TOUR DU VALAT
A research centre for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands
Programs
Integrated management and ecosystems dynamics
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Mediterranean wetland ecosystems are subjected to a wide range of environmental changes under the combined effects of direct physical changes (i.e. climate, soil accretion) and of the modifications in the human activities on the sites and their catchments. |
The maintenance of Mediterranean wetland biodiversity and ecological functions depends on various ecological processes, in particular those responsible for the structuring of habitats (vegetation dynamics) and those underlying the use of the ecosystems by the fauna.
These processes are directly or indirectly linked to the availability of water and its variability (intra- and inter-annual) particularly marked in the Mediterranean. The availability of water to Mediterranean wetlands is considerably modified by human activities through primary or secondary exploitation of resources. These activities may amplify the natural water fluctuations (e.g. through water diversion) or may reduce them to achieve agricultural production. Depending on the circumstances human activities may contribute to the maintenance of biodiversity or may on the contrary result in the destruction of habitats, the trivialisation of habitats and/or the disappearance of species.
Non-rational use is one of the main causes of degradation of Mediterranean wetlands. However, a significant proportion of biodiversity, in particular of open habitats, depends on the existing and former uses. The maintenance of the overall functioning/biodiversity of wetlands and of their capacity to adapt to changes then depends on the possibility to regulate the exploitation of resources (primary and secondary production, water uses) but also on the possibility to develop the utilitarian character of wetlands for human beings.
Objectives
This programme aims to increase our understanding of the factors and processes which determine the structure and dynamics of Mediterranean wetland ecosystems in order to:
- Identify practices that optimise conservation in the context of anthropic changes (adaptive management)
- Promote sustainable management practices which combine conservation and utilitarian (exploitation of resources) objectives.
Conservation objectives
- To identify the human uses modalities of Mediterranean wetlands which favour the maintenance (and the development) of their functions/biodiversity and afford a sustainable exploitation of primary and secondary productions
- To develop tools for transfer and awareness raising
- To contribute to the setting up of alternative models of Mediterranean wetland (integrated) management in relation to limited and/or fluctuating resources (water in particular) and the socio-economic context (increasing human pressure, development of intensive agriculture, development of tourism but also development of eco-tourism, conservation...).
Scientific objectives
Although the interactions between functions/biodiversity and main wetland uses are globally identified and partially analysed (especially in a mono-factorial way), crucial questions remain in terms of durability and periodicity of uses (stabilization vs Mediterranean conditions, capacity to mimic the natural processes the variability in time and space to regulate or generate diversity) as well as in terms of interactions between uses/forcing factors (additive impacts, threshold effects).
- To quantify the interactions between forcing factors (temporal and spatial), especially those linked to human uses, and the Mediterranean wetland functioning/biodiversity
- To evaluate the ecological systems resistance to different events (periodicity and intensity of flooding, drought, human uses)
- To evaluate the influence of socio-economic processes on ecosystems and their biodiversity
- To test techniques of management of Mediterranean wetland ecosystems for biodiversity and economic purposes.
