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Integrating problem structuring methods with formal design theory: collective water management policy design in Tunisia
No full textGroundwater management, especially in regions like Tunisia, is challenging due to diverse stakeholder interests and the dry structure of climate, which is extremely challenging for the sustainability of water resources. This paper proposes an innovative approach to policy design by merging Problem Structuring Methods (PSMs) and the Policy-Knowledge, Concepts, Proposals (P-KCP) methodology. Utilizing cognitive maps and value trees, the study aims to generate new collective groundwater management practices. Bridging decision theory and design theory, the study addresses the gap in new alternative generation and highlights the P-KCP's role in innovative policy design. Integrating PSMs and C-K theory, the framework expands policy alternatives and advocates for participatory approaches. It emphasizes adaptability across contexts, provides replicable process descriptions, and encourages the creation of unconventional policy solutions. Ultimately, this comprehensive framework offers a practical guide for policy innovation and collaboration
A New Species of Nealiolus Mason, 1974 (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) from Traditional Cocoa Agroforestry and Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest
No full textInternational audienceThe genus Nealiolus Mason, 1974 (Hymenoptera: Braconidae, Brachistinae) is recorded for the first time in the Atlantic forest remnants and traditional cocoa agroforests, Theobroma cacao (Malvaceae) in the northeastern Brazilian region. A new species Nealiolus seb Silva, Shimbori and Fernandes sp. n. is described and named in honor of the "Sociedade Entomologica do Brasil - SEB", on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary (golden jubilee). Digital images, map and an identification key for all Brazilian species of Nealiolus are provided
Outil et méthode de développement d'un jeu d'indicateurs pour une transition vers une économie circulaire
No full textInternational audienc
Seed morphometrics unravels the evolutionary history of grapevine in France
No full textInternational audienceThe cultivation of grapevines has spanned millennia, leading to thousands of varieties through exchanges, mutations, and crosses between genotypes, as well probably as gene flow from wild populations. These varieties are typically categorized by regional origin and primary use, either for wine production or fruit consumption. France, within the Western European group, hosts many of the world's renowned wine grape varieties. However, the historical development of cultivated grapevines in France and in the world remains poorly understood. This study applies morphometry on 19,377 charred and waterlogged archaeological grape pips to investigate the evolutionary history of grapevine in France over the last 10,000 years. The study compares seed outlines and lengths, corrected for taphonomic distortions, with a reference collection of 80 wild and 466 modern domestic grapevine accessions. Findings reveal a shift from wild grapevine exploitation to the expansion of domestic varieties around 600-500 BCE, coinciding with Mediterranean cultural influences and the introduction of eastern grape types. The identification of the East-Table group, a group of varieties of eastern origin for fruit consumption, indicates that grapes were also grown for food, especially in Mediterranean regions and near urban areas, alongside wine production. Early French viticulture featured a notable presence of Western European wine-type grapevines. The abundance of pips with wild-like morphology suggests early cultivation involved plants at an initial domestication stage and gene flow between introduced and wild grapevines. As viticulture spread northward, wild and Eastern morphotypes declined, leading to the dominance of Western European wine types in inner France during the Middle Ages
Perceived quality framework in Mediterranean clusters: analyzing the functioning, the conditions, the strategies and the performances of fruit and vegetables short food supply chain
No full textInternational audienceThis article presents a theoretical model developed for the analysis of supply chain systems of fruit and vegetables in the Mediterranean Clusters, according to MED-LINKS project, including the drivers determining their organisational characteristics, the internal relationships and dynamics, and the related performance. The analysis targets the clusters of firms that represent the structural components of Short Food Supply Chain system (SFSCs). Clusters of fruit and vegetables production in the Mediterranean partner countries are defined and delimited at geographical and economic level. The theoretical model identifies an inventory of selected reference indicators that will subsequently be needed to assess the supply chain systems' external and multidimensional drivers, strategical choices and competitiveness. Our theoretical model allowed the identification of four fruit and vegetable production clusters in the Mediterranean partner countries according to the SFSCs, that allowed us to do the exploration of an inventory of cluster-relevant reference indicators at the level of the four countries. This empirical study was analyzed to measure and assess the degree of importance of relevant indicators related to external and multidimensional factors (economic, environmental, rules, behavioral attitude), strategic choices and supply chain performance of clusters in the Mediterranean area. The survey carried out by questionnaire among the experts interviewed also made it possible to raise, for certain clusters, other proposals for variables likely to impact the performance of the said clusters
InsectChange: Comment
