BioDivMex workshop report
(BioDiversity of the Mediterranean eXperiment)
November 8th and 9th 2011, Marseille
Thierry Gauquelin and Annabelle Amm
IMBE – INEE CNRS
I.
Generalities .......................................................................................................................... 1
II.
Workshop aim ..................................................................................................................... 1
III.
Report ................................................................................................................................... 2
1.
From a fundamental point of view ................................................................................................................ 3
i.
Specificity and originality of Mediterranean basin ........................................................................................... 3
ii.
Marine and terrestrial approaches complementarity ......................................................................................... 3
iii.
Need to develop innovative approaches on Mediterranean environment .......................................................... 3
2.
From a practical point of view ....................................................................................................................... 3
i.
Need for training ............................................................................................................................................... 3
ii.
Collaboration development (South-South, South-North, North-South and North-North) ................................ 3
iii.
Lack of some tools, especially link tools (website, cartography, database etc…). ............................................ 3
1.
Fundamental aspects....................................................................................................................................... 4
i.
Specificity and originality of Mediterranean basin ........................................................................................... 4
ii.
Marine and terrestrial environments complementarity approaches ................................................................... 4
iii.
Need to develop innovative researches ............................................................................................................. 5
2.
Practical aspect................................................................................................................................................ 6
i.
Training ............................................................................................................................................................. 6
ii.
Collaborations ................................................................................................................................................... 7
iii.
Tools lack .......................................................................................................................................................... 8
BioDivMex workshop report (BioDiversity of the Mediterranean eXperiment) of
November 8th and 9th 2011, Marseille
I. Generalities
BioDivMex program is one of the 7 MISTRALS (Mediterranean Integrated STudies at Regional
And Local Scales) axes. BioDivMex program aims to monitor specific biodiversity of
Mediterranean region. BioDivMex focuses particularly on Mediterranean biodiversity (MBD)
vulnerability to anthropic and climatic pressures which often have negative impacts on habitats
and in fine on animal, vegetal and microbial communities’ diversity. Thierry Gauquelin was
commissioned by CNRS/INEE (Institut d’Ecologie et d’Environnement) to support BioDivMex
program.
II. Workshop aim
Workshop aims were:
1. Assemble a scientific community from Mediterranean basin working on MBD
problematic. This original approach allowed researchers working on marine ecosystems
and researches working on terrestrial ecosystem to meet each other (communities that
rarely mix) in order to build bridges between these two disciplines.
2. To review, by country, researches carried out on MBD and to identify strength, needs and
locks.
3. To present international projects on researches already conducted at Mediterranean basin
(MB) scale.
4. Through the roundtable, identify some axes, priorities, and make recommendations in
order to reinforce research activities, hence on means allocated to MBD research.
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III.
Report
During the workshop, 52 persons working in research field (27 on terrestrial ecosystems, 24 on
marine ecosystems and 1 historian) and 4 biodiversity managers (“Mediterranean Forest”, “PIM
initiative”) were present. Table 1 summarizes presences according to the area of interest (marine,
terrestrial ecosystems or otherwise) and country. Oral communications were of 3 types i) three
global presentations on biodiversity ii) 18 synthesis concerning researches conducted on
biodiversity per country (table 2), note that the marine environment has not been accounted for
Morocco, neither the terrestrial for Turkey iii) 12 study cases (table 3, page 8).
Table 1 : Sum-up of presences at BioDivMex workshop, according to the area of interest and country. * 4
biodiversity managers and 1 historian.
Country
Morocco
Algeria
Tunisia
Lebanon
Turkey
Greece
Malta
Italy
France
Spain
Terrestrial
2
1
1
1
0
1
1
1
16
1
Marine
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
16
1
Other
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
5*
0
Table 2 : Sum-up of synthesis oral communications concerning researches conducted on biodiversity per area of
interest (marine or terrestrial) and per country. Note that the marine environment has not been accounted for
Morocco, neither the terrestrial for Turkey.
Country
Morocco
Algeria
Tunisia
Lebanon
Turkey
Greece
Malta
Italy
France
Spain
Marine
1
1
1
1
0
1
1
1
1
1
2
Terrestrial
0
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
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Over the two days meeting several key points, common to the various participants, emerged:
1. From a fundamental point of view
i. Specificity and originality of Mediterranean basin
ii. Marine and terrestrial approaches complementarity
iii. Need to develop innovative approaches on Mediterranean environment
2. From a practical point of view
i. Need for training
ii. Collaboration development (south-south, south-north, north-south and northnorth)
iii. Lack of some tools, especially link tools (website, cartography, database etc…).
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1. Fundamental aspects
i. Specificity and originality of Mediterranean basin
Mediterranean basin (MB) constitutes a highly original environment with specific issues. BM
exhibits a huge diversity of habitats which have a high taxonomic and/or functional richness.
