Rethinking Ecological COrridor DEsign: a historical and genetically-based approach – RECODE

Faced to human population growth and land-use changes, our landscapes are undergoing a major transformation that is disrupting ecosystem dynamics and resulting in the loss of natural habitats and associated biodiversity. It is therefore essential to study the impact of these land-use changes on the dynamics of natural habitats and in particular on their connectivity, which is essential for maintaining natural populations. This project, organized in 4 work packages, will assess the coherence between past and current ecological corridors and test their effectiveness using a genetic approach. Specifically, WP1 will study the evolution of land cover at several dates (between 1950 and currently) and determine the role of past land cover in estimating landscape connectivity and in the design of current ecological corridors. For this WP1 will use GIS methods (e.g. remote sensing) to map and describe the land use of study area. WP1 will use also « friction maps » and « circuit » and « graph » theories to model ecological corridors. WP2 will use a molecular approach (i.e. Microsatellites + SNP markers) to estimate the genetic structure and gene flow of a cortege including 7 species occurring in natural areas in urban and semi-natural landscapes. These species belong to different taxa, with different conservation status and different dispersal abilities. In an integrative approach, WP3 will test whether the ecological corridors modelled by the WP1 correspond to the gene flows inferred by the molecular approach of the WP2. This WP3 will use landscape genetics methods. WP4 will ensure the dissemination of the results to environmental stakeholders as well as to the scientific community and the general public. With a socio-economic dimension, this project focuses on an area showing landscapes dominated by human and a great diversity of land cover : the metropolis of ‘Communauté Urbaine de Grand Poitiers’. This project aims to encourage rational management of natural resources, to orientate policies in land use planning as well as to protect biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. The association of biologists, geographer and land manager (as well as the multidisciplinary approach combining cartography and genetics) will ensure the smooth running of this project both from a scientific point of view and in terms of dissemination of results