TOUR DU VALAT

A research centre for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands

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Biodiversity, management and uses of Camargue marshes

Plan du Bourg cladium marsh

Project leader: Brigitte POULIN (See the CV)

Team:

Aurélie Davranche, Emilien Duborper, Yves Kayser, Gaetan Lefebvre, Raphael Mathevet, Anthony Olivier, Alain Sandoz


The Camargue marshes are home to various traditional and socio-economic activities such as reed exploitation, waterfowl hunting, cattle grazing, ecotourism, and nature conservation. These activities, as well as those carried out at the periphery of these marshes, are associated with management practices (hydrology, mosquito-control operations, sewage waters from ricefields), which will influence the ecological functioning of the marshes, their economical value, and ultimately their conservation value, the latter being assessed through the number of remarkable plant and animal species they enclose.

Overall, this project seeks to identify the conditions favouring the sustainability of human activities compatible with the preservation of the biodiversity and natural functioning of the marshes.


Contents:


Issues :

Scientific issues

  • Interactions among flora/fauna/uses in relation to management practices
  • Impact of pesticides on the non-target fauna
  • Ecological requirements of vulnerable bird species
  • Role of uses in biodiversity preservation.

Conservation Issues

  • Development of geomatic tools and reliable indicators for monitoring the water management and wetland evolution through multi-temporal and multi-spectral analyses of SPOT 5 satellite images
  • To promote management practices ensuring the durability of the socio-economic and ecological values of Camargue marshes.

Activities:

  • Use of remote sensing for monitoring wetland parameters relevant to bird conservation (Aurélie Davranche thesis project 2004-2007 with ONCFS funding)
  • Impact of mosquito-control operations with Bti on arthropods, amphibians and swallows in the Camargue
  • Contribution to the ReedSIM multi-agent model, which integrates ecological and socio-economic data for a sustainable management and exploitation of Mediterranean reedbeds
  • Assessment of the Eurasian bittern ecological niche based on a landscape study integrating hydrology and reed exploitation (Charnier-Scamandre ponds, Gard)
  • Impact of vegetation burning on the flora and fauna (spiders and bitterns) of Cladium marshes used for waterfowl hunting (Plan du Bourg, B-d-R).

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