Use of extensive habitat inventories in biodiversity studies

International audienceLarge monitoring programs exist in many countries and are necessary to assess present and past biodiversity status and to evaluate the consequences of habitat degradation or destruction. Using such an extensive data set of the floristic richness in the Paris Ile-de-France region (France), we compared different sampling efforts and protocols in different habitat units to highlight the best methods for assessing the actual plant biodiversity. Our results indicate that existing data can be used for a general understanding of site differences, but analysts should be aware of the limitations of the data due to non-random selection of sites, inconsistent observer knowledge, and inconsistent sampling period. The average species diversity recorded in a specific habitat does not necessarily reflect its actual diversity, unless the monitoring effort was very strong. Overall, increasing the sampling effort in a given region allows improvement of the (1) number of habitats visited, (2) the total sampled area for a given habitat type, (3) the number of seasons investigated. Our results indicate that the sampling effort should be planned with respect to these functional, spatial and temporal heterogeneities, and to the question examined. While the effort should be applied to as many habitats as possible for the purpose of capturing a large proportion of regional diversity, or comparing different regions, inventories should be conducted in different seasons for the purpose of comparing species richness in different habitats

The IQE: an Ecological Quality Index for site management

There are currently no standardized assessment tools to define the ecological quality of industrial sites and landfills sites. The Natural Heritage Service of the National Museum of Natural History has developed an Ecological Quality Index (Indicateur de Qualité Écologique, IQE). This is based on a six-day inventory at the scale of species and ecosystems i) on the diversity of natural habitats and birds, ii) on wildlife and natural heritage value of a site and iii) an index of ecological functionality. Inventories conducted on 29 sites over a four-year period, were compared with published literature and expert knowledge. This approach allowed the modification or validation of each parameter, including the scoring system of these two indices. A shorter version of this index, based on a one-day inventory, the Ecological Potentiality Index (Indicateur de Potentialité Écologique, IPE) has also been developed, using a similar structureIl n'existe pas à l'heure actuelle d'outil d'évaluation standardisé de la qualité écologique de sites lourdement aménagés ou destinés à l'être. Un indicateur composite, l'Indicateur de Qualité Écologique (IQE), a été élaboré et renseigne sur trois aspects-clés de la biodiversité, à l'échelle des espèces et des écosystèmes: i) la diversité, mesurée pour les habitats naturels et l'avifaune, ii) la patrimonialité, fondée sur les listes de statuts des taxons et des habitats présents, et iii) la fonctionnalité écologique du site. Pour chaque variable élémentaire, des seuils empiriques ont été établis en fonction de la littérature et des valeurs observées sur le terrain. L'ajustement des paramètres identifiés ainsi que du système de notation s'est fait non seulement sur la base des résultats des inventaires menés sur 29 sites durant quatre années, mais également en se référant aux données bibliographiques disponibles. La mise en œuvre de cet indicateur sur un site nécessite 6 jours de relevés de données sur le terrain. Une version allégée de cet indicateur, basée sur un seul jour d'inventaire, l'Indicateur de Potentialité Écologique (IPE) a été construite sur la même architecture

National distributional atlases and species inventory: toward a more iterative approach and a taxonomic balancing

This synthesis analyses the use and limitations of the distributional atlases data for applied nature conservation studies. From the gaps and opportunities observed in France, we suggest a set of practical and scientific recommendations in order to strengthen their use in systematic conservation planning for terrestrial biodiversity (protected networks, green infrastructure and land settlement). The two main advices are to adopt an iterative approach between field survey and data analysis, and the selection of the species groups to inventory. The iterative process consists of regularly using available valid data to identify spatial and taxonomic gaps in the inventory, to model the potential distribution of each species and to estimate their ecological niche. During the distribution inventory project, this information can enable the sorting of new data according to their plausibility (data validation process) and should be used to identify priority areas for new field surveys. As scientific literature concludes that there is low consistency of biodiversity congruence relationship, we suggest increasing taxonomic representation in new atlases projects in order to provide a more complete view of species distribution for nature conservation initiatives. Ideally, the species groups should be rich in restricted range and low mobility species, or rich in habitat specialist species or contain species playing a recognized role in ecosystem functioning. Taking into account practical and technical criteria, a list of taxa is proposed for new distribution atlases. This proposal would cover about 20 % of known terrestrial species compared to current 5 %, with more effort on invertebrates, plants and fungi.Cette synthèse analyse les utilisations et les limites des atlas nationaux de distribution d’espèces et de leurs données d’inventaires dans le domaine appliqué à la conservation de la nature. À partir des lacunes et des opportunités techniques constatées en France, nous proposons une série de recommandations pratiques et scientifiques afin de renforcer leur utilisation dans les démarches de planification spatiale de la conservation de la biodiversité terrestre (aires protégées, réseaux écologiques, aménagement du territoire). Les deux principaux aspects concernent la mise en place d’une démarche itérative et le choix des groupes d’espèces. La démarche itérative consiste à analyser régulièrement les données disponibles validées afin d’identifier les lacunes de prospection, modéliser la distribution potentielle des espèces et estimer leur niche écologique. Ces informations doivent ensuite faciliter le processus de validation, en triant les nouvelles données selon leur vraisemblance au regard de l’occurrence et de la niche et servir à définir de nouveaux territoires à inventorier prioritairement. Comme la littérature montre que les zones importantes pour la conservation varient suivant les groupes d’espèces, nous proposons d’augmenter la représentativité taxinomique avec de nouveaux atlas, afin d’apporter une vision plus complète de la distribution des espèces pour les dispositifs de conservation. Idéalement, les groupes inventoriés doivent être riches en espèces à répartition restreinte et peu mobiles et/ou présenter une forte proportion d’espèces spécialistes de certains milieux et/ou jouant un rôle reconnu dans les processus écologiques

