Webinars
CESABINARs are monthly webinars designed to provide FRB-CESAB research groups with a platform to present their key findings once their residency has ended. Open to the entire scientific community, these webinars offer the opportunity to discover the advancements and work emerging from FRB-CESAB.
You can watch all the talks on Youtube
December 2025
Lise Comte (Illinois State University, USA)
Jonathan Lenoir (CNRS, France)
Bioshifts project
Abstract
There is now compelling evidence that species across diverse taxonomic groups and regions are responding to climate change by shifting their geographical ranges, with far-reaching consequences for ecosystem functioning and human well-being. However, substantial variability remains in how, where, and why species shift, and much of this variation is still unexplained. The overarching goal of Bioshifts was to deepen our understanding of the processes driving range shifts, ultimately improving our capacity to forecast and manage the consequences of biodiversity redistribution under climate change. Drawing on a comprehensive geo-database of range-shift estimates compiled from the scientific literature and enriched with climate-velocity metrics and methodological descriptors (the “BioShifts” database), Bioshifts investigated the global patterns and mechanisms of biodiversity redistribution. This included examining the influence of climate exposure, habitat constraints, species traits, and evolutionary processes. The findings of Bioshifts provide new insight into the conditions under which commonly used niche-based models produce reliable forecasts of species redistributions, and how species traits and macroevolutionary processes shape contemporary range shifts.
Talk
Youtube video available soon
November 2025
Lou Lecuyer (CNRS LECA, France)
Powerbiodiv project
Abstract
The Powerbiodiv project investigates how power dynamics influence participatory processes in biodiversity conservation, drawing on insights from political science, sociology, facilitation practice, and conservation research. While power is often acknowledged as a key issue in stakeholder participation, it remains inconsistently defined and poorly integrated into biodiversity literature and practice. This project synthesizes existing knowledge on power across disciplines to inform both research and applied approaches in conservation.
This CESABINAR will present the four complementary outputs expected from the evidence synthesis of 82 case studies: a systematic map highlighting the scarcity of studies that thoroughly engage with power or examine its consequences; a quantitative review exploring how power dimensions influence the different stages and outcomes of participatory processes; a qualitative synthesis identifying dominant framings, assumptions, and conceptual gaps in the treatment of power; and a citation network analysis tracing the disciplinary origins and theoretical influences of power-related research. Preliminary results suggest that while power is often mentioned, it is rarely examined in depth or connected to biodiversity outcomes.
Beyond these findings, the project also offers reflections on the challenges and benefits of working in a transdisciplinary group that brings together researchers, practitioners, and institutional actors around a shared inquiry into participation and transformation.
Talk
Youtube video available soon
October 2025
Jessica BLYTHE (Brock University, Canada)
David GILL (Duke University, USA)
Blue Justice project
Abstract
Ocean inequity is rising, with the benefits of marine resources increasingly concentrated among a few, while vulnerable coastal communities bear the greatest burdens. Addressing this challenge requires solutions that explicitly integrate equity, tackling the roots of structural imbalances rather than treating inequity as a secondary concern. The Blue Justice working group, supported by the Fondation pour la Recherche sur la Biodiversité (FRB) through its CESAB program, has advanced this agenda through research on the intersection of development, climate, and conservation policies.
Evidence shows that coastal communities face compounded pressures from climate change, blue growth initiatives, and conservation efforts, which can exacerbate social inequities and undermine resilience. This seminar will highlight pathways for promoting fairness and sustainability in ocean governance, emphasize inclusive decision-making, and introduce a novel tool for measuring and advancing ocean equity. The discussion will also showcase the role of grassroots resistance and community-led strategies in fostering justice, well-being, and resilience across ocean-dependent communities.