No full textNational audienceThe InsectChange database (van Klink et al. 2021) underlying the meta-analysis by van Klink et al. (2020a) compiles worldwide time series of the abundance and biomass of invertebrates reported as insects and arachnids, as well as ecological data likely to have influenced the observed trends. On the basis of a comprehensive review of the original studies, we highlight numerous issues in this database, such as errors in insect counts, sampling biases, inclusion of noninsects driving assemblage trends, omission of drivers investigated in original studies and inaccurate assessment of local cropland cover. We show that in more than half of the original studies, the factors investigated were experimentally manipulated or were strong -often not natural- disturbances. These internal drivers created situations more frequently favouring an increase than a decrease in insects and were unlikely to be representative of habitat conditions worldwide. We demonstrate that when both groups were available in original freshwater studies, selecting all invertebrates rather than only insects led to an overestimation of the “insect” trend. We argue that the disparate and non-standardised units of measurement of insect density among studies may have detrimental consequences for users, as was the case for van Klink et al. (2020a, 2022) who log10(x+1)-transformed these heterogeneous data, compromising the comparison of temporal trends between datasets and the estimation of the overall trend. We show that geographical coordinates assigned by InsectChange to insect sampling areas are inadequate for the analysis of the local influence of agriculture, urbanisation and climate on insect change for 68% of the datasets. In terrestrial data, the local cropland cover is strongly overestimated, which may incorrectly dismiss agriculture as a driving force behind the decline in insects. Therefore, in its current state, this database enables the study of neither the temporal trends of insects worldwide nor their drivers. The supplementary information accompanying our paper presents in detail each problem identified and makes numerous suggestions that can be used as a basis for improvement
Linking the evolution of two prefrontal brain regions to social and foraging challenges in primates
No full textThe diversity of cognitive skills across primates remains both a fascinating and a controversial issue. Recent comparative studies provided conflicting results regarding the contribution of social vs ecological constraints to the evolution of cognition. Here, we used an interdisciplinary approach combining comparative cognitive neurosciences and behavioral ecology. Using brain imaging data from 16 primate species, we measured the size of two prefrontal brain regions, the frontal pole (FP) and the dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), respectively involved in metacognition and working memory, and examined their relation to a combination of socio-ecological variables. The size of these prefrontal regions, as well as the whole brain, was best explained by three variables: body mass, daily traveled distance (an index of ecological constraints) and population density (an index of social constraints). The strong influence of ecological constraints on FP and DLPFC volumes suggests that both metacognition and working memory are critical for foraging in primates. Interestingly, FP volume was much more sensitive to social constraints than DLPFC volume, in line with laboratory studies showing an implication of FP in complex social interactions. Thus, our data highlights the relative weight of social vs ecological constraints on the evolution of specific prefrontal brain regions and their associated cognitive operations in primates
Are intercrops and cover Crops efficient to Mitigate Pesticide Dependency and Leaching Risks in Low Input Cropping Systems?
No full textInternational audienceIn conventional cropping systems (CS) of Southwest France based on short-term rotation of durum wheat - sunflower, a long bare soil period occurs. These CS strongly depend on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, leading to environmental contamination. The transitioning to agroecological CS needs novel agronomic integrative strategies such as crop diversification, incorporation of legumes, intercropping, and cover cropping of fallow periods. Over six cropping seasons (2011-2016), three CS aiming at reducing fertilisers and pesticides were evaluated on experimental plots at the INRAE Toulouse station. The 6 CS tested were: (i) a Low Input system (LI) (with sunflower, wheat, and sorghum), (ii) a Very Low Input system (VLI) including a legume (faba bean) in the rotation and wheat cultivar mixture, and (iii) a system with legumes InterCropped (IC) (durum wheat-pea, soft wheat-faba bean, sunflower-soybean) in the 3-year rotation. Each plot was replicated three times, starting at each of the 3 crops in the rotation, with half of each plot managed either with bare soil (BS) or with a cover crop (CC), leading to 6 CS. Technical managements were adapted to each CS and were recorded in order to calculate Treatment Frequency Index (TFI) to assess pesticide pressure in the 6 CS tested. Lysimetric plates were installed at 1 m-depth in each plot for collecting drainage water. More than 500 samples were analysed for their concentration in active compounds from 2011 to 2016. All the molecules applied since 2004 were analysed in the drainage water, resulting in the analysis of 33 to 44 molecules applied, depending on the plot.Differences in TFI were observed among the 6 CS with lower values for the LI system, followed by IC, and then VLI system. Cover crops did not affect TFI across all 6 CS. Cumulated mean drainage displayed a decreasing trend across systems, ranging from 380 mm in the LI system to 176 mm in the IC system, with the VLI system intermediate at 201 mm. Moreover, cover crops did not induced a significant reduction of water drainage. Cumulative mean pesticide loss during the 2011-2016 period ranged from 0.8 g/ha in the LI system with cover crops to 4.2 g/ha in the LI system without cover crops. Introducing cover crops consistently led to a reduction in pesticide losses across the various systems, with reductions of approximately 2-fold for IC, 2.7-fold for VLI, and 5.3-fold for LI.The results highlight the crucial benefits of managing the fallow period using cover crops to reduce pesticide transfers, in addition to well-known ecosystem services. Additionally, the introduction of intercrops appears to also contribute to the reduction of pesticide transfers, mainly because of a reduced application frequency
Eclairages sur l'infrastructure de recherche RARe
No full textThis report is presenting the AgroBRC-RARe National Research infrastructure (https://www.agrobrc-rare.org), based on papers published in the Lettre des Unités Expérimentales of INRAE (LUE). After a general introduction to the organization of this Infrastructure into five pillars of Biological Resource Centers, the papers shed light on the complementarity between RARe and the experimental units, on the organization of the 'plant' pillar and on a few examples of its activities, before concluding with the economic model of the whole.Cet article présente l'Infrastructure de Recherche Nationale RARe (https://www.agrobrc-rare.org) en s'appuyant sur les communications parues dans la Lettre des Unités Expérimentales d'INRAE (LUE). Après une introduction générale de l'organisation de cette Infrastructure en cinq piliers de Centres de Ressources Biologiques, les communications apportent des éclairages sur la complémentarité entre RARe et les unités expérimentales, sur l'organisation du pilier 'plante' et sur quelques exemples de ses activités, avant de terminer sur le modèle économique de l'ensemble