Bioindicateurs 2.0

Over the last years, governments, institutions and/or organisations have urged not only for information on the status of ecosystems, operational and relevant (bio)indicators, and decision support tools, but also for scientific studies and assessments in order to better characterise and quantify complex ecological processes; the ultimate goal being to improve both the management and conservation of ecosystems and their biodiversity. The BOREA Lab has been working on this challenge for several years now, for specific - fundamental - research studies and to assess the specific concerns raised by public institutions such as the French Agency for Biodiversity (AFB). Bringing together, around a common axis, ongoing hypotheses and developments, conceptual frameworks and experimental, analytical, and modelling approaches, is therefore essential to optimise and promote the reasoning and actions among the BOREA teams. This will lead to help elaborating innovative research approaches and the design of ensuing well-adapted (bio)indicators. The annual general assembly of BOREA, which took place in Caen in July 2017, highlighted all the positive facets of pooling together skills, knowledge and know-how, and the potential gain of (i) setting up collaborative projects that would cover all the ecosystems, biological compartments and geographical areas followed by the researchers of the Lab, and (ii) developing and making available broadly-adapted operational methods and tools, at different organisational, temporal and geographical scales. The Bioindicators 2.0 theme will focus on (i) bringing together the skills, knowledge and know-how of the researchers of Lab and (ii) identifying the strengths – and current limitations – on (bio)indicators in order to optimise the currently available metrics, with the ultimate aim (iii) of reaching the legislative and societal expectations in terms of ecosystems health and biodiversity indicators.