University’s Center for Freshwater Research and Education

 

“Because storm-induced changes to lake temperature were minimal overall, storm-induced changes in other environmental conditions such as nutrient concentrations or light may have larger impacts on lake animals and plants,” said Jonathan Doubek, Assistant Professor at Lake Superior State University in the School of Natural Resources & Environment and the Center for Freshwater Research and Education, who joined the network while at the University of Vermont. These findings represent concrete progress in understanding how lakes are weathering storms.

 

“Professor Doubek’s study highlights the usefulness of high-frequency data: we were able to discover that the effect of storms on lake temperatures may not be as strong as we previously believed,” said Dr. Jason Stockwell, Professor and Director of the Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Laboratory at the University of Vermont.

 

The team of scientists has begun analyzing the impact of storm-related changes in nutrient concentrations and light availability on organisms using the same global dataset and has recently had a proposal funded to help continue this work into the future. “The power of global collaborative teamwork to pool data and ideas is improving our understanding about how our planet functions and may function in the future,” Stockwell said. “We need this information to protect ecosystem and human health.”

[Call for proposals FRB-MTE-OFB] Opening of the call «  Impacts on terrestrial biodiversity in the Anthropocene »

As part of the implementation of the national “terrestrial biodiversity monitoring” programme carried out by the French Biodiversity Office (OFB), which aims to measure, identify and monitor the influence of human activities on biodiversity and the best practices to be promoted, the Ministry of Ecological Transition (MTE) and the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) are launching a call for research projects on the “Impacts on terrestrial biodiversity in the Anthropocene “. The call aims to characterize the positive, negative or non-existent impacts of human activities and induced pressures on the state and dynamics of terrestrial biodiversity.

 

The results of the research funded by the programme should help to strengthen the actions of society as a whole, to halt the decline of biodiversity and promote sustainable human development. 

 

This call for proposals will allow the funding of:

  • 3 data SYNTHESIS projects of three years – these projects should develop syntheses of ideas and/or concepts, analyses of existing data, and should focus on factors affecting the state, evolution and dynamics of biodiversity.
  • 4 to 6 one-year SYNERGIE projects – these projects should provide complementary answers to a question that emerges from a research project that has been finalized or is underway, and should help stakeholders with indicators and practices to be promoted or abandoned to preserve biodiversity.
  • 2 to 4 one-year SYSTEMIC MAP projects – a preliminary step to the “systematic review”, these projects will have to focus on pressure-impact links related to human practices in order to highlight whether the impacts on biodiversity are well established or suffer from a lack of data or literature.

 

 

More information

[Press release] Stewardship by Indigenous and local communities is the key to successful nature conservation

Posted on by Marie-Claire Danner

In the run-up to the 15th United Nations Conference on Biodiversity, several States have committed to creating protected areas on at least 30% of their land and sea territories by 2030. This tendency to focus on the proportion of land and sea to be protected in order to preserve biodiversity obscures more fundamental questions: how conservation is done, by whom and with what outcomes. These questions are crucial for effective biodiversity conservation.

 

Lead author, Dr Neil Dawson of University of East Anglia (UEA) School of International Development, was part of an international team conducting a systematic review that found conservation success is “the exception rather than the rule” – but research suggests the answer could be equitable conservation, which empowers and supports the environmental stewardship of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. This global review of evidence takes advantage of a growing number of studies looking at how governance – the arrangements and decision making behind conservation efforts – affects both nature and the well-being of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

 

The work is part of the JustConservation research project funded by the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) within its Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB), and was initiated through the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (IUCN CEESP). It is the result of collaboration between 17 scientists, including researchers from the European School of Political and Social Sciences (ESPOL) at the Catholic University of Lille and the University of East Anglia. The findings are published on 02/09/2021 in the journal Ecology and Society.

 

Dr Dawson said: “This study shows it is time to focus on who conserves nature and how, instead of what percentage of the Earth to fence off. Conservation led by Indigenous Peoples and local communities, based on their own knowledge and tenure systems, is far more likely to deliver positive outcomes for nature. In fact, conservation very often fails because it excludes and undervalues local knowledge and this often infringes on rights and cultural diversity along the way.”

 

International conservation organisations and governments often lead the charge on conservation projects, excluding or controlling local practices, most prominently through strict protected areas. The study recommends Indigenous Peoples and local communities need to be at the helm of conservation efforts, with appropriate support from outside, including policies and laws that recognise their knowledge systems. “Furthermore, it is imperative to shift to this approach without delay” Dr Dawson said. “Current policy negotiations, especially the forthcoming UN climate and biodiversity summits, must embrace and be accountable for ensuring the central role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in mainstream climate and conservation programs. Otherwise, they will likely set in stone another decade of well-meaning practices that result in both ecological decline and social harms. Whether for tiger reserves in India, coastal communities in Brazil or wildflower meadows in the UK, the evidence shows that the same basis for successful conservation through stewardship holds true. Currently, this is not the way mainstream conservation efforts work.”

 

From an initial pool of over 3,000 publications, 169 were found to provide detailed evidence of both the social and ecological sides of conservation. Strikingly, the authors found that 56 per cent of the studies investigating conservation under ‘local’ control reported positive outcomes for both human well-being and conservation. For ‘externally’ controlled conservation, only 16 per cent reported positive outcomes and more than a third of cases resulted in ineffective conservation and negative social outcomes, in large part due to the conflicts arising with local communities.

 

However, simply granting control to local communities does not automatically guarantee conservation success. Local institutions are every bit as complex as the ecosystems they govern, and this review highlights that a number of factors must align to realize successful stewardship. Community cohesion, shared knowledge and values, social inclusion, effective leadership and legitimate authority are important ingredients that are often disrupted through processes of globalisation, modernisation or insecurity, and can take many years to re-establish. Additionally, factors beyond the local community can greatly impede local stewardship, such as laws and policies that discriminate against local customs and systems in favour of commercial activities. Moving towards more equitable and effective conservation can therefore be seen as a continuous and collaborative process.

 

Dr  Dawson said: “Indigenous Peoples’ and local communities’ knowledge systems and actions are the main resource that can generate successful conservation. To try to override them is counterproductive, but it continues, and the current international policy negotiations and resulting pledges to greatly increase the global area of land and sea set aside for conservation are neglecting this key point. Conservation strategies need to change, to recognize that the most important factor in achieving positive conservation outcomes is not the level of restrictions or magnitude of benefits provided to local communities, but rather recognising local cultural practices and decision-making. It is imperative to shift now towards an era of conservation through stewardship.”

 

CP_JustConservation_2021_fig

Figure: The central and inseparable role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in equitable and effective biodiversity conservation

Biodiversité : au-delà des surfaces à protéger, comment et par qui doit se faire sa conservation ?

Les facteurs à l’origine du succès de projets de conservation sont encore difficiles à identifier. Ces dernières années plusieurs études ont ainsi cherché à comprendre le fonctionnement de la conservation.  Mais, c’est la première fois qu’une équipe de recherche internationale a étudié la manière dont la gouvernance – la gestion et la prise de décision en matière de conservation –  affecte à la fois la nature et le bien-être des peuples autochtones et les communautés locales.