The Special LHC Interconnections: Technologies, Organization and Quality Control

In addition to the standard interconnections (IC) of the continuous cryostat of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), there exists a variety of special ones related to specific components and assemblies, such as cryomagnets of the insertion regions, electrical feedboxes and superconducting links. Though they are less numerous, their specificities created many additional IC types, requiring a larger variety of assembly operations and quality control techniques, keeping very high standards of quality. Considerable flexibility and adaptability from all the teams involved (CERN staff, collaborating institutes, contractors) were the key points to ensure the success of this task. This paper first describes the special IC and presents the employed technologies which are generally adapted from the standard work. Then, the organization adopted for this non-repetitive work is described. Examples of non-conformities that were resolved are also discussed. Figures of merit in terms of quality and productivity are given and compared with standard IC wor

The 'PUCE CAFE' Project: the First 15K Coffee Microarray, a New Tool for Discovering Candidate Genes correlated to Agronomic and Quality Traits

Background: Understanding the genetic elements that contribute to key aspects of coffee biology will have an impact on future agronomical improvements for this economically important tree. During the past years, EST collections were generated in Coffee, opening the possibility to create new tools for functional genomics. Results: The "PUCE CAFE" Project, organized by the scientific consortium NESTLE/IRD/CIRAD, has developed an oligo-based microarray using 15,721 unigenes derived from published coffee EST sequences mostly obtained from different stages of fruit development and leaves in Coffea Canephora (Robusta). Hybridizations for two independent experiments served to compare global gene expression profiles in three types of tissue matter (mature beans, leaves and flowers) in C. canephora as well as in the leaves of three different coffee species (C. canephora, C. eugenoides and C. arabica). Microarray construction, statistical analyses and validation by Q-PCR analysis are presented in this study. Conclusion: We have generated the first 15 K coffee array during this PUCE CAFE project, granted by Genoplante (the French consortium for plant genomics). This new tool will help study functional genomics in a wide range of experiments on various plant tissues, such as analyzing bean maturation or resistance to pathogens or drought. Furthermore, the use of this array has proven to be valid in different coffee species (diploid or tetraploid), drastically enlarging its impact for high-throughput gene expression in the community of coffee research

Velocity-space sensitivity of the time-of-flight neutron spectrometer at JET

The velocity-space sensitivities of fast-ion diagnostics are often described by so-called weight functions. Recently, we formulated weight functions showing the velocity-space sensitivity of the often dominant beam-target part of neutron energy spectra. These weight functions for neutron emission spectrometry (NES) are independent of the particular NES diagnostic. Here we apply these NES weight functions to the time-of-flight spectrometer TOFOR at JET. By taking the instrumental response function of TOFOR into account, we calculate time-of-flight NES weight functions that enable us to directly determine the velocity-space sensitivity of a given part of a measured time-of-flight spectrum from TOFOR

Relationship of edge localized mode burst times with divertor flux loop signal phase in JET

A phase relationship is identified between sequential edge localized modes (ELMs) occurrence times in a set of H-mode tokamak plasmas to the voltage measured in full flux azimuthal loops in the divertor region. We focus on plasmas in the Joint European Torus where a steady H-mode is sustained over several seconds, during which ELMs are observed in the Be II emission at the divertor. The ELMs analysed arise from intrinsic ELMing, in that there is no deliberate intent to control the ELMing process by external means. We use ELM timings derived from the Be II signal to perform direct time domain analysis of the full flux loop VLD2 and VLD3 signals, which provide a high cadence global measurement proportional to the voltage induced by changes in poloidal magnetic flux. Specifically, we examine how the time interval between pairs of successive ELMs is linked to the time-evolving phase of the full flux loop signals. Each ELM produces a clear early pulse in the full flux loop signals, whose peak time is used to condition our analysis. The arrival time of the following ELM, relative to this pulse, is found to fall into one of two categories: (i) prompt ELMs, which are directly paced by the initial response seen in the flux loop signals; and (ii) all other ELMs, which occur after the initial response of the full flux loop signals has decayed in amplitude. The times at which ELMs in category (ii) occur, relative to the first ELM of the pair, are clustered at times when the instantaneous phase of the full flux loop signal is close to its value at the time of the first ELM

La diffusion de l’information sur la biodiversité en France

Le contexte L’inventaire du patrimoine naturel est institué pour l’ensemble du territoire national terrestre, fluvial et marin par le code de l’environnement (L411-5). Le ministère en charge de l’écologie en assure la gouvernance globale, définit les objectifs et organise un système de partage de l’information. Il a ainsi organisé la mise en place d’une part du Système d’Information sur la nature et le paysage (SINP) qui organise la production et la diffusion des informations sur la biodivers..

Effet de l'addition d'un concentre riche en fibres dans une ration a base de foin, distribuee a deux niveaux alimentaires chez la lapine adulte. 1. Temps de sejour moyen des aliments

National audienc