News

04/09/2019

President's Message :

The ecosystem approach is a bit like Mr. Jourdain's prose in Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme by Molière: everyone does it, without necessarily knowing it. The reason is simple: it is because this approach offers a point of view that, on the one hand, gives practical perspectives to answer managers' questions, while at the same time opening up the possibility of solving many theoretical problems for fundamental research faced with global change.

In the case of Mediterranean ecosystems that we are particularly interested in, the ecosystem approach provides an essential step backwards because these ecosystems are characterised by the fact that they are not self-sufficient. From a hydrological point of view, the water balance of a Mediterranean climate is negative. In France, the amount of rain is not enough to compensate for evaporation and without the external water inputs from other better watered environments, such as the Alps or the Cévennes, a desert is settling in. At the trophic level, the Mediterranean Sea is oligotrophic, and without the input of nutrients from adjacent environments, such as the Rhone basin, or deep waters via upwellings, marine life is very limited.

It is therefore by integrating knowledge and experience across borders that we can hope to move forward. This is what this international workshop proposes by bringing together managers, decision-makers and researchers who work on both terrestrial and aquatic environments, in fresh and salt water, while integrating the human dimension around the concept of socio-ecosystem.  This will undoubtedly lead to fruitful exchanges to consider the near future of Mediterranean ecosystems, which promises to be even drier and warmer than in the past.


Thomas Changeux

Vice Director MIO-OSU Pythéas

08/08/2019

The GECOMARS 2020 Workshop website is now open, so come and participate in this great gathering. Many themes will be on the program:


   - Ecosystem based monitoring of environment

   - Ecosystem based management and conservation in MPAs

   - Ecosystem based approaches in terrestrial environments

   - Ecosystemic approaches in brackish waters

   - Socioecosystemic studies

   - Ecosystem services evaluation

   - Ecosystem based fisheries management

   - All the other topics that we hadn't thought of, but that you will share with us.


Do not hesitate to submit your work to us before 15 September 2019.