Permanence and changes in pastoral farming in the Southern Alps

The Southern Alps, where sheep farming is highly prevalent, is specific to the mountains of the Mediterranean region and, consequently, is in sharp contrast with the Northern Alps. The age-old practice of pastoralism that has shaped the landscapes and human societies has existed for thousands of years, questioning the emergence of the concept of naturality linked to this region. Nevertheless, the perception of the durability of an activity seen as traditional should not obscure the extent of changes that have had an impact on it in the past. In light of this, there is much to learn from the comparison between the major upheaval that affected pastoral farming at the end of the 19th century, and the current process of change whose outcome is not yet known. In both cases, changes in public policies and markets, as well as the emergence of new environmental stakes have determined or are in the processes of determining the future of pastoral farming. Faced with society’s increasingly specific but sometimes contradictory expectations, the types of livestock farming widely used in pastoral areas thus appear to be the best adapted to propose "natural" and local products, but the most vulnerable as well in view of the establishment of a large population of wolves. This contradiction is indicative of the shock of values between two societal projects for abandoned land, the first, heir to a rural tradition that is responsible for maintaining a human presence in the mountains, and the second, the vector of a “naturality” based on the reconstitution of ecological pyramids

Dog predation over flocks of sheep in the Luberon area

Le Parc naturel régional du Luberon a toujours soutenu l’élevage pastoral en tant qu’outil majeur de gestion de la biodiversité sur son territoire. L’inquiétude exprimée par les éleveurs face à l’éventualité de l’arrivée de loups a amené le PNRL, en collaboration avec le CERPAM, à réaliser une enquête sur la prédation due aux chiens, afin de constituer un état des lieux préalable sur le sujet. Une enquête exhaustive a été menée auprès des éleveurs sur l’ensemble du territoire du Luberon, afin de recenser les attaques de chiens et de comprendre les conditions de cette prédation. Les résultats montrent une faible fréquence d’attaques et un faible taux de prédation par les chiens dans cette région où le cheptel ovin est important. Quelques séquences d’attaques concentrent la majorité des dommages. L’essentiel des problèmes est lié à la divagation de chiens du voisinage, très rarement à des chiens réellement « errants ». Enfin, les attaques de chiens n’ont rien de discret, ces derniers sont repérés visuellement dans 85% des épisodes de prédation. Les résultats ont été comparés à d’autres études menées dans d’autres régions. La prédation due aux chiens est faible dans un autre massif des Alpes du Sud, mais plus forte dans les régions où le poids économique de l’élevage ovin est résiduel. L’ambition du gestionnaire, au travers de cette étude, est d’améliorer la sensibilisation de tous les acteurs concernés pour limiter la divagation des chiens (résidents, touristes, communes, chasseurs) mais aussi de se donner les moyens de gérer avec la plus grande transparence l’éventualité du retour des loups sur ce territoire.The pastoral breeding has always been supported by the Regional Natural Park of the Luberon as the tool for biodiversity maintenance. The sheep breeders anxiety of potential wolves predation has led the PNRL, in collaboration with the CERPAM (a technical breeders’ organization), to realise a study of the predation of dog origin, in order to define the state of the situation. An exhaustive inquiry of dogs attack has been carried on over the whole Luberon area breeders to count and to understand the conditions of this phenomenon. The results display a weak frequency of attacks of predation by the dogs in this region of important sheep concentration. Some attack events are concentrating the majority of the damage. The principal problem is neighbourhood dog wandering, and rarely from stray dogs. These dogs attacks are not discrete because for 85% of them, they were visually noticed. The results were then compared to other studies from different regions. This predation is also weak in an other area of the South Alps but is found more frequent in the regions with a limited sheep farming. The ambition of the Park of the Luberon with this study is to improve the sensibilisation of the territory actors in order to reduce this dog wandering but also, to have the necessary knowledge and conditions to face with clearness a potential wolf attack

The « rare and sensitive biotopes » agro-environmental measure in the Luberon regional natural park : assesment for the territory and for breeding practices