 

Ces travaux sont en partie issus du projet de recherche JustConservation financé par la Fondation pour la recherche sur la biodiversité (FRB) au sein de son Centre de synthèse et d’analyse sur la biodiversité (Cesab) et ont  été initiés par la Commission des politiques environnementales, économiques et sociales de l’Union internationale pour la conservation de la nature (CPEES de l’UICN). Ils sont le fruit de la collaboration entre 17 scientifiques, dont des chercheurs de l’École européenne de sciences politiques et sociales (ESPOL) de l’Université Catholique de Lille et de l’Université de East Anglia (UK). Ils font l’objet d’une publication, parue le 02/09/2021 dans la revue Ecology and Society.

 

Après avoir passé en revue plus de 3 000 publications, les chercheurs en ont identifié 169 traitant de l’influence de différentes formes de gouvernance sur les résultats de la conservation. Ils révèlent un contraste frappant entre les résultats issus de la conservation sous le contrôle « local » des peuples autochtones et communautés locales, et les résultats de la conservation menée sous le contrôle « extérieur » des États, des ONGs et des entreprises privées. 56 % des études sur la conservation sous contrôle « local » montrent des résultats positifs, tant pour le bien-être humain que pour la conservation. Pour la conservation sous contrôle « extérieur », seul 16 % des études rapportent des résultats positifs et plus d’un tiers ont abouti à une conservation inefficace et des résultats sociaux négatifs. La principale explication de cette différence réside dans le fait que la conservation contrôlée localement peut produire une gestion active et collective de l’environnement. Lorsque les valeurs et les pratiques locales sont respectées et que les communautés locales jouent un rôle central dans la conservation, une vision commune du paysage peut être établie. Cela génère alors une mobilisation pour préserver, restaurer et défendre l’environnement.

 

Les résultats de cette étude véhiculent donc un message optimiste : une conservation équitable, qui renforce et soutient l’intendance environnementale des peuples autochtones et des communautés locales, est la principale voie vers une conservation efficace à long terme de la biodiversité, en particulier lorsqu’elle est soutenue par des lois et des politiques plus larges.

 

La reconnaissance et le soutien des institutions locales nécessitent une réorientation des activités des organisations et des gouvernements qui dominent actuellement les efforts de conservation au niveau mondial. Dr Neil Dawson, premier auteur de l’étude, conclut ainsi : “qu’il s’agisse de réserves de tigres en Inde, de communautés côtières au Brésil ou de prairies de fleurs sauvages au Royaume-Uni, les preuves sont bien là : il est essentiel que les négociations politiques actuelles, en particulier celles de la Convention des Nations unies sur la diversité biologique (CDB), reconnaissent le rôle central des peuples autochtones et des communautés locales dans la lutte contre le changement climatique et pour la conservation de la biodiversité” 

 

CP_JustConservation_Fig

Figure : Le rôle central et indissociable des peuples autochtones et des communautés locales dans la conservation équitable et efficace de la biodiversité. Dans le sens des aiguilles d’une montre : Bien-être des peuples autochtones et des communautés locales – des communautés autonomes avec des valeurs partagées, des institutions et une autorité respectée soutiennent l’action collective de conservation ; Conservation efficace – intendance locale : autorégulation de l’utilisation des ressources, résistance aux menaces extérieures, adaptation au changement ; Gouvernance équitable de la conservation – reconnaissance des institutions et des droits locaux, contrôle des décisions locales, établissement de la confiance et résolution des conflits, responsabilité. L’illustration a été créée par Andy Wright www.madebyawdesign.com. Les images proviennent du réseau MIHARI http://mihari-network.org (discours d’une pêcheuse et reboisement de la mangrove à Belo-sur-Mer, dans le sud-ouest de Madagascar), et Holladay Photo (communauté Kahana, Koolauloa, Oahu, pratiquant une pêche traditionnelle hawaïenne appelée Hukilau).

 

[Press release] A better protection of marine megafauna through social networks and artificial intelligence

Posted on by Marie-Claire Danner

Scientists from three joint research units (MARBEC, ENTROPIE and LIRMM) have just published a study using the latest technological advances to identify charismatic species of the marine megafauna of New Caledonia: dugongs, turtles and sharks. This work, entitled “Leveraging social media and deep learning to detect rare megafauna in video surveys” and published in the international journal Conservation Biology, is partly the result of the Pelagic research project financed by the Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) within its Centre for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (Cesab), and is based on the collection of aerial videos financed by the Explorations de Monaco.

[FRB-CESAB] Newsletter 5 CESAB – July 2021

A WORD FROM THE SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR

 

We are living crazy times! The world is struggling with a major pandemic for more than a year, with dramatic consequences in terms of human lives lost and economic costs. But paradoxically, this crisis reduced (temporally) our impact on the planet, and thus might have also some positive consequences on biodiversity. Now that our economies are starting over, the question is now much we will have learned from the Covid crisis and its side-effects on the environmental crisis, so we do not go back to the business-as-usual GIEC scenario and end up losing on both sides.  

  

The scientific community took the opportunity of the Covid crisis to experiment how science could be made through virtual interactions. Synthesis centers have been at the forefront of this “experimentation” as our core activity is to gather scientists from all over the world. We had to rapidly adapt to supporting fully virtual working groups and after a year we can conclude that virtual meetings, while providing a bridge during the pandemic, cannot replace intense, in-person immersion meetings (Srivastava et al., 2021). Science and particularly synthesis science is also about social interactions between people : these direct interactions fuel collective and creative thinking needed for groups to work on what is planned, and more importantly imagine the unplanned. But, as scientists and more importantly environmental scientists, we must be at the forefront of the paradigm shifts our societies need to go through, to mitigate the environmental crisis. We are thus thinking of re-organizing biodiversity synthesis centers in regional hubs where research teams within each geographic region could meet simultaneously as in-person working groups. These “regional hubs” would also coordinate virtually with each other among synthesis centers. This will not preclude the need to gather whole groups within the lifetime of a project but might significantly reduce the amount of travels and thus the carbon impact of the synthesis working groups. This reorganization of our scientific models will take some time but the price is worth to pay!  

 

Biodiversity collapse

© Graeme Mackay  

 

The Covid crisis cannot make us forget about the ongoing environmental crisis, it should rather exemplify how humanity can work together to solve a global crisis; it should also exemplify how much costly it is to solve a crisis when the crisis is at its climax. The environmental and biodiversity crisis, are not at their climax, they are only beginning. Let’s hope that we will pay the price needed to stop these crisis before we cannot afford to pay it anymore …   

  

These last six months have been particularly busy for the CESAB team and groups. This newsletter reflect this rich activity and the best is yet to come with many new groups starting this year and next. I would like here to thanks thoroughly the CESAB and FRB staff as well as the CESAB scientific committee for the incredible work they already have achieved this year; and thanks the whole FRB and its founders to make all this possible. With the 4 projects funded in the 2020 call and the upcoming 2 projects funded via our France-Brazil joint call, the CESAB will host 20 active groups by 2022. This strong and positive dynamics reflect our collective willingness to fulfill the need for synthesis in biodiversity science as well as the incredible quality and maturity of the scientific community on this fundamental issue. Synthesis will help us tackle the biodiversity crisis before it reaches its climax and I am proud that, at its small scale, the CESAB is helping toward this aim.  

