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Human‐animal interactions: Camera traps as research agents
No full textInternational audienceThis article explores the use of camera traps as novel research agents in studying human‐animal interactions and animal behaviour. Drawing on case studies from ecological research in India and ritual practices in Thailand, the authors examine how camera traps transform methodologies across the natural and social sciences and ask what these technologies reveal about animal responses to human presence and the cognitive underpinnings of their behaviours. Using Actor‐Network‐Theory frameworks and more‐than‐human philosophy, the authors argue that camera traps are not passive recording devices but active participants that shape the multispecies realities they observe. The case studies illustrate how animals learn to recognize and respond to camera traps, demonstrating situational awareness, evaluative cognition and adaptive learning. The authors advocate for an interdisciplinary approach to studying human‐animal interactions that accounts for the agentive capacities of both humans and nonhumans, including technological agents like camera traps. This article contributes to ongoing discussions in ethology, anthropology and cognitive science about the use of remote imaging in field research and the conceptual and ethical implications of technological interventions in more‐than‐human lifeworlds
Extreme Poisson’s ratios recorded in the secondary phloem of Malvaceae: a highlight on the biomechanical function of bark
No full textInternational audienceIn some angiosperm species, especially in the Malvaceae family, postural control and directional growth of the stem areenabled by the mechanical interaction between the growing cambium and the secondary phloem. A key feature of this motormechanism is the ability to redirect the tangential stress induced in secondary phloem into a longitudinal stress enabling thecontrol of stem orientation. Here we studied how the microstructure of the secondary phloem is optimized for this function.We measured the longitudinal-tangential Poisson’s ratio and the longitudinal modulus of elasticity of secondary phloem in 22tree species including Malvaceae and other families. We modeled the microstructure of Malvaceae secondary phloem usingfinite elements. The Poisson’s ratio of secondary phloem from Malvaceae trees was found one to two orders of magnitudehigher than for other species, reaching the highest values ever reported for a natural material. Mechanical modeling confirmedthese results and showed that parameters of the microstructure of secondary phloem are set at value optimizing this Poisson’sratio. This highlights that the specific microstructure of Malvaceae secondary phloem is designed to maximize the conversionof cambial growth pressure into a longitudinal mechanical stress enabling the directional growth
PlantCoopLab, coopérer avec les plantes pour une alimentation durable
No full textInternational audienceWhile the status of animals in production systems is a subject of debate, the definition of food sustainability does not involve any special consideration for plants. Yet, considering plants and food as a central technological ingredient in our culture of convenience needs to be contrasted with a recent ‘plant turn’ that calls for reassessing the standing of plants. The PlantCoopLab project draws its inspiration from this observation and aims to promote an attitudinal shift or reorientation of values. To overcome viewing plant food as a device, the emphasis is put on labor and agentivity. In the rationale of economic production, ‘to do’ generally means to produce goods or services through labor. In the case of plants, does ‘to do’ also mean labor? What does the act of ‘being at work’ imply for plants and when working with plants? The challenge is to depart from a functionalist and mechanistic interpretation of plant life, without falling into the trap of speculative interpretation. The recognition of plant labor is taken as a means for changing practices necessary for the supply of sustainable foods. It seeks to acknowledge the interconnection between the farmers’ co-acting skills and comprehension and the actual agentive ecology of food production. Finally, it endeavors to develop a vision of sustainability which can oppose the social disburdenment that contributes to an increasingly industrialized agriculture.Autant le statut des animaux dans les systèmes productifs fait l’objet de débats, autant la définition de la durabilité alimentaire n’implique aucun égard particulier pour les plantes. Le projet PlantCoopLab trouve son inspiration dans ce constat et dans le « tournant végétal » qui appelle à revisiter le statut des plantes. Dans une logique de production économique, faire signifie en général produire des biens ou des services par le travail. Dans le cas des plantes, le « faire » est-il aussi un travail ? Sans pour autant impliquer une personnification, cette question permet de repenser les activités végétales au-delà d’une lecture seulement techniciste, ce qui conduit aussi à reconsidérer le travail effectué avec les plantes. Le projet analyse plus largement la reconnaissance de ce travail comme moyen d’infléchir les pratiques nécessaires à la fourniture de nourritures durables