Dans le massif du Luberon, une Mesure agri-environnementale (MAE) a été promue pour favoriser une gestion pastorale visant à préserver les « biotopes rares et sensibles ». Dans ce cadre, un suivi scientifique et technique a été mis en place et cet article vise à établir un bilan de son impact sur l’élevage et sur le territoire. Ainsi, un lien a été mis en évidence entre le type d’espaces ciblés par la mesure (grands espaces « sauvages » et écartés), et les types de systèmes d’élevage en mesure de s’engager (gros effectifs en phase de redéploiement). La MAE n’a pas mobilisé les petits élevages diversifiés ni les espaces qu’ils exploitent. Les pratiques pastorales engagés dans des milieux complexes ont souvent été novatrices. La logique contractuelle imposait la recherche d’indicateurs de réussite. Or le suivi a montré que les éleveurs s’appuient sur l’hétérogénéité du territoire pour mieux s’adapter aux contraintes posées par le climat méditerranéen sur des surfaces pastorales peu artificialisées. La contradiction entre la définition de mesures contractuelles à la surface, forcément standardisées, et des pratiques pastorales extensives comporte un risque de rigidification. En définitive, l’hypothèse est posée selon laquelle la diversité des systèmes d’élevage est le meilleur gage du maintien de milieux naturels diversifiés.Within the Luberon massif, an Agro-environmental Measure (AEM) was adopted to favor a pastoral management, which aims at preserving « rare and sensitive biotopes ». Within this scope, a scientific and technical follow-up was implemented ; this article aims at assessing its impact on breeding and on the territory. In this way, a link between the type of spaces targetted by the measure (vast « wild » and spread spaces) and the breeding practice modes able to suit the measure (great numbers in phase of redeployment) was brought to the fore. The AEM has not mobilized small diversified breeders and the spaces they exploit. Pastoral practices engaged in complex environments have often been innovative. A search for success indicators was imposed by the contractual logic. The follow-up showed that breeders rest on the territory’s heterogeneity to better adapt to the constraints of the Mediterranean climate on hardly man-shaped pasture surfaces. The contradiction between the definition of standardized contractual measures for the surface and extensive pastoral practices leads to the risk of becoming too rigid. As a conclusion, it would seem that the diversity of breeding systems is the best guarantee for the maintaining of diversified natural environments

Grassy areas on the crests of the Luberon, sentinels of the global warming - Evolution of the grazed ecosystems during thirty years, from 1982 to 2011