  

Nicolas Mouquet 

 

 

More information about CESAB

 

[Call for proposals FRB-CESAB 2020] Four projects selected

Four innovative projects relating to the synthesis of ideas and concepts and the analysis of existing data, were selected by the scientific committee from the call for proposals FRB-CESAb 2020. They will improve scientific knowledge of biodiversity and demonstrate how we can use this knowledge to better protect it. 

 

The selected projects are funded for a period of three years, including: the recruitment of a post-doctoral student for two years, the organization of six meetings of the working group at CESAB and the promotion and publication of the results. The CESAB also provides logistical, technical and administrative support.

 

Global redistribution of biodiversity: A macro- and eco-evolutionary approach to understand species vulnerability to global changes

PIs: Gaël GRENOUILLET – Université de Toulouse (France) and Lise COMTE – Illinois State University (USA)

 

Supporting climate resilience through equitable ocean conservation

PIs : Joachim CLAUDET – CNRS (France), David GILL – Duke University (USA) and Jessica BLYTHE – Brock University (Canada)

 

Understanding power dynamics in stakeholder participation: integrating theory and practice for effective biodiversity conservation

PIs: Juliette YOUNG – INRAE (France) and James BUTLER – CSIRO (Australia)

 

Synthesis of Neotropical Tree Biodiversity with Plot Inventories

PIs: Jérôme CHAVE – CNRS (France) and Adriane ESQUIVEL MUELBERT – Université de Birmingham (United Kingdom)

[Course] Opening of the 2021 training course – Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology

The CESAB and the GdR EcoStat organize the third edition of the training course “Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology“. The objective of this five-day course is to train young researchers in reproducibility, software development and version management tools, applied to biodiversity research.

 

The training course will take place from the 29th of November to the 3rd of December 2021 in the CESAB premises in Montpellier. The course will be in French. The training course can now be credited for students registered in specific doctoral schools, you can find the list on the event page.

 

You can pre-register for this course by filling in the form available on the event page until Saturday 31st July at midnight (CEST). As the number of places is limited, registrations will be confirmed during the first week of September. Note that the course can now give you credit in specific French doctoral schools. 

 

 

Pre-registration and programme

[FRB-CESAB] Opening of the joint call SYNERGY with SinBiose / FAPESP / CEBA on biodiversity in the neotropical realm

In partnership with SinBiose, FAPESP, and LabEX CEBA, the French Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB) opens a call for research projects through its Center for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB), to fund two innovative research projects on biodiversity in the neotropical realm. The submitted projects can be in the fields of natural sciences and/or social and human sciences and should aim at developing the synthesis of ideas and concepts and/or the analysis of existing data.

 

The selected projects will be funded for a period of three years, including: the recruitment of a post-doctoral fellow based in Brazil and working on the project for two years, the organization of four meetings (two in France, at CESAB in Montpellier and two in Brazil in the state of São Paulo) and the promotion and publication of the results. Logistical, technical and administrative support will also be provided.

 

  • Pre-proposal deadline : 30th July 2021, 12:00 CEST

 

 

More information

[FRB-CESAB] Behind the WOODIV paper: the Euro-Mediterranean trees in a database

From the Spanish fir (Abies pinsapo), endemic species in Andalusia, to the Golden oak (Quercus alnifolia) in Cyprus, the Mediterranean Basin is home to emblematic species. These trees have always fascinated the people around them and the botanists. Yet, the Mediterranean trees are comparatively less well-known than their northern relatives.

 

Anne-Christine Monnet, member of the FRB-CESAB project WOODIV, present in an article about the scientific publication “WOODIV, a database of occurrences, functional traits, and phylogenetic data for all Euro-Mediterranean trees”, published in March 2021 in Scientific data, how Agathe Leriche, principal investigator of the WOODIV project, and Frédéric Médail, project member, gathered scientists and botanists in order to combine data and knowledge on Mediterranean trees from sparse national databases to one high-quality standardized dataset.

 

 

Read the article

[FRB-CESAB / CIEE] Earth’s ecosystems in a time of global change: Six ecologists discuss challenges and solutions

The Canadian synthesis center CIEE-ICEE  organized, with the help of the FRB-CESAB, the French Embassy in Vancouver and the University of British Columbia, a 1h30 conference on Wednesday, April 7, 2021 at 16:00 PT (Pacific Time) – 01:00 French time.

 

The six panelists of “Earth’s ecosystems in a time of global change: Six ecologists discuss challenges and solutions” are Bastien Mérigot (Montpellier University) – principal investigator of the FRB-CESAB/ CIEE project FISHGLOB, Nicolas Loeuille (Sorbonne Université), Shawn Leroux (Memorial University of Newfoundland), William Cheung (University of BC), Nancy Shackell (Bedford Institute of Oceanography), and Isabelle Gounand (Sorbonne Université) – principal investigator of the FRB-CESAB/ CIEE project RED-BIO.

 

The recorded panel discussion is now available below. 

 

 

 

[Call for proposals FRB-CESAB / ITTECOP] The projects NAVIDIV and BRIDGE selected

Two projects were selected by the scientific committee from the joint call for proposals FRB-CESAB / ITTECOP on the theme “Territorial approach to biodiversity: transport infrastructures, natural and agricultural environments”.

 

Inland navigation infrastructures and biodiversity: impacts and opportunities for waterwayscape management

PIs : Alienor JELIAZKOV – INRAE (France) and Jean-Nicolas BEISEL – ENGEES/CNRS (France)

 

Building a bridge between river corridors, roadsides and field margins: how landscape interactions modulate taxonomic and functional plant diversity

PIs: Eric TABACCHI – CNRS-INEE (France) and Guillaume FRIED – ANSES (France)

 

Both projects will, among others, evaluate the impacts of these infrastructures on biodiversity and analyse the economic, socio-technical and political factors that contribute to the deployment of these infrastructures and the extent to which they take biodiversity into account.

[Press release] Study in Nature: Protecting the Ocean Delivers a Comprehensive Solution for Climate, Fishing and Biodiversity

A new study published in the prestigious peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature today offers a combined solution to several of humanity’s most pressing challenges. It is the most comprehensive assessment to date of where strict ocean protection can contribute to a more abundant supply of healthy seafood and provide a cheap, natural solution to address climate change—in addition to protecting embattled species and habitats.

 

An international team of 26 authors – including researchers from Ifremer and the University of Montpellier and with the CNRS – identified specific areas that, if protected, would safeguard over 80% of the habitats for endangered marine species, and increase fishing catches by more than eight million metric tons. The study is also the first to quantify the potential release of carbon dioxide into the ocean from trawling, a widespread fishing practice—and finds that trawling is pumping hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the ocean every year, a volume of emissions similar to those of aviation. This work was partly funded by the Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB), EDF and the Total Foundation, through the FREE and PELAGIC research projects of the FRB’s Center for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB).

 

 

Read the full press release

 

[Press release] Study in Nature: Protecting the Ocean Delivers a Comprehensive Solution for Climate, Fishing and Biodiversity

Posted on by Marie-Claire Danner

A new study published in the prestigious peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature today offers a combined solution to several of humanity’s most pressing challenges. It is the most comprehensive assessment to date of where strict ocean protection can contribute to a more abundant supply of healthy seafood and provide a cheap, natural solution to address climate change—in addition to protecting embattled species and habitats.

