Ecology

Environment and Sustainable Development

The Department of Ecology aims to understand and assess biological diversity in both natural and human-transformed ecosystems as a contribution to improved practices of sustainable management and conservation. These areas of research are closely associated with other global concerns such as water conservation, carbon sequestration and climatic changes. Special interest has long been devoted to fragile and useful biodiversity-rich forest ecosystems, on which considerable expertise and information have been gained over several decades of laboratory and fieldwork.

This is particularly true regarding the Western Ghats of India, which are recognized as one of the world main tropical biodiversity "hotspots", and on which a majority of ongoing IFP projects are focused.

Current emphasis is put on methodological aspects and, especially, on introducing innovative applications of information technologies in the field of biodiversity studies. This includes conception, development and use of spatialized databases (see also LIAG), computer-aided identification systems in taxonomy, spatial statistics and predictive models. This methodological investment is firmly grounded on data available in IFP, with the dual objectives of international publication and greater involvement in multidisciplinary projects aimed at promoting sustainable management of natural resources. Most of the research projects are carried out in close partnership with Indian Research Agencies, Forest Departments and Non-Governmental Organizations, and also with French and European Research Institutions.

Work of the department is in progress according to four axes of research:

Axis 1: The Palaeoenvironments of South India

This research orientation is centered on the use of both biological archives and geological markers to understand past environments and their evolution through time in relation to natural (climatic) and human-induced changes. This research is perfectly integrated into larger global programmes, such as PAGES (PAst Global changES), an IGBP (International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme) core project.

• Biological archives of climatic changes and vegetation

The project uses pollen fossils to reconstruct the environmental changes that have affected monsoon-dominated Indian peninsula since the quaternary period. This approach requires the selection of study sites with a continuous sedimentary record thanks to remote sensing and relies on the solid expertise of IFP in this field and uses its extensive pollen reference slide collection.

• Geological markers of palaeo-ecological transformation (completed)

The objective of this project was to gather new data on past environmental changes related to to the quaternary climatic fluctuation in the semi-arid region of Peninsular India, located in the rainshadow of the Western Ghats, sheltered from the Southwest monsoon. The presence of calcretes in this area provided an alternative to the study of biological indicators rarely found in semi-arid zones.

Axis 2: Application of information technology for disseminating biodiversity knowledge

Since the last three and half decades, the Ecology Department of IFP has been working on several biodiversity related projects. From the extensive field inventories undertaken under these projects, a deep taxonomic expertise as well as important data sets, have been generated. This unique scientific heritage is now being valorised into open source software and web-based applications (biodiversity informatics).

• Computer-aided taxonomic identification

The IDAO software enables the development of computer-aided identification applications, specific to certain categories of organisms, but all founded on the principle of a user-friendly graphic interface, which through taxa identikit, guides the user to species description sheets. Thus identification is possible in spite of the absence of information on some species attributes.

• Web-mapping and forest biodiversity portal

This is a pilot project undertaken in collaboration with the Geomatics and Applied Informatics Laboratory, and which consists in publishing on the Internet either raw (Herbarium database) or elaborated data (interactive maps or web-mapping) on forest biodiversity in the region of the Western Ghats of India.

Axis 3: Biodiversity elements in the Western Ghats

With this research orientation, emphasis is put on the study of the spatial organization of biodiversity for spatial scales ranging from tree stand dynamics to regional ecological gradients via the intermediate scale of landscape ecology. Through the use of modern tools of quantitative ecology, we aim to provide a scientific platform for delineation of protected areas, and to sustainable management of forest resources.

• Dynamics of forest diversity

This project aims at elucidating and modelling the ecological processes that may interact at various scales on the dynamics of forest biodiversity in the Western Ghats. The goal is to extract practical information for decision-making about sustainable forest management as well as to draw insights on diversity origin and maintenance, through the use of quantitative methods that still requires certain developments.

• Landscape Analysis for Biodiversity Conservation (completed)

The objective of this project was to define a general approach for the conservation and integrated management of biodiversity at the scale of a forest landscape in the Western Ghats. The landscape is viewed as a mosaic of ecosystems interacting through physical, biological and socio-economic processes.

• Soil Carbon Pool and Biodiversity Conservation (completed)

The general objective was to analyze the interactions between biodiversity conservation measures and emission/sequestration by/in the soil in forested areas of the Western Ghats. A pilot approach has been developed for assessing Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stock and variations over a period of 20 years. It is based, in particular, on GIS and new “Data Mining” techniques.

Axis 4: Usage of biodiversity and ecosystems modified by human activity

The objectives are clearly situated at the interface between Ecology and Social Sciences, and projects are aimed at studying and providing indicators about the interactions between the usages of natural resources, such as medicinal plants, and the biodiversity and structure of both natural and human-made ecosystems, such as agroforestry systems. The research projects thereby are intended to explore the conditions for a sustainable management of biodiversity in mountain landscapes of Peninsular India.

• Managing biodiversity in mountain landscapes

This project is interested in the impacts of innovative management strategies, which associate biodiversity conservation with local development, on environment, landscape and lifestyle of actors involved in coffee-based agroforestry systems in the Western Ghats of India. It tries to evaluate through the implementation of geographical indicators, the environmental services provided by these systems.

• Medicinal plants in South-India

It is a botanical and ecological study carried out in the Western Ghats, which aims at identifying the species gathered, their usages, their ecology, their availability and distributions within the country. Similarly, a geographical analysis studies the itinerary of plant gathering in order to identify the strategies of environmental management practiced by the populations and to emphasize the dynamics generated through marketing and usage of medicinal plants as well as their evolutions.

• Indicators for Managing the Environment (completed)

The project was aimed at identifying and recommending to the local managers, simple and operational environmental indicators in three different countries (India, Zimbabwe and Brazil) and regarding three different problems (forest, flora and fauna). In India, the project focused on forest cover management in the Western Ghats (Kodagu district, Karnataka).

• Agroforestry Models in South-India (completed)

The objective was to analyze management practices, multiple uses, ecological and socio-economic role of trees in farmland and to develop an information system serving as a tool for agroforestry projects. These information are being collected through a structured questionnaire concerning nearly 550 exploitations. A database of information collected in 550 exploitations led to the formulation of synthesis proforma constituting the interactive pages of a multimedia product on CD-ROM.

Publications of Ecology Department - 1995-2010.

Contact: Dr. Raphaël Pelissier