Tailles et morphologies des espèces animales sauvages et domestiques en France Méditerranéenne au cours des 8 derniers millénaires
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Itinéraire d'un dialogue autour de la réutilisation des eaux usées traitées : entre génie des procédés et sociologie
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Using spatial aggregation of soil multifunctionality maps to support uncertainty‐aware planning decisions
No full textInternational audienceTo ensure soil preservation, it is essential to incorporate the soil's ability to provide ecosystem services into the spatial planning process. For well‐informed planning decisions, stakeholders need spatially explicit information on the state of the soils and the functions they fulfil, with sufficient spatial resolution and quantified uncertainty. It has been shown that Digital Soil Mapping (DSM) products can provide such information. However, in some cases, fine spatial resolution coupled with high levels of uncertainty may lead stakeholders to overlook the inherent uncertainties in the information. Spatial aggregation of DSM products opens up a promising avenue for obtaining maps that are more tailored to the users' scales of decision making while facilitating uncertainty communication. In this perspective, we propose a new spatial aggregation approach relying on spatially constrained agglomerative clustering (AC). The spatial aggregation approach is applied to a 25‐m‐resolution soil potential multifunctionality index (SPMI) map developed for the coastal plain of the Occitanie Region. This DSM product was increasingly aggregated to obtain SPMI maps of different resolutions displaying two distinct areal metrics: proportions of area above a given threshold of SPMI, and mean SPMI. Each map was evaluated through a set of indicators selected for their potential impact on user decision making: mean spatial resolution, overall predicted uncertainty, quantity of information and mean within‐unit variability. The maps were compared with respect to these indicators to other maps obtained with alternative aggregation methods employed in DSM literature (maps aggregated according to some administrative units and QuadMaps). We show that all the tested aggregation methods produced a substantial decrease of the map uncertainty with moderate loss of spatial resolution. However, only AC preserved the fine spatial pattern of the initial DSM product while enabling fine tuning of the uncertainty displayed to end‐users. We show that AC can simplify the identification of extensive regions characterized by low uncertainty without losing information regarding soil multifunctionality, thereby facilitating and enhancing the efficiency of planning decisions
Genomic data provide insights into the classification of extant termites
No full textInternational audienceGenomic data provide insights into the classification of extant termitesA list of authors and their affiliations appears at the end of the paperThe higher classification of termites requires substantial revision as the Neoisoptera, the most diverse termite lineage, comprise many paraphyletic and polyphyletic higher taxa. Here, we produce an updated termite classification using genomic-scale analyses. We reconstruct phylogenies under diverse substitution models with ultraconserved elements analyzed as concatenated matrices or within the multi-species coalescence framework. Our classification is further supported by analyses controlling for rogue loci and taxa, and topological tests. We show that the Neoisoptera are composed of seven family-level monophyletic lineages, including the Heterotermitidae Froggatt, Psammotermitidae Holmgren, and Termitogetonidae Holmgren, raised from subfamilial rank. The species-rich Termitidae are composed of 18 subfamily-level monophyletic lineages, including the new subfamilies Crepititermitinae, Cylindrotermitinae, Forficulitermitinae, Neocapritermitinae, Protohamitermitinae, and Promirotermitinae; and the revived Amitermitinae Kemner, Microcerotermitinae Holmgren, and Mirocapritermitinae Kemner. Building an updated taxonomic classification on the foundation of unambiguously supported monophyletic lineages makes it highly resilient to potential destabilization caused by the future availability of novel phylogenetic markers and methods. The taxonomic stability is further guaranteed by the modularity of the new termite classification, designed to accommodate asyet undescribed species with uncertain affinities to the herein delimited monophyletic lineages in the form of new families or subfamilies.Termites, or Isoptera, are a clade of eusocial cockroaches in a sistergroup relationship with the subsocial Cryptocercus wood roaches 1-6 . With over 3000 described species 7 , the diversity of termites is relatively low compared to hyper-diverse insect clades (e.g., Coleoptera or Lepidoptera). Termites achieve critical ecosystem functions, such as decomposing plant material, providing bioturbation of soils, and influencing water infiltration in soils of tropical and subtropical terrestrial