Abstract
The Central French Alps long-term socio-ecological research Platform (Central French Alps LTSER) focuses on the coupled dynamics of alpine ecosystems, their uses and climate. The creation of the Platform has provided a unique opportunity to initiate and strengthen collaborative transdisciplinary research involving a range of natural and social scientists (ecologists, agronomists, climatologists, sociologists) and key regional stakeholders from the agriculture, tourism and nature conservation sectors. The main research questions were built on existing long-term research projects at two sites. They include climate change effects on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, and coupled dynamics of grassland management, biodiversity and ecosystem functioning through ecosystem services, using not only observations of natural and human systems, but also manipulative experiments of climate, management and plant and soil diversity to feed models. The LTSER Platform has fostered three important types of advances: (1) Long-term data consolidation and sharing. (2) Invigorating interdisciplinary projects (e.g. coupled transformations of economic functioning of farming systems and mountain summer pastures dynamics; mutations of alpine tourism in the face of climate change). (3) New transdisciplinary projects, including climate change adaptation of mountain territories, integrated carbon cycle modelling in response to historical land-use change and climate; a sociological study of the process of construction of the LTSER Platform.
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Notes
- 1.
It is important to note that “long-term” does not mean the same for all participants. Ecologists working on plant adaptation to climate change and land-use changes may need data extending back to the nineteenth century, whereas a single decade may be considered as “long-term” by researchers studying phenomena developing over short spans of time.
- 2.
Zone Atelier sites make up the French LTER network, coordinated by CNRS’s Environment and Sustainable Development Institute. Currently there are ten sites, whose membership of the network and management are the responsibility of an international Scientific Committee. The Zone Atelier network promotes long-term interdisciplinary research at sites representative of the main French river basins and of different type of natural and managed environments. See: http://www.za.univ-nantes.fr
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Acknowledgments
This research was conducted on the long-term research site Zone Atelier Alpes, a member of the ILTER-Europe network. ZAA publication no. 5. This paper was initially prepared within the framework of “A Long-Term Biodiversity, Ecosystem and Awareness Research Network” (ALTER Net), a partnership of 24 organisations from 17 European countries, funded by the EU’s 6th Framework Programme. It contributes to MEDDTL GICC2 project SECALP. We thank Karl Grigulis, Pénélope Lamarque and Nicole Sardat for the artwork.
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Lavorel, S. et al. (2013). Fostering Research into Coupled Long-Term Dynamics of Climate, Land Use, Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services in the Central French Alps. In: Singh, S., Haberl, H., Chertow, M., Mirtl, M., Schmid, M. (eds) Long Term Socio-Ecological Research. Human-Environment Interactions, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1177-8_20
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