Interventions of Frederic Médail (Aix-Marseille University - CNRS, France) on biodiversity
hotspots at MB scale, of Magda Bou Dagher (University of St Joseph, Lebanon) at a country
scale, of Jean Vacelet (Aix-Marseille university - CNRS, France) or of J. Borg (University of
Malta, Malta) on submarine caves, and of Nadine Le Bris (Pierre et Marie Curie University CNRS, France) on deep marine ecosystems illustrated MBD richness. Due to its geographical and
climatic location, MB will suffer (is suffering), as a pioneer, global change effects on
biodiversity, hence MB constitutes a pertinent model to study their effects. In this context,
comparison between extreme and highly stressed environments, e. g. high mountain or deep
marine ecosystems, is of major interest.
The workshop also helped to emphasize the strong anthropic pressure that is experienced by the
Mediterranean coast, whilst not forgetting urban biodiversity that develops (Audrey Marco, Ecole
Nationale Supérieure de Paysage de Versailles, France).
Comparison between countries of south Mediterranean shore, where pressure is still intense
(Wadi Badri, Hassan University II, Morocco) and those of north Mediterranean shore, where land
abandonment causes other problems, must be encouraged.
Lastly, the need to take into account social and societal dimension in biodiversity issues emerged
repeatedly.
ii. Marine and terrestrial environments complementarity approaches
The common presence of researchers from marine and terrestrial environments constituted the
originality of the workshop. We were able to establish that these two communities, that rarely
exchange, had common issues and expectations. On the other hand, terrestrial and marine
environment continuity at the watersheds scale is a promising route (especially for pollution
issues).
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iii. Need to develop innovative researches
Several research projects can be highlighted. Innovative projects that improve the knowledge of
some taxa or to improve inventories should be encouraged since MBD is not totally known at
present (particularly because of the lack of taxonomist). Not all the countries are in the same
situation: Luis Villar (CSIC, Spain) showed us all the effort made on terrestrial flora in Spain.
Conversely, countries such as Algeria or Morocco suffer a severe lack in specialists able to
complete their inventories (Wadi Badri). In all cases, it is regrettable to note, either for marine or
terrestrial environments, the lack of taxonomists, even their complete absence for some groups,
which may be deleted in the future. An effort in classical systematics is also indispensable
(Denise Bellan-Santini and Gérard Bellan, Aix-Marseille University – CNRS, France).
Projects on the specificity of certain habitats and/or ecosystems must also be considered, such as
projects on urban or soil biodiversity (for which biodiversity is neglected whereas it plays a
fundamental functional role), submarine cave, deep marine environments, small Mediterranean
islands or coastal area systems etc… All these projects must be replaced in MB originality
context. As example, for urban ecosystems, researchers should insist on the fact that 50% of the
population lives in cities, particularly those on the coast. Interdisciplinary projects must also be
given as a priority. The cross-question of “extreme environments” sensibility, such as high
elevations, arid environments, deep marine habitats, to global changes is quite relevant. Axis
concerning historical biodiversity could be an original issue, in particular in front of the strong
human development of MB. Ultimately, this axis would allow comparing how human landscape
occupation evolution and human way of life had impacted biodiversity (cf. the case of Sabellaria,
Daniel Faget, Aix-Marseille University – CNRS, France).
Another array of biodiversity research concerns the study of the relation biodiversity vs
functional ecology, and particularly through instrumented experimental sites, such as the one of
FUME project (Florent Mouillot, IRD, France). These researches generally include the effects of
climate change on the biodiversity, another major issue that must be addressed.
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The origin of this biodiversity (taxa differentiation and ultimately a global phylogeographic
approach) must also be a part, very promising, of researches to be developed. Complementarities
with the axis PaleoMex of MISTRALS must be sought at this level.
Finally, cartographic restitution effort must also be done. This is not only to make an inventory of
biodiversity, also necessary, but also to provide elements for addressing key issues, including
actions for conservation, biodiversity congruence, etc…
2. Practical aspect
i. Training
During these two days it appeared that there were high expectations in terms of training. These
training needs, expressed on various occasions (including colleagues from the Southern and
Eastern Mediterranean), concern several areas:
a) Taxonomy
Some taxa are very poorly known and in some countries there is no specialist able to make their
inventory, still partial and to be verified. Targeted training is then needed in this area. For other
groups better known, needs are expressed in terms of taxonomy advanced upgrade, discipline in
constant evolution. Finally, needs are also expressed on inventory methods and sampling, or
samples.
b) General knowledge on Mediterranean Basin
General training on issues concerning MB, both in terms of human impact (past and current
dynamics) on biodiversity and of biogeography (even phylogeography), is to be developed.
Comparison of similar ecosystems, spread throughout the Mediterranean, seems fundamental and
very instructive for training.
For the implementation of these programs, several solutions have been proposed, which are to
encourage co-supervised training, training in different language, including Arabic.
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Collaborations between Mediterranean universities should also be considered, either by teachers
mobility, or by students mobility that would meet in a same university to take courses
(international Master for example) and then would effectuate their stages in different part of MB.