 

An international team of 26 authors – including researchers from Ifremer and the University of Montpellier and with the CNRS – identified specific areas that, if protected, would safeguard over 80% of the habitats for endangered marine species, and increase fishing catches by more than eight million metric tons. The study is also the first to quantify the potential release of carbon dioxide into the ocean from trawling, a widespread fishing practice—and finds that trawling is pumping hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the ocean every year, a volume of emissions similar to those of aviation. This work was partly funded by the Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB), EDF and the Total Foundation, through the FREE and PELAGIC research projects of the FRB’s Center for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB).

 

“Ocean life has been declining worldwide because of overfishing, habitat destruction and climate change. Yet only 7% of the ocean is currently under some kind of protection,” said Dr. Enric Sala, explorer in residence at the National Geographic Society and lead author of the study, Protecting the global ocean for biodiversity, food and climate.

 

“In this study, we’ve pioneered a new way to identify the places that—if strongly protected—will boost food production and safeguard marine life, all while reducing carbon emissions,” Dr. Sala said. “It’s clear that humanity and the economy will benefit from a healthier ocean. And we can realize those benefits quickly if countries work together to protect at least 30% of the ocean by 2030.” 

 

To identify the priority areas, the authors—leading marine biologists, climate experts, and economists—analyzed the world’s unprotected ocean waters based on the degree to which they are threatened by human activities that can be reduced by marine protected areas (for example, overfishing and habitat destruction). They then developed an algorithm to identify those areas where protections would deliver the greatest benefits across the three complementary goals of biodiversity protection, seafood production and climate mitigation. They mapped these locations to create a practical “blueprint” that governments can use as they implement their commitments to protect nature.

 

The study does not provide a single map for ocean conservation, but it offers a first-in-kind framework for countries to decide which areas to protect depending on their national priorities. However, the analysis shows that 30% is the minimum amount of ocean that the world must protect in order to provide multiple benefits to humanity.

 

“There is no single best solution to save marine life and obtain these other benefits. The solution depends on what society—or a given country—cares about, and our study provides a new way to integrate these preferences and find effective conservation strategies,” said Dr. Juan S. Mayorga, a report co-author and a marine data scientist with the Environmental Market Solutions Lab at UC Santa Barbara and Pristine Seas at National Geographic Society.

 

The study comes ahead of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, which will gather end of 2021 in Kunming, China. The meeting will bring together representatives of 190 countries to finalize an agreement to end the world’s biodiversity crisis. The goal of protecting 30% of the planet’s land and ocean by 2030 (the “30×30” target) is expected to be a pillar of the treaty. The study follows commitments by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the European Commission and others to achieve this target on national and global scales.

 

“Solutions with multiple benefits are attractive to people and leaders alike. Our pioneering approach allows them to pinpoint the places that, if protected, will contribute significantly to three big problems at once—food security, climate change, and biodiversity loss.  Our breakthrough in methodology can bring multiple benefits to nature and people,” said Dr. Sala.

 

 

 

 

[FRB-CESAB] Newsletter 4 CESAB – January 2021

A WORD FROM THE NEW FRB’S PRESIDENT: DENIS COUVET

 

FRB-Denis-Couvet-HD

Denis Couvet

The French Foundation for Biodiversity Research’s ambition is to better understand the dynamics of biodiversity, in interaction with those of societies. Its vocation is to build, with all actors, public and private, civil society, approaches based on nature and therefore biodiversity. Another main concern is to know how to anticipate the impacts, opportunities and unexpected effects… of these approaches, in an integrative and systemic framework. The synthesis center created by the FRB, CESAB, is a tool of excellence to meet these different objectives.

 
By bringing together the best international scientific teams around scientific synthesis, combining data, models and concepts, the work of CESAB should enable us to better understand the functioning of biodiversity, its state and its dynamics, from local to global scales. By shedding some light on the organization of ecological systems and socio-ecosystems, CESAB should help us address the complexity of these systems and the conditions of their resilience.
 
For the coming year, I hope that the FRB’s team, which I have had the honor of chairing since January 1, and the scientific community will be able to work collectively on ambitious developments and exciting actions. 
 
Denis Couvet,
President of the French Foundation for Biodiversity Research
 
The FRB-CESAB team’s would like to collectively thank Jean-François Silvain, president of the FRB for the last 7 years. His contribution to the CESAB was invaluable and we will miss his insight and guidance. 
 

 

More information about CESAB

 

The project MAESTRO was selected from the FRB-CESAB call for proposals with France Filière Pêche

The project Maestro was selected by the CESAB selection committee from the joint call for proposals between FRB-CESAB and France Filière Pêche. 

 

MAESTRO will be coordinated by Arnaud AUBER and Camille ALBOUY, both working at IFREMER, and will look into climate change effects on exploited marine communities.

 

The project will be based on the analysis and synthesis of existing data, as well as the modelling of the effects of climate change on the biodiversity of European fish stocks and associated fisheries (North-East Atlantic and Mediterranean). The project will contribute to a better understanding of the effect of climate change on fish resources and fisheries, to help develop adaptive fisheries management measures. 

 

 

More information about Maestro

The CESAB is still active!

Despite the health situation, which does not allow researchers to meet at the CESAB in Montpellier, the groups remain active and work remotely. This is the case this week for the participants of the projects FREE and RED-BIO. 

 

 

FREE – about functional rarity 

 

FREE began in 2018 and works on functional rarity: how to define this rarity, how to quantify it and how to identify its causes and consequences. FREE ‘s participants have recently published, in collaboration with researchers from different institutes, an article based on data collected within the project and in which they show that ecologically rare species of birds and terrestrial mammals are also the most threatened (see the press release “Double jeopardy for ecologically rare birds and terrestrial mammals“).

Led by Cyrille Violle (CNRS) and Caroline Tucker (University of Colorado, USA), the group met (online!) this week to catch up on the various work in progress within the project.

 

 

 

RED-BIO –  about spatial ecology and ecological networks 

 

RED-BIO started this year and the participants have not yet had the opportunity to hold their first meeting at the CESAB in Montpellier. However, they were able to organize their first virtual meeting with the support of the FRB’s CESAB team and the Canadian Institute for Ecology and Evolution (CIEE). This is an opportunity for the participants to discuss the project’s progress and its main research question: under which conditions, the interactions between biological communities and the environment could generate spatial heterogeneity in abiotic resources?

The participants cover a wide geographical range from Vancouver, Canada, to Montpellier, France, and this first meeting allowed to clearly see the diversity of ideas within the group, but above all to detect elements of convergence. This project was selected from the joint call SYNERGY in collaboration with the CIEE and is led by Isabelle Gounand (CNRS) and Eric Harvey (Université de Montréal).

 

Red-Bio_W1
First meeting of the Red-Bio group

 

These meetings allow the FRB-CESAB’s groups to continue working on their projects and several scientific articles have been published in the last few months, some of them in high impact journals as Nature Communication, Global Change Biology,… see all the articles here. CESAB’s main objective is to advance knowledge in order to improve our understanding of ecosystems and their biodiversity and thus ensure their effective management and conservation.

