A living world: biodiversity histories

Interviewed in the Montpellier botanical garden (France), Yldiz Aumeeruddy-Thomas, an ethnologist from the Montpellier Center for Functional and Evolving Ecology, evokes in this short film the social sciences interest in the connections between society and nature. Man has always transformed nature to appropriate it and to domestic it. These reciprocal links boost the construction of the civilizations history and of our identity.

Scientific researches have allowed to understand the causes of the biodiversity crisis. Preservation techniques have been developed. Vincent Devictor, a biologist of the preservation at the Institute for evolution science of Montpellier (France), emphasizes the importance of a reflection concerning the connection to nature and to the world chosen by Mankind.

Yldiz Aumeeruddy-Thomas, an ethnologist from the Montpellier Center for Functional and Evolving Ecology, explains in this short film the concept of agroecosystem: the interaction between the human practices (almost agricultural) and the ecological systems.

Virginie Maris, a philosopher of the environment at the Center for functional and evolving ecology of Montpellier (France), questions the problem of the politics for the biodiversity preservation. For her, a philosopher said to be “from the ground”, has an important role to play in the development of the projects.

Wilfried Thuiller, a researcher in ecology and biostatistics, is interested in the impact of the climatic changes on species. After a presentation of the laboratory and of the botanical garden of the Alpine resort Joseph Fourier (France), he evokes one of his work devices: the mathematical modelizations or statistics.

Palaeontologists are also interested in biodiversity. Through the study of the species morphological diversity, they allow us to improve our understanding of the consequences due to the climatic and environmental changes. Interviewed in the Claude Bernard University located in Lyon (France), Gildas Merceron explains in this short film this approach.

Wilfried Thuiller, a researcher in ecology and biostatistics from the Laboratory for Alpine Ecology located in Grenoble (France), questions the problem of the biodiversity preservation in France and in Europe. Will the national parks, the natural reserves and the preserved spaces (as Natura 2000) remain sufficient in a period of important changes?

To give a value to a species more than to another shapes our relationship to nature and to the world. Interviewed in the Regional Nature Park of the Camargue (France), Vincent Devictor, a biologist of the preservation at the Institute for evolution science of Montpellier, invites us in this short film to think about it.

Jean-Michel Salles, an economist of the environment at the Montpellier Laboratory for theorical and applied economy (France), is interested in the risks of the pollination decline on the agricultural production. This loss is evaluated in an economical way. The researcher in this film ponders the consequences of this threat on the consumers.

Animal and vegetal species find ways to adapt to climatic or environmental changes, through migration or acclimatization. Wilfried Thuiller, a researcher in ecology and biostatistics from the Laboratory for Alpine Ecology located in Grenoble (France), presents in this short film the last researches concerning this topic.

The environmental ethic concerns the relationship between mankind and nature and it also questions the separation between human and non-human beings. Virginie Maris, a philosopher of the environment at the Center for functional and evolving ecology of Montpellier (France), explains in this short film its foundations.

The acceleration of the species disappearing leads to a mass extinction era. We are witnesses and actors of this biodiversity crisis. Vincent Devictor, a biologist of the preservation at the Institute for evolution science of Montpellier (France), in this film invites us to think about our responsibility.

Nature can have different values: ecological, esthetical, patrimonial or economical ones. It depends on the adopted point of view. Wilfried Thuiller, a researcher in ecology and biostatistics from the Laboratory for Alpine Ecology located in Grenoble (France), emphasizes the predominance of the economical value until now.

At the Claude Bernard University located in Lyon (France), Gildas Merceron, a palaeontologist, tries to understand the extinction of great apes species 8.5 million years ago in Eurasia. He studies within this frame the antelope and its diet at this era.

Interviewed in the Regional Nature Park of the Camargue (France), Vincent Devictor, a biologist of the preservation at the Institute for evolution science of Montpellier, defines in this film the biodiversity in relation to his field of study: the living.

Virginie Maris, a philosopher of the environment at the Center for functional and evolving ecology of Montpellier (France), recounts the birth of the biodiversity concept and the notions that it recovers.

Society has a growing interest in the economic value of services given by Nature. Facing this demand, getting stronger and stronger, evaluation tools have been developed. Jean-Michel Salles, an economist of the environment at the Montpellier Laboratory for theorical and applied economy, describes in this short film the main methods which allow to estimate the price of Nature.

In this short film shot in the Claude Bernard University, located in Lyon (France), and inside its palaeontological collections, Gildas Merceron, a palaeontologist, evokes the major biodiversity extinctions. He explains why and the consequences of the disappearing in mass of many species, through the example of dinosaurs.

Wielfried Thuiller, a researcher in ecology and biostatistics, defines in this short film the concept of biodiversity as an ensemble composed of the genes, the species and the ecosystems. He explains the functional and phylogenetic diversity. He emphasizes the dynamic characteristic of the biodiversity through the evocation of the species diversification.