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A research centre for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands




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Population dynamics in response to human activities

Project leader: Arnaud BECHET (See the CV)

 

CONTEXT

The animal species of Mediterranean wetlands are responding differently to global changes.

Even the current "winners" (e.g. flamingos, spoonbills and ibises) often depend on interventionist local management which is demanding in terms of water and energy, may favour the establishment of invasive introduced species, and could be in conflict with more global objectives:

  • Conserving the specific Mediterranean characteristics of the habitats
  • Saving water in countries where it is a very limited resource

These management practices could also be viewed unfavourably by sections of society (e.g. incursions of flamingos into rice fields). As for the "losers" (e.g. European eel, slender-billed gull), the demographic parameters underlying the deterioration in their status are still not fully identified, making it impossible to take effective action to arrest their decline.

 

The mechanisms at work derive from global changes (degradation of habitats, climate changes, introduced species, etc.), intensive management practices (including overexploitation), conflicts of use, and also from recommended management practices that target particular species.

MAIN OBJECTIV

Such species will be better able to withstand global changes while retaining their adaptations to the unpredictable hydrological / climatic conditions that are characteristic of this region.

 

Objectives on the field:
• to diagnose problems of species conservation, by detecting unfavourable trends and identifying their causes
• to suggest methods for more favourable management (habitats, available stocks, acceptable level of exploitation, etc.) or for controlling species
• to respond to public demands (high-risk species, those causing problems, etc.).


Contents:


Activities:

1. Demographic analyses of populations and metapopulations using Capture-Mark-Recapture studies and studies of population genetics (in particular greater flamingo, pelicans, slender-billed gull, glossy ibis, spoonbill, terrapins, eel, marble trout).
This section will also seek to include other non-bird species, first and foremost fish, for which there are major issues in Mediterranean wetlands and which are probably better models for assessing climate change.

 

2. Long-term monitoring of biodiversity in the Camargue (particularly communities of birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, etc.)
This section takes up the responsibility for maintaining the long-term monitoring programmes which have been in place for several decades (herons, Charadriiforms, flamingos, ducks, etc.), for expanding this monitoring on the basis of networks of observers (naturalists, hunters, tourists, etc.) and for transferring it. The work is based on the development of new tools (see below).
Advantage should also be taken of the annual processing of thousands of individuals of various species in order to create tissue banks (serum banks, feather banks) which allow other types of approaches to be envisaged over the long term (genetics, isotopes, pollutants, parasites, etc.).

 

3. Development of tools to enable data to be managed, analysed, acquired, entered into networks and written up. Two complementary themes will be developed:

  • Facilitation of the management of significant sets of data, which requires standardisation and homogenisation of the data; archiving databases and making them secure; cross-checking and analysis of databases derived from different disciplines and by different methods.
  • Improving the capacity for acquiring natural history data by developing internet interfaces to allow the capture of data, drawing up standardised protocols for monitoring species and communities, and writing up the results of these studies.

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