Two projects were selected from the FRB-CESAB call for proposals of systematic reviews

Two projects were selected by the steering and selection committee from the FRB-CESAB call for proposals of systematic reviews. Both projects will use systematic mapping, critical assessment and narrative synthesis of the corpus of selected texts. Expected outcomes are publications of review articles in international scientific journals.

 

  • Theme 1: State and future of marine biodiversity in a time of global change 

 

InDySem: Influence of ecological dynamics on production and demand for marine ecosystem services. A systematic review for decision-making.

PI : Eric THIEBAUT, Sorbonne University, Paris (France)

 

  • Theme 2, in partnership with Agropolis Fondation: Solutions for agro-ecological transition that conserve biodiversity 

 

Agri-TE (Agriculture Transition Evidence): Evidence-based synthesis of the impacts of agro-ecological transition at the global scale to support integrated modelling and decision-making

PI: Damien BEILLOUIN – CIRAD, HORTYS, Montpellier (France)

[FRB-CESAB] Second edition of the training course “Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology”

The FRB’s Center for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversiry (CESAB) and the GDR EcoStat organised the second edition of the training course Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology online. The training took place from the 2nd to the 6th of November 2020. 

 

23 students, engineers and researchers from all over France were able to attend this training course online. 

 

Nicolas CASAJUS (FRB-Cesab), Stéphane DRAY (CNRS LBBE), Olivier GIMENEZ (CNRS Cefe), François GUILHAUMON (IRD Marbec), Nina SCHIETTEKATTE (EPHE Criobe) presented the essential tools for reproducible research (git/GitHub, rmarkdown, drake, R packages, etc.). Participants were also able to put into practice the knowledge acquired at the beginning of the training through projects in sub-groups on the Thursday and the Friday. 

 

Subscribe to the newsletter of the FRB and its CESAB to be kept informed about the next edition of the training course.

[FRB-CESAB] Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology – 2020

The CESAB and the GDR EcoStat organize the second edition of the training course “Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology“. The objective of this five-day course, in French, is to train young researchers in reproducibility, software development and version management tools (e.g. R, git, markdown, tidyverse, docker), applied to biodiversity research.

The registration fee is 100 € for the week and will be used to compensate the speakers. Students from laboratories member of the GDR EcoStat can apply for financial support from the GDR.

 

 

The training course took place from 2 to 6 November 2020.

 

 

 

You can access the training course’s slides as well as the R codes. 

 

List of speakers (in alphabetical order):

  • Nicolas CASAJUS (FRB-CESAB)
  • Stéphane DRAY (CNRS LBBE)
  • Olivier GIMENEZ (CNRS Cefe)
  • François GUILHAUMON (IRD Marbec)
  • Nina SCHIETTEKATTE (EPHE Criobe)

 

[FRB-CESAB] The training course ecoinfofair2020 is hosted at CESAB

Within the framework of the research infrastructure “National hub for biodiversity data” (in French PNDB: Pôle national des données de biodiversité), the research and actions in progress on making data FAIR – Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable – propose the implementation of products and services, around the biodiversity data, “as FAIR and open as possible”.

 

Thanks to the support of the DevLOG network (network of actors in the field of software development within Higher Education and Research), the PNDB is organizing workshops open to all, including an introductory training aspect.

 

This workshop takes place from October 19 to 21 from multiple remote sites (Concarneau, Paris and CESAB in Montpellier).

 

 

More information

[Call for proposal FRB-CESAB] The call for proposals is now open!

Through its Center for Biodiversity Synthesis and Analysis (CESAB), the French Foundation for Biodiversity Research opens a call for research projects, to fund at least three innovative projects relating to the synthesis of ideas and concepts and/or the analysis of existing data. The main aim of these projects should be to improve scientific knowledge of biodiversity and demonstrate how we can use this knowledge to better protect it. The submitted projects can deal with any topic related to biodiversity, in the fields of natural sciences or human and social sciences.

 

The selected projects will be funded for a period of three years, including: the recruitment of a post-doctoral student for two years, the organization of six meetings of the working group at CESAB and the promotion and publication of the results. The CESAB will also provide logistical, technical and administrative support.

 

  • Pre-proposal deadline: 1st December, 18:00 CET

 

 

More information

[Press release] Double jeopardy for ecologically rare birds and terrestrial mammals

Common assumptions notwithstanding, rare species can play unique and essential ecological roles. After studying two databases that together cover all known terrestrial mammals and birds worldwide, scientists from the CNRS, the Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB), Université Grenoble Alpes, and the University of Montpellier have demonstrated that, though these species are found on all continents, they are more threatened by human pressures than ecologically common species and will also be more impacted by future climate change.

 

Thus they are in double jeopardy. The researchers’ findings, published in Nature Communications on October 8th 2020, show that conservation programmes must account for the ecological rarity of species.

 

 

Read the full press release

[Press release] Double jeopardy for ecologically rare birds and terrestrial mammals

Posted on by Marie-Claire Danner

It has long been thought that rare species contribute little to the functioning of ecosystems. Yet recent studies have discredited that idea: rarity is a matter not only of the abundance or geographical range of a species, but also of the distinctiveness of its ecological functions. Because these functionally distinct species are irreplaceable, it is essential we understand their ecological characteristics, map their  distributions, and evaluate how vulnerable they are to current and future threats.

 

Using two databases that collect information on the world’s terrestrial mammals (4,654 species) and birds (9,287 species), scientists from the FRB’s Centre de Synthèse et d’Analyse de la Biodiversité (CESAB), CNRS research laboratories, Université Grenoble Alpes, the University of Montpellier, and partner institutes divided the earth’s surface into 50 × 50 km squares and determined the number of ecologically rare species within each. They showed that ecological rarity among mammals is concentrated in the tropics and the southern hemisphere, with peaks on Indonesian islands, in Madagascar, and in Costa Rica. Species concerned are mostly nocturnal frugivores, like bats and lemurs, and insectivores, such as small rodents. Ecologically rare bird species are mainly found in tropical and subtropical mountainous regions, especially in New Guinea, Indonesia, the Andes, and Central America. The birds in question are essentially frugivorous or nectarivorous, hummingbirds being an example. For birds and terrestrial mammals alike, islands are hotspots of ecological rarity.

 

The researchers also ranked these species according to their IUCN Red List status1 and found they made up the bulk of the threatened species categories. That is, ecologically rare mammals account for 71% of Red List threatened species (versus 2% for ecologically common mammals); and ecologically rare birds, 44.2% (versus 0.5% for ecologically common birds). For each species, they determined (i) anthropogenic pressure exerted; (ii) human development indexes (HDIs) of host countries; and (iii) exposure to armed conflicts. The last two of these elements shape conservation policies. The scientists observed that  human activity had a greater impact on ecologically rare mammals and birds than on more common species, and that these rare species were found in countries of every kind of profile, irrespective of HDI or the prevalence of warfare2 They used models to demonstrate that ecologically rare species will be the greatest victims of climate change, many of them facing extinction within 40 years.

 

This profiling of ecologically rare species makes it clear that current conservation efforts, even in zones already protected, are insufficient. Conservation strategies still too often ignore functional distinctiveness and focus instead on population sizes. But it is essential to take this distinctiveness into account, letting this knowledge guide steps taken to protect these rare species. As they are necessary for healthy ecosystems, a true paradigm shift in conservation policy is needed to ensure their survival.