Les crêtes du Luberon sont occupées par des pelouses méditerranéo- montagnardes à forte biodiversité. Ces écosystèmes soumis à des conditions climatiques difficiles sont façonnés depuis des siècles par l’action de troupeaux ovins conduits en gardiennage. Depuis quelques décennies, ces pelouses sont menacées par la déprise pastorale, l’érosion causée par la fréquentation motorisée, les dégâts croissants de sangliers, enfin les accidents climatiques répétés de cette dernière décennie. Le PNRL, avec le CERPAM, l’ONF et l’appui de la recherche (INRA d’Avignon, Université d’Aix-Marseille) a animé depuis plus de trente ans des actions de conservation de ces habitats en confortant l’élevage pastoral (réouverture des milieux, équipements pastoraux, mesures agri-environnementales). Un bilan est dressé de l’évolution des pelouses sommitales du Luberon en mobilisant divers suivis mis en place depuis 1982 pour les plus anciens, permettant de comparer pelouses pâturées et non pâturées. Cette synthèse concerne principalement le Grand Luberon, dans une moindre mesure le Petit Luberon. Durant cette période, les chargements ont fortement baissé sur le Grand Luberon alors que le niveau de ressource pastorale est resté stable. Cette baisse s’explique dans le cadre d’un moindre besoin de la part des éleveurs du piémont utilisateurs des crêtes, d’une moindre incitation agri-environnementale dans le cadre des MAET Natura 2000, enfin de pratiques de garde qui ont évolué vers un pâturage moins « serré ». Les suivis pastoraux confirment un maintien de la ressource pastorale, mais avec l’apparition de trouées colonisées par des graminées opportunistes, résultant sans doute de la canicule de 2003 et des sécheresses des années suivantes. Les suivis de biodiversité effectués dans les deux massifs montrent une évolution contrastée d’un certain nombre d’espèces floristiques phares. Mais les baisses dominent, notamment pour Genista pulchella subsp. villarsii, Anthyllis montana, Plantago argentea, Sempervivum calcareum, Valeriana tuberosa, Ephedra nebrodensis ; les résultats sont comparables avec et sans pâturage, ce qui suggère fortement une cause climatique: répétition des canicules et sécheresses entre 2003 et 2006, et/ou début du réchauffement climatique documenté dans notre région depuis la fin des années 1970.Luberon’s crests are occupied by mediterraneo-mountain grassy areas with strong biodiversity. These ecosystems affected by difficult climatic conditions have been shaped for centuries by the action of guarded ovine herds. Since a few decades, these areas are threatened by the decrease of pasture, the erosion caused by motorized circulation, increasing damages of wild boars, and the repeated climatic incidents of the last decade. For more than thirty years, the PNRL, with the CERPAM and the ONF, and with the support of research centers (INRA of Avignon, University of Aix-Marseille), has developed actions to preserve these natural ecosystems by consolidating the pastoral breeding (reopening of the environment, pastoral equipments, agri-environmental measures). A balance sheet of the evolution of sommitals grassland of Luberon is drawn up by mobilizing some follow-ups set up since 1982, allowing to compare grazed and non-grazed grasslands. This synthesis concerns mainly the Grand Luberon, and to a lesser extent the Petit Luberon. During this period, loads strongly decreased on Grand Luberon, while the level of pastoral resource remained stable. This decline can be explained by a lesser need of the breeders from piedmont, using crests, by a lesser agri-environmental incitement within Natura 2000, and by practices of guarding which evolved towards a « less tight » pasture. The follow-ups confirm a preservation of the pastoral resource, but with the appearance of places colonized by opportunist grasses, resulting from the heat wave of 2003 and from the droughts of the next years. The follow-ups of biodiversity made in both massifs show a contrasted evolution for a certain number of key floral species. But many species decline, in particular Genista pulchella ssp. villarsii, Anthyllis montana, Plantago argentea, Sempervivum calcareum, Valeriana tuberosa, Ephedra nebrodensis. The results are comparable with and without pasture, and this strongly suggests a climatic cause : repetition of the heat waves and the droughts between 2003 and 2006, and\or at the beginning of the global warming informed in our region since the end of 1970s

The Iceland Microcontinent and a continental Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge

The breakup of Laurasia to form the Northeast Atlantic Realm was the culmination of a long period of tectonic unrest extending back to the Late Palaeozoic. Breakup was prolonged and complex and disintegrated an inhomogeneous collage of cratons sutured by cross-cutting orogens. Volcanic rifted margins formed, which are blanketed by lavas and underlain variously by magma-inflated, extended continental crust and mafic high-velocity lower crust of ambiguous and probably partly continental provenance. New rifts formed by diachronous propagation along old zones of weakness. North of the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge the newly forming rift propagated south along the Caledonian suture. South of the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge it propagated north through the North Atlantic Craton along an axis displaced ~ 150 km to the west of the northern rift. Both propagators stalled where the confluence of the Nagssugtoqidian and Caledonian orogens formed a transverse barrier. Thereafter, the ~ 400-km-wide latitudinal zone between the stalled rift tips extended in a distributed, unstable manner along multiple axes of extension that frequently migrated or jumped laterally with shearing occurring between them in diffuse transfer zones. This style of deformation continues to the present day. It is the surface expression of underlying magma-assisted stretching of ductile mid- and lower continental crust which comprises the Icelandic-type lower crust that underlies the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge. This, and probably also one or more full-crustal-thickness microcontinents incorporated in the Ridge, are capped by surface lavas. The Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge thus has a similar structure to some zones of seaward-dipping reflectors. The contemporaneous melt layer corresponds to the 3–10 km thick Icelandic-type upper crust plus magma emplaced in the ~ 10–30-km-thick Icelandic-type lower crust. This model can account for seismic and gravity data that are inconsistent with a gabbroic composition for Icelandic-type lower crust, and petrological data that show no reasonable temperature or source composition could generate the full ~ 40-km thickness of Icelandic-type crust observed. Numerical modeling confirms that extension of the continental crust can continue for many tens of Myr by lower-crustal flow from beneath the adjacent continents. Petrological estimates of the maximum potential temperature of the source of Icelandic lavas are up to 1450 °C, no more than ~ 100 °C hotter than MORB source. The geochemistry is compatible with a source comprising hydrous peridotite/pyroxenite with a component of continental mid- and lower crust. The fusible petrology, high source volatile contents, and frequent formation of new rifts can account for the true ~ 15–20 km melt thickness at the moderate temperatures observed. A continuous swathe of magma-inflated continental material beneath the 1200-km-wide Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge implies that full continental breakup has not yet occurred at this latitude. Ongoing tectonic instability on the Ridge is manifest in long-term tectonic disequilibrium on the adjacent rifted margins and on the Reykjanes Ridge, where southerly migrating propagators that initiate at Iceland are associated with diachronous swathes of unusually thick oceanic crust. Magmatic volumes in the NE Atlantic Realm have likely been overestimated and the concept of a monogenetic North Atlantic Igneous Province needs to be reappraised. A model of complex, piecemeal breakup controlled by pre-existing structures that produces anomalous volcanism at barriers to rift propagation and distributes continental material in the growing oceans fits other oceanic regions including the Davis Strait and the South Atlantic and West Indian oceans

