Conference: Functional Ecology and Environment, July 11-12, 2017 (Toulouse, France)

Decades of overharvesting, habitat destruction and pollution, have led to a biodiversity crisis, the so-called sixth extinction. Nations worldwide have established biodiversity action plans featuring actions targeted at halting biodiversity loss and ecosystem services degradation, but also to ensure that the ecosystem services nature provides are protected, valued and restored. These policy changes were implemented in response to a growing concern that development over previous decades, despite considerable benefits to the citizens of nations, was having a significant impact upon biodiversity. In particular, it was recognized that the loss of biodiversity is compounding the problems of global change, and that the two phenomena are mutually reinforcing.

Species are not only valuable in their own right, they are also responsible for the capture, conversion and flow of energy and nutrients through ecosystems.  These processes ensure ecosystem functions upon which humans ultimately depend. In terms of risk, some species also generate nuisances that have ecological, sanitary and economic costs. Global change has already started to affect the distribution of species. However, it is not yet clear how subsequent changes in species distributions will impact the flow of energy and nutrients within ecosystems.

These uncertainties reflect the still unknown relationship between global change, ecological network structure and ecosystem function, calling for the emergence of a system-level ecology that integrates concepts from paleoecology, individual-population biology, community ecology, biological conservation, functional ecology, ecotoxicology, and biogeochemistry.

This conference will therefore aim gathering French and foreign ecologists whom works will illustrate such collaborative research promoted by EcoLab.

Conference language: English

Important dates:

- February 1st – March 24th : abstracts submission

- Mid-April: decision on selected communications

- Mid-April - May 15th : online registration

- July 11th-12th: conference in Toulouse

More information here

TOPICS DESCRIPTION

Session 1 - Global changes and biogeochemical cycles

What are the main environmental drivers that control matter flow inside and between continental ecosystems? 

What are the impacts of global changes (climate change, creation of man-made landscape, water use, large scale contamination etc..) on those transfers?

This session aims to discuss the major role of interactions between living organism communities and biogeochemical cycles. Potential feedbacks within those interactions with global changes will  be the focus of this session.

Session 2 - Influence of biotic and abiotic environments on the dynamics of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning 

How spatial and temporal changes in biodiversity and environmental conditions affect biotic interactions?

How geochemical environment influence the effect of contaminants on biodiversity, from individual to ecosystem levels?

Session 3 - Functional trajectories of ecosystems after disturbances

What is the resilience ability of ecosystems after disturbance? 

What are the new equilibrium?

This session aims to discuss whether the resistance and resilience of ecosystems to disturbances are related to functional strategies and/or life-history traits of organisms. It also aims at assessing whether biodiversity changes are the driver or the result of ecosystem functioning changes. Another goal will be to discuss how human activities irreversibly affect ecosystems indicating that current ecosystems are inherited from past disturbances. 

Session 4 - Ecosystem services within areas highly sensitive to global changes

How recent global change and local disturbance (past and recent) affect ecosystem services ?

Can we forecast future trends of ecosystem services, and how?

This session aims to discuss these questions by focusing mainly on areas highly sensitive to global changes such as wetlands, arid and desert environments, mountain ecosystems and urban areas.