 

 

For more information... some examples of ecologically rare species

 

 

[1] The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is a leading international NGO focused on nature conservation. It evaluates the risk of extinction faced by different species, assigning each to a particular category (e.g., ‘Least Concern’, ‘Near Threatened’, ‘Vulnerable’, ‘Endangered’, or ‘Extinct’).

[2] For example, the Philippines, where HDI is low and armed conflicts prevalent, are a hive for ecologically rare species (19 terrestrial mammals and 15 birds). Yet Australia, where HDI is high and armed conflict rare, is also home to many ecologically rare species (10 terrestrial mammals and 10 birds).

Rareté écologique des oiseaux et des mammifères terrestres : la double peine

Il a longtemps été supposé que les espèces rares contribuaient faiblement au fonctionnement des écosystèmes. Des études récentes ont cependant remis en cause cette hypothèse, la notion de rareté ne recouvrant pas seulement l’abondance ou l’étendue géographique des espèces, mais aussi l’originalité de leurs rôles écologiques. Ces espèces aux fonctions uniques étant irremplaçables, il est désormais fondamental de comprendre leurs caractéristiques écologiques, de cartographier leur distribution et d’évaluer leur vulnérabilité aux menaces actuelles et futures.

 

À partir de deux bases de données regroupant les espèces de mammifères terrestres (4 654 espèces) et d’oiseaux (9 287 espèces) à l’échelle mondiale, des scientifiques du Centre de synthèse et d’analyse de la biodiversité (Cesab) de la FRB, de laboratoires du CNRS, des universités Grenoble Alpes et de Montpellier et de leurs partenaires ont cartographié le nombre d’espèces écologiquement rares dans des zones géographiques de 50 km par 50 km à travers le monde. Ils ont démontré que la rareté écologique des mammifères se concentre dans les tropiques et dans l’hémisphère sud, avec des pics dans les îles indonésiennes, à Madagascar et au Costa Rica. Il s’agit surtout d’espèces nocturnes et frugivores (par exemple, les chauves-souris ou les lémuriens) ou insectivores (comme certains petits rongeurs). Les espèces d’oiseaux écologiquement rares se rencontrent principalement dans les régions montagneuses tropicales et subtropicales, en particulier en Nouvelle-Guinée, en Indonésie, dans les Andes et en Amérique centrale. Il s’agit essentiellement de espèces frugivores ou nectarivores (comme les oiseaux mouches). Dans les deux cas, la rareté écologique est largement surreprésentée dans les îles.

 

Les chercheuses et chercheurs ont également classé ces espèces en fonction de leur statut sur la liste rouge de l’UICN1. Ils ont ainsi constaté que les espèces écologiquement rares étaient surreprésentées dans les catégories menacées de l’UICN, tant pour les mammifères (71 %) que pour les oiseaux (44,2%) par rapport aux espèces écologiquement communes (2 % et 0,5 %, respectivement). Pour chaque espèce, ils  ont évalué leur exposition à l’impact anthropique, au développement humain (IDH) et aux conflits armés, ces deux derniers influençant les politiques de conservation. Ils ont constaté que les mammifères et les oiseaux écologiquement rares étaient plus touchés par l’influence humaine que les espèces plus communes et qu’ils étaient présents dans tous les types de pays, indépendamment de leur indice de développement ou du nombre de conflits2. Concernant l’influence du changement climatique, les scientifiques ont montré, à l’aide de modélisations, que les oiseaux écologiquement rares seront les plus touchés et que nombre d’entre eux risquent l’extinction d’ici 40 ans.

 

Ce « profilage » des espèces écologiquement rares met en évidence que leur préservation, même dans les zones actuellement protégées, n’est pas suffisante. La conservation des espèces est, aujourd’hui encore, trop souvent basée sur leur identité et leur statut démographique. Pourtant, la prise en compte de l’originalité de leurs rôles écologiques est essentielle et devrait aussi guider les actions de conservation. C’est un vrai changement de paradigme des politiques de conservation qu’il faut désormais mettre en oeuvre pour préserver ces espèces  essentielles au bon fonctionnement des écosystèmes.

 

 

Pour en savoir plus... des exemples d'espèces écologiquement rares

 

 

[1] L’Union internationale pour la conservation de la nature est l’une des principales organisations non gouvernementales mondiales consacrées à la conservation de la nature. Elle classe les espèces selon leur risque d’extinction, de « préoccupation mineure » à « éteint » en passant par « quasi menacée », « vulnérable » ou encore « en danger ».

[2] Par exemple, les Philippines possèdent un indice de développement humain (IDH) faible et un nombre élevé de conflits et sont considérées comme un point chaud de rareté écologique (19 espèces de mammifères et 15 d’oiseaux écologiquement rares) tout comme l’Australie qui, à l’inverse, possède un IDH élevé et un faible nombre de conflits et accueille respectivement 10 espèces de mammifères et d’oiseaux écologiquement rares.

 

[Call for proposals] The FRB-CESAB call on systematic reviews has been extended until the 9th of September

The FRB, through its Centre for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity (CESAB), is funding 2 postdoctoral researchers for up to 18 months, to carry out systematic reviews, using systematic mapping, critical assessment and narrative synthesis of the corpus of selected texts, in order to write a review article for an international scientific journal.

 

 

The project may go as far as either a completed lexicographical analysis or the extraction of statistical data from the corpus and their analysis (meta-analysis).

 

 

  •  Theme 1: State and future of marine biodiversity in a time of global change 
  • Theme 2, in partnership with Agropolis Fondation: Solutions for agro-ecological transition that conserve biodiversity 

 

Pre-proposals deadline : 9th September 2020, 23:59 CEST

More information can be found on the call page. 

Les plantes adventices au service de l’agriculture : pourquoi sont-elles essentielles et comment les protéger ?

Longtemps considérées comme de « mauvaises herbes » pour la compétition qu’elles exercent sur les plantes cultivées, les plantes adventices se révèlent être en réalité de grandes alliées dans les écosystèmes agricoles. C’est ce que montre l’étude du projet Disco-Weed publiée le 28 mai 2020 dans Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. À partir de données récoltées sur 184 parcelles cultivées de la Zone Atelier Plaine & Val de Sèvre, une plaine céréalière de 450 km² s’étendant autour du centre d’études biologiques de Chizé (CNRS/La Rochelle Université), les chercheurs ont montré que la diversité des plantes adventices, et en particulier les espèces rares, contribuaient à la fourniture simultanée de plusieurs fonctions écologiques (multifonctionnalité). En effet, les plantes adventices favorisent : le contrôle des ravageurs des cultures ; la fertilité du sol et des fonctions associées aux cycles du Carbone, de l’Azote et du Phosphore ; la pollinisation et le nombre d’espèces d’abeilles sauvages, un indicateur de la biodiversité.