Identification of genetic variants associated with Huntington's disease progression: a genome-wide association study

Background Huntington's disease is caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the huntingtin gene, HTT. Age at onset has been used as a quantitative phenotype in genetic analysis looking for Huntington's disease modifiers, but is hard to define and not always available. Therefore, we aimed to generate a novel measure of disease progression and to identify genetic markers associated with this progression measure. Methods We generated a progression score on the basis of principal component analysis of prospectively acquired longitudinal changes in motor, cognitive, and imaging measures in the 218 indivduals in the TRACK-HD cohort of Huntington's disease gene mutation carriers (data collected 2008–11). We generated a parallel progression score using data from 1773 previously genotyped participants from the European Huntington's Disease Network REGISTRY study of Huntington's disease mutation carriers (data collected 2003–13). We did a genome-wide association analyses in terms of progression for 216 TRACK-HD participants and 1773 REGISTRY participants, then a meta-analysis of these results was undertaken. Findings Longitudinal motor, cognitive, and imaging scores were correlated with each other in TRACK-HD participants, justifying use of a single, cross-domain measure of disease progression in both studies. The TRACK-HD and REGISTRY progression measures were correlated with each other (r=0·674), and with age at onset (TRACK-HD, r=0·315; REGISTRY, r=0·234). The meta-analysis of progression in TRACK-HD and REGISTRY gave a genome-wide significant signal (p=1·12 × 10−10) on chromosome 5 spanning three genes: MSH3, DHFR, and MTRNR2L2. The genes in this locus were associated with progression in TRACK-HD (MSH3 p=2·94 × 10−8 DHFR p=8·37 × 10−7 MTRNR2L2 p=2·15 × 10−9) and to a lesser extent in REGISTRY (MSH3 p=9·36 × 10−4 DHFR p=8·45 × 10−4 MTRNR2L2 p=1·20 × 10−3). The lead single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in TRACK-HD (rs557874766) was genome-wide significant in the meta-analysis (p=1·58 × 10−8), and encodes an aminoacid change (Pro67Ala) in MSH3. In TRACK-HD, each copy of the minor allele at this SNP was associated with a 0·4 units per year (95% CI 0·16–0·66) reduction in the rate of change of the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS) Total Motor Score, and a reduction of 0·12 units per year (95% CI 0·06–0·18) in the rate of change of UHDRS Total Functional Capacity score. These associations remained significant after adjusting for age of onset. Interpretation The multidomain progression measure in TRACK-HD was associated with a functional variant that was genome-wide significant in our meta-analysis. The association in only 216 participants implies that the progression measure is a sensitive reflection of disease burden, that the effect size at this locus is large, or both. Knockout of Msh3 reduces somatic expansion in Huntington's disease mouse models, suggesting this mechanism as an area for future therapeutic investigation

Ressources pastorales en Haute-Provence et modelisation de la relation vegetation/troupeau

SIGLEINIST T 72784 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueFRFranc