Séminaire

Nearly forty per cent (40%) of the world population live and depend on coastal ecosystems for their economic prosperity. In the tropics, coral reefs, sea grass meadows and mangroves offer essential ecological (protection, habitat, diversity,
air and water quality), economic (fisheries, coastal protection, tourism), social (recreation) and cultural (heritage, identity) services that are essential for the development   and   wellbeing   of   local   and   foreign inhabitants.   Only   in   the
Caribbean   Sea,   the   tourism   industry   in   coral   reef environments  represents around $8.9US billion/year and employs around 350K people. Indeed, without coral reefs many of the coastal cities around the world would have disappear due
to hurricanes or coastal erosion. However, scientific studies show that marine environments, and in particular coral reefs, have suffered severe transformations in   structure   and   function   since   1980’s.   Most   of   the ecological   (and   some
geological) records show that those changes may be due to natural, anthropic, global,   regional   or   local   factors.   And   in   some   cases,  the   origin   of   their transformation is due to a combination of factors (synergic effects).

To understand the causes that generate those community shifts, and the different local, regional and latitudinal responses to stressors has been the basic of my research. I will present results from expeditions done in Vietnam, Panama (Pacific and Caribbean), Colombia, Italy and UK, as well as experiments in laboratory with organisms from the Caribbean Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Indo- Pacific and Tropical Eastern Pacific.

I will show how different and complementary approaches to my questions (taxonomy, population ecology, community ecology, in-situ experiments, ex-situ experiments,   GIS   tools,   genetic   tools,   inter-institutional participation,   socio-economic approaches, national vs international efforts, etc) may support the basis to understand and estimate community shits in tropical coral reefs, and how those responses may help us to identify mitigation measures to preserve marine biological diversity and support local government strategies for social adaptation to environmental change. Some of the interesting results include modification of ecological models developed in 1970’s and 1990’s for tropical coral reefs, and the recent creation of a socio-economic model developed with local communities for Community Based Sustainable Management of marine resources.

Diana.Ruiz-Pino@locean-ipsl.upmc.fr