AREAS OF EXPERTISE
RESEARCH INSTITUTE
For almost 20 years, our Research Institute has contributed to the understanding of the functioning of Mediterranean coastal marine ecosystems and has worked with managers to promote their conservation. We run research programs in close collaboration with our scientific and institutional partners in France and abroad. Our work aims to understand the effects of global changes (climate, artificialization, etc.) on marine ecosystems and to assess the effectiveness of management measures, in order to support the optimization of conservation actions. We devote a particular effort to share and transfer our expertise, in the form of scientific publications, and recommendations but also through our participation as members of scientific boards and commissions.
CONSERVATION ECOLOGY AND GLOBAL CHANGE STUDIES
Our research applied to conservation considers the study of the functional importance of habitats and their 3D structure in the life cycle of living organisms, including numerous exploited and/or emblematic species among fish and invertebrates. This work concerns various biocenoses and ecosystems, including the shallow rocky reefs, phanerogam meadows, as well as coralligenous reefs and emblematic species such as the red coral. In a global change framework, we are also interested in the underlying processes affecting habitat transformations on the associated stands: installation, growth, mortality. Our scientific projects are built and carried out in close collaboration with research institutes and laboratories like Aix-Marseille University, the National Scientific Research Council (CNRS) and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD: MIO, LIS, IMBE), the CRIOBE, the MNHN (National Museum of Natural History), the UMR Marbec, the Institute of Cienciès del Mar (CSIC, Spain), etc. Through these partnerships, we co-supervise several doctoral theses and regularly welcome students for their Master’s thesis.
EXPERIMENTAL RESTORATION
In addition to our work on the coastal biocenosis knowledge and their response to global change, we are investigating the recovery capacities of ecosystems. We are conducting experimental projects that aim to study the possibility and modalities of restoring populations or communities that have suffered degradation. Our objective is to provide reliable data and protocols for the regeneration of damaged ecosystems.
EFFICIENCY OF CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT MEASURES
In application of the European Directives concerning the environment (WFD, Habitat Directive, MSFD), managers of coastal territories need rigorous scientific data collected on a regular basis over the long term in order to optimize their management plans and ecosystem conservation actions. Our scientific works include a component focused on the inventory, mapping and characterisation of coastal ecosystems. The results allow us to support managers in planning their actions. We work in direct collaboration with the teams of National Nature Reserves, National Parks, Marine Nature Parks and other institutions or collectivities along the French Mediterranean coast. Our expertise also leads us to contribute to the diagnosis of territories located in other European countries and around the Mediterranean Sea (Balkans, Eastern Mediterranean, etc.), and abroad (Cameroun)
Projects