 

Dans la seconde étude publiée le 8 juillet 2020 dans Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, les scientifiques ont cherché à comprendre les mécanismes à l’origine du maintien de la diversité de plantes adventices dans les parcelles agricoles pour favoriser leur présence. L’équipe a étudié la flore adventice dans 444 parcelles cultivées de la même Zone Atelier Plaine & Val de Sèvre. Dans ces différentes parcelles, les chercheurs ont montré que la diversité des adventices est plus importante dans les zones « d’interfaces », situées entre la bordure de parcelle et le premier rang de culture. L’étude montre pour la première fois qu’en plus de leur rôle de refuge pour la diversité de la flore adventice, ces zones non-cultivées agissent comme des ‘corridors’ (milieux reliant fonctionnellement entre eux  des habitats vitaux pour une espèce) entre les différentes parcelles d’un paysage agricole. L’étude montre aussi qu’une plus grande proportion d’agriculture biologique dans le paysage augmente la diversité de plantes adventices dans ces zones d’interfaces, en particulier dans les parcelles en céréales d’hiver. « La diversité des plantes adventices étant essentielle pour la fourniture de multiples fonctions écologiques, une gestion extensive de ces zones est une stratégie pour la préserver dans les paysages agricoles » souligne Sabrina Gaba, chercheuse à l’INRAE, auteure des deux publications et porteuse du projet Disco-Weed. L‘étude met en effet en évidence l’importance de :

  • conserver ces zones d’interfaces ;
  • et favoriser des paysages agricoles diversifiés, incluant des parcelles en agriculture biologique, pour assurer une plus grande diversité de plantes adventices dans les parcelles agricoles et ainsi la fourniture de multiples fonctions écologiques.
 
 

[FRB-CESAB] Newsletter 3 CESAB – July 2020

A WORD FROM THE CESAB SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR

 

FRB Cesab Nicolas MouquetNicolas Mouquet

 

We have all been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Even if it is too early to decipher the conditions that triggered the emergence of the coronavirus, it is, as other major epidemics, related to the environmental and biodiversity crisis we are experiencing.

 

Prevention could have been possible but they waited for the crisis to appear before acting. Prevention should be at the basis of our collective behavior, prevention and not fear! Prevention requires that we take the time to understand the world and synthesize complex information into meaningful and useful collective knowledge. What is true for the pandemics is true for the ongoing biodiversity crisis. The need for synthesis has never been so strong, synthesis is the only way of fueling appropriate actions. Furthermore, the timescale needed to achieve adequate and reliable synthesis is far longer than the rapid appearance of human-caused crisis. Synthesis must happen before!

 

Edward O. Wilson once said that the world would be run by “synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely”. For once, he was wrong, the world is not run by synthesizers, it is run by people that base their actions on incomplete information, are behind the limes, do not think critically and do not make wise choices ! This is why, today, we need synthesizers more than ever, and yet I do not see very much of collective effort to support synthesis in the agenda of research funding agencies. At our very small scale, synthesis centres, such as CESAB, are trying to promote the art of synthesis in biodiversity science but the level of funding we are receiving is inversely proportional to the importance of our mission.

 

After every crisis, we hear voices saying that the “world will never be the same again”. This is not true, a simple synthesis of crises during the 20th century show the exact opposite pattern. However, this does not mean that we have to give up, but rather that we need to understand and remember: we must synthesize !

 

Nicolas Mouquet

 

More information about CESAB

 

[Course] Opening of the 2020 course – Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology

The CESAB and the GDR EcoStat organize the second edition of the training course “Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology“. The objective of this five-day course is to train young researchers in reproducibility, software development and version management tools, applied to biodiversity research.

 

The training course will take place from 2 to 6 November 2020 in the CESAB premises in Montpellier. The course will be in French.

 

You can pre-register for this course by filling in the form available on the event page. Pre-registrations will close on Friday 17th of July at midnight (CEST). As the number of places is limited, registrations will be confirmed during the first week of September.

 

 

[Call for proposals] Opening of the joint call FRB-CESAB / ITTECOP

 

The FRB, with the support of ITTECOP programme, call on the scientific community to submit projects to the Centre for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity (CESAB), based on the analysis and synthesis of existing data on the theme “Territorial approach to biodiversity: transport infrastructures, natural and agricultural environments” at a European geographic level.

 

 

 

Pre-proposals deadline : 16th July 2020, 13:00 CEST

More information can be found on the call page. 

[Call for proposals] Opening of the joint call FRB-CESAB / France Filière Pêche

Climate change will have a lasting impact on the oceans and seas on a global scale. The impacts of these changes on marine fisheries have become a priority.  

 

FRB, with the support of France Filière Pêche, calls on the scientific community to submit projects to the Centre for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity (CESAB), based on the analysis and synthesis of existing data, as well as the modelling of the effects of climate change on the biodiversity of European fish stocks and associated fisheries (North-East Atlantic and Mediterranean).

 

The project will contribute to a better understanding of the effect of climate change on fish resources and fisheries, to help develop adaptive fisheries management measures. 

 

Pre-proposals deadline : 11 juin 2020, 13:00 (UTC+1)

More information can be found on the call page. 

[FRB-CESAB] Newsletter 2 CESAB – January 2020

A WORD FROM THE CESAB SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR

 

2020 will be the year of biodiversity! The biodiversity crisis has become central in the international agenda after the publication by the IPBES of the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in 2019. 2020 will see major events with the IUCN world conservation congress to be held in Marseille in June and the COP15 Biodiversity in Kunming, among many others.

 

Biodiversity synthesis centres have fueled this dynamic by promoting the scientiflc synthesis on biodiversity and helping researchers to adapt to the exponential increase in available data and to the globalization of scientiflc ecology. We can be proud of what have been achieved but are also concerned about what still need to be done and how we will contribute to assess the knowledge gaps on biodiversity.

 

2019 have been a year of transition for the CESAB, we have moved to Montpellier and have created a new ecosystem, integrating many new partners, and experiencing new tools to promote biodiversity synthesis. We have launched joint calls with other synthesis centers (German sDiv, Canadian CIEE) and French scientiflc actors (AFB, Labex Cemeb), have organized a training course for young scientists on reproductibility in ecological data science and held an international conference on large scale conservation in Montpellier. This has been possible thanks to the help of the incredible FRB team dedicated to CESAB and more generally of the FRB, and to the dynamism of our many ongoing working groups.

 

2020 will be the year we consolidate this ecosystem, open new ambitious calls for synthesis groups and amplify the momentum. We now have the trust and support from our founding members and partners and are trying to work together to make CESAB contribute even more to the biodiversity synthesis!

 

Best wishes for this new year.

Nicolas Mouquet

 

More information about CESAB

 

[FRB-CESAB] Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology – 2019

The CESAB and the GDR EcoStat organize the training course “Data toolbox for reproducible research in computational ecology“. The objective of this five-day training is to train young researchers in reproducibility, software development and version management tools (e.g. R, git, markdown, tidyverse, docker), applied to biodiversity research.

 

 

The training course will take place from 2 to 6 December 2019 in the CESAB premises in Montpellier. The course will be in French. Price is 350 € for the week, including lunch. Travel, accommodation and evening meals will be at the expense of the participants. Students from laboratories member of the GDR EcoStat may apply for financial support from the GDR.

 
 
 
List of speakers (in alphabetical order):
  • Nicolas CASAJUS (FRB-CESAB)
  • Stéphane DRAY (CNRS LBBE)
  • Olivier GIMENEZ (CNRS Cefe)
  • Loreleï GUÉRY (IRD Marbec)
  • François GUILHAUMON (IRD Marbec)
  • Nina SCHIETTEKATTE (Criobe)

[FRB-CESAB] First CESAB training course

From 2 to 6 December, the FRB’s Center for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversiry (CESAB) and the GDR EcoStat organised a training course entitled Data Toolbox for Reproducible Research in Computational Ecology.

