Futurs ACT

Description: Current population growth and limited arable land and natural resources are already impacting global food security while climate change is influencing agricultural practices and requiring crops that are resilient to environmental constraints and environmentally friendly. Maintaining sustainable plant productivity in a fluctuating environment, ensuring the quality of plant production for food, health and the environment while seeking to develop new resources from plants are all responses to today’s major challenges. The performance of a plant, whether in terms of biomass production, stress resistance or quality, depends on its ability to allocate its resources to the right place at the right time. This almost always results in performance trade-offs, such as defense at the expense of growth, or quality of harvested product at the expense of yield. Although these trade-offs are crucial for plant survival but also for plant production, they are still insufficiently studied in the field of plant science. The ambition of the BPS-MEDECOPE project is to better understand these trade-offs, an essential step to anticipate the challenges of future agriculture. The project focuses on the molecular, metabolic and physiological mechanisms and the genetic bases that control these trade-offs. We will focus on those involved in interactions between stresses, in particular biotic and abiotic, as well as those associated with commensals known to improve plant resistance (grafting, mycorrhization). Particular attention will be paid to genetic drift, whose consequences for the adaptation of perennial plants such as vines or trees to climate change could prove problematic. The BPS-MEDECOPE project aims to complement the funding of the Bordeaux Plant Science Research Project (GPR BPS) of the University of Bordeaux. This consortium gathers laboratories active in plant biology and ecology in Bordeaux and affiliated to the Department of Environmental Sciences of the University of Bordeaux.

Collaborators: UMR 1202 BioGeCo, UMR1332 BFP, UMR 1391 ISPA, UMR1287 EGFV, UMR5113 BSE, UMR5200 LBM, UR1264 MycSA, UMR4577 Œnologie, UMR 1065 SAVE, UMS 3420 BIC/PIV

Description: The objective of the project is to study the history of erosion on the sandy Aquitaine coast and its impact on societies, from the Neolithic to the present day. It is a question of placing this erosive dynamic—at the heart of current debates on climate change —into a multi-millennial history. It is intended to reconstruct the evolution of paleogeographical transformations and ecosystems, and to understand how societies have behaved in the face of these more or less rapid environmental changes:

• Has this erosion always been so strong?
• How does this translate into sedimentary records? How have different processes shaped the current landscape?
• How did people managed these spaces?
• What activities did they practice in these specific settings? What was their perception of risk and what responses did they provide?

To answer these questions, three geographical windows are preferred:

1. The north of the Médoc
2. The dune of Pilat, because they present a very rich cultural and natural heritage that makes it possible to trace the cycle of erosion over several millennia, since the appearance of the first sedentary communities.
3. A third window on the right bank of the estuary and the island of Oléron where archaeological and historical documentation is also important.

The research is developed around three axes:

1) geoarchaeological (understanding erosion processes over the long term, restitution of paleogeographical and paleoenvironmental changes) for which a PhD thesis allocation was requested,

2) archaeological (study of settlement dynamics and adaptation trajectories in the face of hazards),

3) archival (history of the impact of erosion on modern and contemporary societies).

The PhD also aims to ensure the harmony between these different approaches in order to cross-reference and synthesize the results. The project is promoted through regular workshops between participants, study days and meetings with decision-makers and managers of the coast. The final objective of the project is to produce a historical atlas of the Aquitaine sandy coastline, presenting a corpus of chronological and/or thematic maps, accompanied by review articles.

Coordinator: Florence Verdin (CNRS/U. Bordeaux Montaigne; Ausonius Research Institute on Antiquity and the Middle Ages UMR 507)

Contact: Florence Verdin (CNRS/U. Bordeaux Montaigne) florence.verdin@u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr

Funding: Regional Council of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, calls for research projects (2020-2021)

Description : This project aims to support the efforts of the ESTRAN research project in Nouvelle-Aquitaine by tracing the retrospective evolution of a particularly vulnerable maritime territory, the Bas-Médoc peninsula. On its coastal portion, the goal is to define the environmental trajectories that shaped it in terms of natural dynamics (fragmentation /degradation) and human settlements (abandonment / settlement of habitats, farms). Indeed, the geomorphology of the beaches in this sector reveals recent geological formations (in the last 10,000 years) that testify copiously to human occupations over several millennia and their adaptation to the variability of territories during this period when our sedentarization (i.e. the Neolithic) took form. In the context of the global change of the 21st century, in which sea level rise rates of about 10 mm/year are projected in the short term (those experienced by our ancestors during the Neolithic transition), our work serves to contribute scenarios for the future and to complement current observations of coastal evolution.

