The concept of metacommunities as a tool for understanding and managing ecosystem services in hydrosystems

Management measures for these ecosystems have traditionally been designed at local scales, without necessarily taking into account landscape variability in action plans, which has often limited the success of these measures. Today, our understanding of how biodiversity and ecosystem services are organized in these dynamic environments has progressed considerably, notably thanks to the emergence of the concepts of landscape ecology, metacommunities and the meta-systems paradigm, formalizing the processes and spatio-temporal dynamics of communities and ecosystems. These frameworks recognize that local (e.g. environmental filter, biotic interactions) and regional (e.g. dispersal, biogeographic context, material and energy flows) processes interact to determine the spatial organization of populations, communities and ecosystem processes in a given landscape. The meta-systemic framework has been conceptually applied for populations and communities and is beginning to be used for ecological processes and the conservation of biodiversity. However, the contribution of these concepts to the field of ecosystem services in aquatic environments has not yet been formalized, tested or translated into management tools.

Objectives

This consortium aims to determine, adapt and test the contribution of meta-systems theory and its corollaries in the understanding and management of ecosystem services supported by hydrosystems. It proposes to extend the concept of metacommunities to all ecosystem services in order to better understand the links between biodiversity and ecosystem services and their spatio-temporal organization in landscapes. This work will make it possible to identify relevant spatial scales for managing hydrosystems in a context of global change. Indeed, better integration of regional ecological processes involved in the spatio-temporal organization of biodiversity in management practices will make it possible to effectively conserve and restore biodiversity and associated ecosystem processes in a changing global environment, particularly in the face of extreme events. (floods, droughts, storms) which recurrently alter the physical and ecological connectivity of hydrosystems.

Approachs

METAECOSERV will be based (i) on an in-depth bibliographic review detailing in particular the mechanisms underlying the maintenance of biodiversity in fragmented landscapes, (ii) on a conceptual synthesis. This reflection will include the different facets of biodiversity, from the local scale (alpha) to the regional scale (gamma). Two working seminars will also make it possible to progress in thinking. This will involve: (i) identifying and analyzing previous efforts aimed at including biodiversity aspects in understanding ecosystem services in hydrosystems; (ii) question the contribution of the concept of metacommunities in this context, by exploring its variation according to the capacities and modes of dispersal of organisms; (iii) synthesize knowledge around biodiversity-ecosystem functions (BEF) links and their applications in hydrosystems; (iv) address these questions within the different compartments of hydrosystems (watershed heads, lakes and bodies of water, riparian and hyporheic zones, rivers, estuaries) and at their interfaces.

INRAE units involved

• Département AQUA
  • RiverLy – Interdisciplinary Research Unit for the management and restoration of river systems and their catchements
  • HYCAR Research Unit - Anthropogenic continental hydrosystems: resources, risks, restoration
  • EABX Research Unit – Aquatic Ecosystems and Global Change
  • CARRTEL Joint Research Unit - Alpine Center for research on trophic networks and limnic ecosystems
• Département MATHNUM
  • LISC Joint Research Unit - Complex Systems Lab
• Département AGROECOSYSTEM
  • LISAH Joint Research Unit - Soil-Agrosystem-Hydrosystem interaction lab
• Département ECODIV
  • DECOD Research Unit - Dynamics and sustainability of ecosystems: from the source to the ocean

External partnership

• IEES - Institute of ecology and environmental sciences of Paris - National Center for Scientific Research
• MARBEC - Marine biodiversity exploitation and conservation - Montpellier University
• CESCO - Center for Ecology and Conservation Sciences - National Museum of Natural History
• SETE Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station - National Center for Scientific Research
• Floride University