Some initiatives already exit, such as training on flora in Arabic language (Tunisia, 2012);
training on taxonomy of some groups (study of cetaceans at the St Joseph university, Lebanon);
exchange between teachers from one to another Mediterranean shore (University of Sfax in
Tunisia, regularly receives Frédéric Médail and Franck Torre to give training).
One of the actions that could develop BioDivMex in short terms in this perspective would be the
organization, in 2012, of a “summer school” for teachers-researches, researches, PhD student or
post-doc researches. This type of training also has the major advantage to create link and foster
the emergence of a more interactive community working on MBD issues.
ii. Collaborations
International collaborations must be improved and encouraged. A study on abstracted literature
showed that they were too rare. Including collaborations between the two shores of MB, even
more those between South Mediterranean countries, difficult to assessed from abstracted
literature. Existing collaborations are generally in the north-south direction, it is also necessary
that South Mediterranean countries can propose international projects, as suggested by Samir
Grimes (ENSSMAL, Algeria). Similarly, when south-south collaborations exist, they often exist
through international organizations. South-south collaborations nevertheless exist, such as
collaborations Morocco-Tunisia that concern several areas. Lebanon-Syria collaborations also led
to concrete results. Eventually, it would be useful to speak of "Mediterranean collaborations" set
up in the Barcelona Convention. Studies case presented during the workshop highlighted the
interest and the necessity for such international collaboration and their effectiveness. Table 3
shows the 12 case studies presented at the workshop, specifying (if any) what the collaborations
for these projects are.
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Table 3: Study case presented during BioDivMex workshop.
Environment
Marine
Marine
Marine
Marine
Marine
Terrestrial
Terrestrial
Terrestrial
Terrestrial
Terrestrial
Terrestrial
Terrestrial
Specificity
Invasive micro-algae
Biodiversity history
Sub-marine cave
Polychaetes and amphipods taxonomy
Deep-marine ecosystems
Urban ecosystems
Soil
Soil
Genomic database
Network of monitoring plots
Fire
PIM
Collaborations
France, Tunisia, Algeria, Spain, Italy
France, Morocco
France, Morocco
France, Bosnia
Mediterranean basin
France, Tunisia, Spain
Mediterranean basin
iii. Tools lack
a) Database
The evidence that there was a lack of a shared database emerged, or at least a difficulty to consult
the existing ones. First, the fact that some databases are not readily available limits the
knowledge of what is being done in other research institutes, hence the information accessibility.
On the other hand, each database has its own repository, so it is quite difficult to determine the
precise subject to which they refer. The creation of a shared database seems an insoluble
problem. However it is necessary to create a database network that allows information access.
With regard to marine environment, CAR/ASP created a common repository for marine habitats.
As part of European Union, many activities (especially for databases) are already in place, so it
would be possible to solve some problems by piggybacking on existing projects. Lastly, the
CNRS/INEE (Stephanie Thiebault) is developing tools to encourage the development of
databases more accessible.
The creation of a specific website to BioDivMex, privileged site of information exchange, could
lead to a modest advance towards knowledge of databases available. Concrete proposals in this
direction can be quickly developed.
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b) Research valuation
The problem of research legibility concerning MBD still exists, as shown by Annabelle Amm
(CNRS, France), despite the steady increase in indexed articles since 2001 (figure 1).
250
R² = 0,9642
181
196
211
213
2009
2010
2011
127
2007
81
2005
47
2003
65
27
2002
2004
33
2001
50
113
100
2008
150
2006
Number of papers
200
0
Year
Figure 1: Indexed scientific articles dealing with Mediterranean biodiversity since 2001, inventoried from “Web of
knowledge”.
A high number of scientific works are not valued as indexed articles in peer-reviewed journals
and therefore are not readable and accessible. As against many studies are published in the socalled “gray” literature and so are not available and so are not or few available on the web, or not
referenced in web search engines mostly used (“Web of knowledge”, “Science direct” etc…).
Most of this literature consists of thesis, Master or Magister report etc… and old literature whose
study, necessary and always successful, is now very difficult.
To solve, at least in part, the problem of legibility it is necessary to publish some of the works in
peer-reviewed journals, without neglecting the B-class journals or newsletters premises, from the
time they are accessible and widely disseminated.
With regard to non-indexed journals, some initiatives are taken. For example, OSU Pytheas,
which includes environmental research units of the Marseille region and set up a library of
heritage, has created a "gray literature" section (title articles are at least available).
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c) Biodiversity observatories, experimental stations
The necessity of a MBD monitoring, subject to heavy human pressure, and the development of
evolution scenarios of the MBD in front of global change (including climate) lead to favor the
establishment of reference sites or experimental stations. The workshop highlighted the
importance of being able to have throughout the MB an ambitious international network of
monitoring plots, study and experimentation, homogeneous in their objectives, methodology,
equipment and instrumentation, etc... This tool is necessary from a scientific point of view and is
desirable as a communication and exchange mean for actors working on MBD issues. At this
level, complementarities with SICMED program from MISTRALS will be established.
Contact:
Thierry Gauquelin: thierry.gauquelin@univ-provence.fr
Annabelle Amm: annabelle.amm@univ-provence.fr
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