In addition to our scientific work, and with the aim of transferring the knowledge acquired by coastal management, institutional and associative stakeholders, the ICONOPASTT project specifically advances a participatory science approach with citizen contribution at the heart of its documentary generation activities. The participatory contributions of users serve to collect images that bear witness to beach conditions or discoveries with archaeological potential. This nourishes a dynamic that values the “inhabitants’ memory” and serves the collective understanding of ongoing environmental changes and the erosion of our coastal, natural and cultural heritage.

Website: https://iconopastt.fr/

Contact : contact@iconopastt.fr

Coordinator: Frédérique Eynaud (UMR EPOC) – frederique.eynaud@u-bordeaux.fr

Collaborators: AUSONIUS and PASSAGE Laboratories (U. Bordeaux Montaigne), PRODIG (Paris-Diderot University), LETG Brest (University of Western Brittany), UMS POREA (OASU), Instituto de Arqueología (CSIC-Junta de Extremadura), Communauté de Communes Médoc-Atlantique, Heritage and Inventory Service (Bordeaux site), BRGM Direction Nouvelle-Aquitaine /Observatoire de la côte de Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Association CPIE Médoc/ Curuma

Funding : CNRS MITI call for projects (Mission for transversal and interdisciplinary initiatives, https://miti.cnrs.fr/) / Action Participatory Sciences in interdisciplinary situations

Description: The current evolution of climatic conditions induces a notable modification of urban landscapes, with in particular the intensification of heat islands whose consequences (chronic stress for living organisms) should be identified and, in a context where this consequence will be accentuated, avenues of orientation for planning policies remain to be characterized. The specific objectives of the ILOVIE project are (i) to identify urban heat islands (UHIs) and study their spatio-temporal evolution between 1993 and 2020, (ii) to identify the vulnerability and feelings of populations of living organisms (including humans). The project will focus on a “pilot experimental zone”: Grand Poitiers Urban Community (GPCu) and will mobilize an interdisciplinary community: human and social sciences and environmental sciences.

Coordinators: Nicolas BECH and Sophie BELTRAN-BECH (UMR 7267 Laboratory of Ecology and Biology of Interactions – EBI)

Contacts: Nicolas BECH nicolas.bech@univ-poitiers.fr and Sophie BELTRAN-BECH sophie.beltran.bech@univ-poitiers.fr

Collaborators: Jean-Louis YENGUE, Thibault PREUX (RURALITES Laboratory (EA 2252/University of Poitiers))

Fundings: Regional Council of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, call for research projects (2022) and Grand Poitiers Urban Community (GPCu)

Description: Policy responses to urgent global crises, such as the pandemic and climate change, have reaffirmed that the legitimacy of experts cannot be taken for granted. It is therefore urgent to understand the destabilization of scientific credibility. Yet current sociological theories about the role of experts, especially those who speak as scientists in controversial political debates, are limited. Existing research tends to attribute this problem of credibility to a lack of scientific culture on the part of the public and politicians, suggesting that increased popularization and a decompartmentalization of the scientific world would make it possible to more effectively inform public policies. While such efforts are undoubtedly useful, a question less often asked is the effect that increased interactions with the public and policymakers have on experts and scientists themselves. It is generally assumed that they unequivocally wish to share their knowledge, that these interactions are positive, and that both science and policy-making benefit from these processes. 

By focusing on the case of climate change, a high-stakes global problem for which the contribution of experts is constantly solicited, this project challenges this hypothesis. It studies scientists working on climate change in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, but also in France, with the institutions of the European Union and those of the United Nations. It asks the following questions:

1) How and why do scientists working on climate change decide whether to interact with decision-makers?

2) What is the impact of these interactions on their work as scientists and on their perspective as citizens?

3) What resources, tools and training might they need to improve their participation in political decision-making, if any?

To answer these questions, this project performs archival analyses, interviews, focus groups and participant observations of scientists who have interacted with decision-makers. To facilitate this empirical work, the project will draw on the networks of its socio-economic partners (DREAL, Ecocène, and Futurs-ACT) to create a place for interdisciplinary reflection, allowing scientists from the region to meet in Bordeaux, Pau and Limoges to discuss their experiences and to share strategies for participating in policy-making processes associated with the ecological transition. In addition, meetings with the general public and workshops with partners will be organised to use the results of the project and improve their efforts in the fight against climate change.