 

 

17 students, engineers and researchers from all over France came to attend this training at CESAB’s premises in Montpellier.

 

Nicolas CASAJUS (FRB-Cesab), Stéphane DRAY (CNRS LBBE), Olivier GIMENEZ (CNRS Cefe), Loreleï GUÉRY (IRD Marbec), François GUILHAUMON (IRD Marbec), Nina SCHIETTEKATTE (EPHE Criobe) presented the essential tools for reproducible research (git/GitHub, rmarkdown, drake, R packages, etc.). Participants put into practice the knowledge acquired at the beginning of the training through projects in sub-groups. Everyone left satisfied with this experience.

 

Building on this success, a second edition will be organised in 2020. Subscribe to the newsletter of the FRB and its CESAB to be kept informed.

 

Formation Cesab décembre 2019

[FRB-CESAB] Challenges and opportunities in large-scale conservation

 

The working group Pelagic from the Centre for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity (CESAB) will hold a symposium in Montpellier on Friday the 29th of November 2019. During this symposium a group of international researchers will present the new challenges associated with monitoring both wildlife and human activities in protected areas using up to date technologies. 

 

 

Organizing Committee:
  • David MOUILLOT (University of Montpellier, FR)
  • Tom LETESSIER (Zoological Society of London, UK)
 

Speakers:

  • Jessica MEEUWIG (University of Western Australia, AU)
  • Tom LETESSIER (Zoological Society of London, UK)
  • Marc CHAUMONT (University of Nîmes, LIRMM, FR)
  • Ana NUNO (University of Exeter, UK)
  • Rachel JONES (Zoological Society of London, UK)

[FRB-CESAB] Two calls open early December 2019

  • Joint call FRB-CESAB / CIEE : launch December 3, 2019

Biodiversity in a time of global change

 

The Canadian Institute of Ecology and Evolution (CIEE) and the Centre for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity (CESAB) of the French Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB) offer a joint call for working groups that include researchers based primarily in Canada and France, on the topic “Biodiversity in a time of Global Change”.

 

Two working groups of eight researchers will be funded for two meetings each (the first one in 2020 in Vancouver – Canada; the second one in 2021 in Montpellier – France).

 

The full proposals should be sent by e-mail before 31/01/2020 and the selection will be made by the 06/03/2020.

 

  • Joint call FRB-CESAB / CeMEB: launch December 9, 2019

Short term stays for foreign researchers (2-3 months)

 

The CeMEB LabEx (Mediterranean Environment and Biodiversity Centre) and the Centre for the Synthesis and Analysis of Biodiversity (CESAB) of the French Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB) offer financial support for hosting 2 foreign researchers for short stays at the CESAB in Montpellier (from 2 months minimum to 3 months maximum).

 

The full proposals should be sent by e-mail before 12/03/2020 and the selection will be made by the 15/05/2020.

[CESAB] The project FAIR_Data hosted by CESAB

The CESAB of the FRB is an internationally renowned research structure whose objective is to implement innovative work to synthesize and analyse existing data sets in the field of biodiversity.

CESAB now offers researchers the opportunity to meet and make progress on their projects combining data synthesis and biodiversity. Today, it is inaugurating a new collaboration with the FAIR project by hosting a meeting.

The growing need to make research data ” Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable” (hence the principles of FAIR data) has led to the creation of a think tank within the Montpellier academic community. The objective of this group is to apply the principles of FAIR data and to develop procedures for their implementation in different disciplinary fields: biodiversity/ecology, agronomy, engineering sciences, human and social sciences. It was set up in spring 2019 at the initiative of LabEx CeMEB, NUMEV, Agro and the DigitAg convergence institute.

The Reflection Group is meeting today for the second time with the objective of designing a data management plan and identifying the relevant terminology resources (metadata, controlled vocabularies) to produce “FAIR” data sets.

 

 

Principal Investigator :

Eric GARNIER (CNRS)

 

Participants :

Cédric BOURRASSET – ATOS ; Sophie BOUTIN – Université de Montpellier ; Marie-Christine CORMIER SALEM – AGROPOLIS ; Olivier GIMENEZ – CNRS ; François GREGOIRE – ATOS ; Mylène JONQUET – LIRMM ; Carole KERDELHUE – INRA ; Anne LAURENT – Université Montpellier ; Emmanuel LE CLEZIO – Université Montpellier ; Nicolas MOUQUET – CNRS-FRB ; Loïc MAISONNASSE – ATOS ; Antoine OLGIATI – ATOS ; Andrea PARMEGGIANI – Université Montpellier  ; Pierre PERE – IRSTEA ; Pascal PONCELET – LIRMM ; Lionel TORRES – Université Montpellier ; Olivier TORRES – UPV.

 

[FRB-CESAB] Newsletter 1 CESAB – July 2019

A WORD FROM THE SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR

 

FRB Cesab Nicolas Mouquet

Nicolas Mouquet


The CESAB has moved to Montpellier after 8 years of in Aix-en-Provence. 2018 has been a year of transition and we are still adjusting to our new environment in 2019! Moving has been an incredible challenge and I want to thank here the former CESAB director and staff as well as the FRB for having worked hard to make it happen.By bringing together the best international scientific teams around scientific synthesis, combining data, models and concepts, the work of CESAB should enable us to better understand the functioning of biodiversity, its state and its dynamics, from local to global scales. By shedding some light on the organization of ecological systems and socio-ecosystems, CESAB should help us address the complexity of these systems and the conditions of their resilience.
 
Moving to Montpellier is for the CESAB a great opportunity to evolve and match the new challenges of biodiversity science. There is a real need for us to secure more funding for open calls but also to open our calls and the CESAB to other actors concerned with biodiversity research and conservation. IPBES 7th Plenary in Paris has been an incredible catalyzer for biodiversity science, and I hope we will meet together the challenge we face to provide both an understanding of biodiversity dynamics and large-scale predictions of its fate in a changing world.
 

For us, these last months have been the occasion for rethinking our functioning and to test some new tools and initiatives, we have hired new staff, launched two specific calls: one with the AFB (French Agency for Biodiversity) and one joint call with the sDiv (German Biodiversity Synthesis Center), renewed our scientific comity, are working to propose formation for students, and have done our best to help the ongoing and new CESAB groups. This has been done in only few months, which illustrates our collective motivation to continue the CESAB and to help more than ever the scientific community working on biodiversity. I want here to thanks the new FRB staff dedicated to CESAB without whom I would never have survived to this first half of 2019 and all FRB team for their trust and help! I also want to make homage to Eric Garnier and Alison Specht, former scientific directors of the CESAB, who have worked to make the CESAB a leading research organization with a high scientific level and international influence.

 

Biodiversity centers are the right tools to meet the challenges we face with the biodiversity crisis. I really hope 2019 will be the year when public and private actors concerned with the state of biodiversity, will realize how much we have a collective responsibility to give these centers the means they need to support the science of biodiversity synthesis! 

 

Nicolas Mouquet

 
 

More information about CESAB