ecosystems, where they are amongst the most abundant animals 8-15 . Termites are also well-known as major pests of wood in service, such as in buildings and constructions, utility poles, fencing, etc. 7,16 . In regions where they are found, they account for over half of total urban pest control costs 17-19 , excluding costs from insect-vectored diseases. Consequently, public opinion on termites has been shaped by, and the bulk of termite biology research has focused on, a handful of pestiferous termite genera. The combination of moderate species diversity and high abundance, leading to economic and ecological importance, has made termites of considerable interest to insect taxonomists. The discovery of new extant taxa is rare at the supra-generic level (but see Romero Arias et al. 20 ), although it is relatively common at genus and species levels.The higher classification of termites has undergone substantial changes since its inception more than a century ago 21-31 . In the Treatise on the Isoptera of the World, the last comprehensive catalogue published on the global termite fauna, extant termites were divided into</p
The state against the environment? Water management and the regulation of tensions between sectoral policies in France
No full textInternational audienceThe effectiveness and efficiency of environmental policy largely depends on how other policies take account of ecological objectives, whether in the industrial, agricultural, urban planning, transport, housing or budget sectors. The state bears responsibility for how these public policies interrelate, including establishing a hierarchy of priority or allowing one area to ignore another. What can we learn about environmental policy from an analysis of the tensions between multiple sectoral policies, and more generally about the state and the political and institutional functioning that shapes the management of an environmental issue? Taking water management in France as a case study, this article argues that an approach focused on the regulation of tensions between various public policies can shed new light on the structural difficulties of environmental policy. It shows how ideas, norms, interests, strategies, professional cultures, and so forth, that underpin public policy outside the environmental field shape the handling of ecological issues. It also highlights the way the state views and handles these tensions between policies through institutional arrangements and socio‐political compromises with influential sectoral actors and social groups
Co-creation in partnerships contributing to the sustainability of food systems: insights from 52 case studies in Europe
No full textInternational audienceInstitutions worldwide call for joint actions of multiple actors in partnerships to accelerate the transitions towards sustainable food systems and reach food security for everybody, allways. This requires insights into co-creating processes. Here, 52 European food system cases are analyzed. A methodology based on the game structure is used that permits standardizing data collection and extracting generic and cases-specific findings. Game building blocks correspond with key elements of co-creation processes, like defining mutually accepted objectives, engaging in types of activities, and efficient use of resources, boundary conditions, timings, and scales of operations. Results further indicate that different types of inclusive partnerships emerge, in which especially innovative private, including smallholders, and academic actors co-create value, all contributing to sustainability. The public and civil society actors emerge as important initiators, enablers, and organizers of scales of interaction, allowing generating snowball effects. Findings lead to an adapted concept for co-creating partnerships in food systems and recommendations for the European Partnership on sustainable food systems
Impacts of climate variations and human influences on groundwater recharge in the semi-arid Trarza aquifer (SW Mauritania)
No full textInternational audienceAbstract. Hydrological processes are rapidly changing in semi-arid areas under the double constraint of climate change and anthropization. Such changes were investigated at different scales of time and space in the Trarza aquifer (SW Mauritania), a flat region of about 40 000 km2 with a low rainfall (100 to 250 mm a−1). All old sources of hydrogeological information were exploited in complement with the more recent surveys. The geochemical information shows the importance of Quaternary eustatic variations in the present groundwater mineralization. In spite of very great variations of rainfall, the piezometric stability over the last 50 years shows that infiltration (about 4 mm a−1) did not vary significantly. Since 1989, the big Diama dam has raised the mean level of the Senegal River, which brings an additional inflow to the alluvium and to the Trarza aquifer (about 34 hm3 a−1). Groundwater recharge from the river and rainfall infiltration over the whole area have the same order of magnitude. In the Nouakchott area, the new supply of water to the capital (45 hm3 a−1) has led to a significant groundwater rise and the submersion of several urban districts