Coordinators:
Bordeaux Montaigne University

• Laboratory of Cultures and Literatures of the English-speaking Worlds (CLIMAS)
• Laboratory of Science, Philosophy, Humanities (SPH)
• Anglo-Saxon Cultures Laboratory (CAS)

Contact:

Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer, mstambolis@gmail.com

Partner(s):

• Christine Bouisset, UPPA | TREE UMR 6031
• Émilie Chevalier, University of Limoges | OMIJ UR 3177
• Andy Smith, Sciences Po Bordeaux | CED UMR 5116
• DREAL Nouvelle-Aquitaine
• Ecocene Association
• Futurs-ACT

Website: http://www.michaelstambolis.com/interclim.html

Funding: Regional Council of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, calls for research projects (2021-2022)

Description: The project aims to contribute to a better understanding of the physico-chemical processes responsible for climate change. In particular, its focus is on biogenic secondary organic aerosol (BSAO)-water interactions and the main physical and/or chemical factors involved in atmospheric aging and cloud formation.
The study of atmospheric aerosols is now recognized as one of the top priorities of atmospheric science research at the national (CNRS, ADEME priorities, etc.) and international (COP26, Paris Agreements, IPCC Climate Report, European networks ACTRIS, IGAC, etc.) levels. Indeed, submicronic atmospheric particles have very important direct and indirect effects on climate (optical effects, cloud formation and lifetime, etc.), strongly depending on their chemical composition and associated properties.
Secondary aerosols, formed directly in the atmosphere following the transformation of compounds emitted in the gas phase (e.g. secondary organic aerosols (SOA)), represent an important part of the aerosols measured at the global level. Their formation and aging are two central processes having a direct impact on the climate, due to their optical and hygroscopic properties, but also on human health, by inducing respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
Through an original experimental set-up dedicated to the study of gas-particle interactions and microphysical properties of micronic objects in air, the project will allow to better identify physico-chemical markers related to the AOSB-water interaction processes, which will provide a better understanding of the direct effect of AOS on climate change and air quality.
The LEVIAERO project is a strongly interdisciplinary project based on the collaboration between three laboratories of the University of Bordeaux with recognized expertise and only available on the Bordeaux site: the Molecular Spectroscopy Group (GSM) of the IMS; the Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology Group (LPTC) of the EPOC laboratory; and the Physical Acoustics Department (APY) of the I2M laboratory.

Coordinator: Sophie Sobanska ( Molecular Sciences Institute – UMR 5255)

Contact: Sophie Sobanska  sophie.sobanska@u-bordeaux.fr

Collaborators: Eric Villenave (EPOC, UMR 5805), Diego Baresch (I2M, UMR 5295)

Funding: Regional Council of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, calls for research projects (2022-2023)

In the context of the threats to the sheep sector owing to socio-environmental and climatic changes (water resource availability, genetic erosion, disappearance of ancestral knowledge), a team of researchers from the University of Limoges (ecologists, geneticists, geographers, historians, economists and anthropologists), are conducting a twofold research project with professionals in the sector and specialists in water management, of historical discovery and future projection. The project aims to take advantage of the uses and practices of the agro-pastoral past:

• to search for legible traces that such uses and practices left in the landscape, memories, genes and archives,
• to understand what singular relationships – between humans, non-humans and environments – they are the product of, and
• to identify, via their cross-analysis, the elements of inspiration necessary to anticipate more sustainable scenarios for the future.

The program is organised into four workshops:

• Knowledge of local sheep breeds and associated knowledge: genetics & history
• Water and livestock in the context of climate change
• Promotion of the sheep sector’s local breeds & short circuits; impacts on landscape and water management
• Historical uses of water

Coordinators: Dominique Taurisson-Mouret (CNRS-Geolab Limoges) and Anne Da Silva (E2LIM, University of Limoges)

Direct collaborators: Marius Chevallier (MCF Geolab), Julien Dellier (MCF Geolab), Edwige Garnier (MCF Geolab), James Linton (MCF, Geolab); Anaïs Binet (M2) and Adèle Beaufils (PhD student)

Contact: Dominique Taurisson-Mouret@unilim.fr; anne_dasilva@hotmail.com

Website: https://geolab.uca.fr/geolab/actualites/pasteaural#/admin

Funding: Regional Council of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, calls for research projects (2020-2021)

Description: The project aims to offer answers to several economic, environmental or societal challenges related to the cultivation of protein crops to achieve protein autonomy at the regional and national level. The backdrop to this project being the fight against the impact of global warming on pea crops in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, and the limitation of inputs for this crop. This project presents the possibility of providing systemic responses to manage climate risks, the adaptation of cultivation techniques and the limitation of greenhouse gases, and the provision of healthy animal feed that will have a positive impact on the added value of processed products. 

