Biodiversité

We illustrate how to build spaces of interactions between research and management. We present two case studies we conducted through a long-term collaboration between the Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology (CEFE; academic/science—a public research laboratory mostly focused on basic ecological questions) and the French Biodiversity Agency (OFB; non-academic/management—a public institute dedicated to biodiversity protection and restauration, under administrative supervision of ecology and agriculture ministries) with biodiversity monitoring in national parks and management of large carnivores in France.

This month’s NAPA 166 is all about the new MOOC session starting 12 September. There are some key dates to remember including a couple of webinars with MOOC speakers. This NAPA also features to stories from the field, where learners tell us how the MOOCs have helped them in their work.

Des chercheurs ont entraîné une intelligence artificielle (IA) afin d’attribuer un score esthétique à 2400 espèces de poissons de récifs coralliens ou rocheux. Résultat : les poissons que nous jugeons les « moins beaux » sont ceux qui présentent, collectivement, la plus grande variété de caractéristiques écologiques et ont la plus longue histoire évolutive. Ce sont aussi les plus menacés…

As both a flagship and umbrella species, the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is one of the most heavily invested species in conservation. Here, we report the wide distribution range retreat of the leopard (Panthera pardus, 81% loss), snow leopard (P. uncia, 38%), wolf (Canis lupus, 77%) and dhole (Cuon alpinus, 95%) from protected areas in the giant panda distribution range since the 1960s. The present findings indicate the insufficiency of giant panda conservation for protecting these large carnivore species and suggest that future conservation efforts should target restoring ecosystems with high trophic complexity to facilitate the recovery of large carnivore populations. Comparing historical records with contemporary camera trap surveys, the authors report widespread declines in the occurrence of four large carnivore species from protected areas within the distributional range of the giant panda.

VEGELITES est un projet trisannuel novateur qui a pour objectif de cartographier finement les végétations des estuaires situées dans le Parc naturel marin des estuaires picards et la mer d’Opale grâce à un système de télédétection (interprétation d’images satellites) et de définir les pratiques de gestion optimales pour ces végétations et de sensibiliser l’ensemble des publics.

Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation is a fully open access journal from Wiley and the Zoological Society of London. The journal provides a forum for the rapid publication of peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary research from the interface between remote sensing science and ecology and conservation. The journal defines remote sensing in its broadest sense, including data acquisition by hand-held and fixed ground-based sensors, such as camera traps and acoustic recorders, and sensors on airplanes and satellites.

Attitudes among conservation biologists towards technological innovations and solutions have changed over the years from mistrusting and dismissive to widely accepting. However, the time has come for the conservation community to move from being technology consumers to become innovation leaders and to actively seek to create novel technologies to provide conservation tools and solutions.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is essential for practical and theoretical efforts to protect biodiversity. However, species classified as “Data Deficient” (DD) regularly mislead practitioners due to their uncertain extinction risk. Here we present machine learning-derived probabilities of being threatened by extinction for 7699 DD species, comprising 17% of the entire IUCN spatial datasets. Our predictions suggest that DD species as a group may in fact be more threatened than data-sufficient species. We found that 85% of DD amphibians are likely to be threatened by extinction, as well as more than half of DD species in many other taxonomic groups, such as mammals and reptiles.

Incendies dévastateurs, réchauffement climatique, fonte irrémédiable de la calotte glaciaire au Groenland, augmentation du niveau de la mer et des températures, épuisement des ressources, disparition des espèces, maladies liées à la pollution, les scientifiques alertent depuis des années sur l’état de la planète. Selon l’Indice planète vivante, outil de référence publié par le WWF tous les deux ans, 68% de la faune sauvage a disparu entre 1970 et 2016. En cause, la destruction d’habitats naturels, en particulier due à l’agriculture.

Souvent considérée comme un ennemi de la planète par beaucoup d’écologistes, la technologie pourrait jouer un rôle crucial en créant des outils de prévention apportant des solutions concrètes pour l’environnement. L’Intelligence Artificielle pourrait donc devenir un allié pour la planète et la conservation des espèces.

Les activités humaines ont un impact global sur les requins de récif. La création de sanctuaires et d'aires marines protégées de très grande taille font partie des mesures susceptibles de restaurer les populations de ces prédateurs essentiels à l'équilibre des écosystèmes côtiers des zones tropicales.

Pour favoriser des mesures de conservation efficaces de deux espèces de tortues marines en danger d'extinction, l’Ifremer a développé une nouvelle génération de balises pour suivre les jeunes individus et mieux connaître l’utilisation de leurs habitats.

The workshop will focus on three main subject areas:

1. the roles of satellite images in conservation monitoring;
2. the roles of drone images in conservation monitoring; and
3. open source software packages that can increase the efficiency, accuracy and precision of our work;
4. the role of citizen science.