The PeaTOP project has the scientific objective of enriching our knowledge of the physiological and molecular mechanisms involved in pea tolerance to water stress and its interaction with beneficial rhizobacteria. In crop fields, water stress during the formation of the pea’s reproductive organs has a negative effect on seed formation and consequently on yield, however drought episodes can also occur during its emergence (vegetative stage). This project will thus advance knowledge on the impact of water stress on the regulation of the molecular mechanisms of carbon metabolism during seed filling and apply them to the vegetative stage. In addition, the root system of pea varieties with a contrasting response to water stress will be studied to better understand its resilience to this stress. The study of the role of beneficial rhizobacteria in this process also represents an important challenge to—in the longer term—facilitate the selection, or even the creation, of new pea varieties that are more tolerant to this stress. One of the objectives of this project is therefore to improve the productivity of pea cultivation, a species of agro-ecological interest, and to propose alternative solutions to the use of agricultural inputs based on the use of beneficial rhizobacteria.

Coordinator: Nathalie Pourtau nathalie.pourtau@univ-poitiers.fr

Contact: Nathalie Pourtau nathalie.pourtau@univ-poitiers.fr

Collaborators: Mathias Coulon, Cécile Vriet, Laurence Maurousset, Joan Doidy — Laboratory Ecology and BioIogy of Interactions – UMR 7267 (University of Poitiers)

Funding: Regional Council of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, calls for research projects (2021-2022)

Coordinator’s laboratory website: https://ebi.labo.univ-poitiers.fr/4768-2/

The project aims to

1. study the use of estuarine habitats and the estuary/sea exchanges of the reintroduced population of European sea sturgeon Acipenser sturio in the Gironde Garonne Dordogne system (cradle of the last observed wild individuals),
2. use these achievements to identify the recolonisation potential of other estuarine systems on the Atlantic coast, the English Channel and the North Sea.

The use of habitats in this “model ecosystem” will undergo a detailed analysis, the results of which will be transposed to 2 other European estuaries (Seine and Elbe) in order to refine the identification of future potentialities for recolonization of the species in Europe. Such potentialities will be analysed based on the quality of the habitats in the 2 estuaries, in addition to the projections made on the basis of climate change scenarios. This interregional and European transposition is based on collaborations with the HYCAR INRAE research lab (Ile de France Region), the GIP Seine Aval, and the IGB (Berlin, Germany).

By combining landscape ecology approaches and different environmental tracers in an innovative way, the REVE project has a multidisciplinary approach associating the following joint research centers: EPOC (U. Bordeaux/CNRS), LIENSs (Coast, Environments and Societies—U. La Rochelle/CNRS) and IPREM (U. Pau and Pays de l’Adour/CNRS).

In terms of deliverables, beyond publication aspects, halfway through the project, a thematic day on the restoration of migratory fish populations was organised. This thematic day was presented jointly with the international restitution symposium of the Interreg Atlantic Area DiadES project (Assessing and enhancing ecosystem services provided by diadromous fish in a climate change context: Bordeaux in autumn 2021). At the end of the project a visual of the main results will be produced for communication purposes with the general public and schoolchildren and made available to the PNA (National Action Plan).

Coordinator: Marie-Laure Acolas (marie-laure.acolas@inrae.fr)

Contacts:

• Marie-Laure Acolas (marie-laure.acolas@inrae.fr)
• Céline Le Pichon (celine.lepichon@inrae.fr)

Funding: Regional Council of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, calls for research projects (2020-2021)

Description: The impact of environmental change (including those related to climate change) on marine resources and the fishing activities that depend on them remains generally poorly studied at the regional scale.

Based on the typology of fleet (fishing vessels) established jointly by scientists and professionals on the occasion of the study of the socio-economic significance of the fishing sector in Bayonne’s maritime district (Gallet et al., 2019), this project will focus on issues of exposure and sensitivity of fleets to changing maritime and economic climatic conditions.

The project’s objectives are:

• to identify favourable/unfavourable weather conditions for fleets’ sea trips, as well as their impact on yields (tonnage and/or value);
• and to observe the evolution of these quantities according to different scenarios.

The project wishes to continue the collaboration between scientific and social stakeholders (integrating and promoting knowledge, sharing results, discussions) to provide useful elements for the governance of their activities (resulting from projections of fleets’ efforts and capturability according to different co-created scenarios).

Coordinator: University of Pau and Pays de l’Adour – Laboratory of Mathematics and Applications of Pau – UMR CNRS 5142

Contacts:

• Noëlle Bru (UPPA) noelle.bru@univ-pau.fr
• Nathalie Caill-Milly (IFREMER) nathalie.caill.milly@ifremer.fr

Partners: Ifremer LERAR (Anglet), CIDPMEM64-40 (Comité Interdépartemental des Pêches Maritimes et des Élevages Marins 64-40)