Talk
Youtube video available soon
June 2025
Bastien Mérigot (Univ. of Montpellier, France)
Deng Palomares (Univ. of British Columbia, Canada)
FISHGLOB project
Abstract
Fish biodiversity under global change – a worldwide assessment from scientific trawl surveys Global change, linked to climate and direct anthropogenic impacts, is causing redistribution of marine species worldwide, modifying fish population and stock structure, as well as community compositions. These changes may have strong impacts on fisheries and natural fish biodiversity as well as related ecosystem services. However, our capacity to assess and monitor short and long-term changes in species distribution and biodiversity is hampered by data availability and heterogeneity. This Cesabinar will present the FISHGLOB project which has collected and combined a unique data set of scientific bottom trawl surveys conducted regularly during the last decades across the globe. FISHGLOB aims to provide an infrastructure enhancing international cooperation and knowledge transfer among data providers, scientists and stakeholders in order to support biodiversity and fishery management adaptation in a time of global change. Topics during the Cesabinar will cover the FISHGLOB consortium, data and infrastructure features, as well as key research results established from this large and unique data set regarding the effects of global change on marine fish.
Talk
May 2025
Éric Tabacchi (CNRS-INEE, France)
Guillaume Fried (ANSES, France)
BRIDGE project
Abstract
The BRIDGE project aimed to better understand the role of local and regional environmental factors in shaping the taxonomic and functional diversity of plant communities established along river corridors, roadside corridors and cultivated field margins. It gathered partners from the U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Canada and the U.S.A. The analysis of local and regional patterns was conducted from a database including 11,400 field samples (plots) and about 3,000 species characterized by ecological traits. The analysis of the role of river-road intersections showed that bridges do influence taxonomic and functional biodiversity, but only at a local scale. Surprisingly, diffuse landscape-level processes explain more plant diversity than directional (along-corridor) processes. We showed that the diversity of roadside should not be underestimated, and more generally that the three interacting habitats studied share many species and trait values, suggesting they can constitute surrogate relays for hosting similar species across the landscape. However, local conditions of disturbance and water and nutrient availability modulate this potential interaction.
The BRIDGE and NAVIDIV FRB-CESAB-ITTECOP projects joined to produce a synthesis on the role of transportation infrastructure in helping plant species to track Global Climate change, highlighting both positive and negative aspects of this phenomenon.
Talk
March 2025
Alienor JELIAZKOV (Univ. of Paris-Saclay & INRAE, France)
Aaron SEXTON (Cornell University, USA)
Jean-Nicolas BEISEL (Strasbourg Univ., ENGEES & CNRS, France)
NAVIDIV project
Abstract
Facing global change, inland navigation transport is considered as one of the most promising, sustainable transport alternatives to help operate the world ecological transition and achieve climate neutrality. Waterways thus must develop their infrastructures to promote green transport alternatives. However, ecomorphological modifications of rivers will affect biodiversity status and resilience. With the stated objective to sustainable management of waterways, the question therefore remains: what are the impacts of inland navigation on biodiversity, and how to mitigate them?
Cues currently available to solve this question rely on scattered case studies whose results are highly context- and scale-dependent. In addition, our knowledge of the processes driving navigation- biodiversity relationships is still limited and requires further research. We thus realised a synthesis project to study the relationships between navigation activity, the associated Inland Navigation Infrastructures (INIs), and biodiversity across different contexts and scales.
Our specific aims are to: (i) Quantify and hierarchize the effects of navigation and INIs on taxonomic and functional biodiversity; (ii) Evaluate the context-dependency and scale-dependency of the INIs-biodiversity relationships; (iii) Assess the potential of restoration plans in mitigating navigation pressures.
This work provides impact assessment and synthetic knowledge, offering guidelines on how to prioritize management and restoration actions depending on the context and on which scales to conceive policies that ensure consistency across territories.
Talk
Exceptionally, this presentation has not been recorded.
January 2025
Mehdi ADJEROUD (IRD, UMR ENTROPIE, France)
Valeriano PARRAVICINI (EPHE, CRIOBE, France)
SCORE-REEF project
Abstract
Coral reefs host the highest marine biodiversity and provide crucial services that sustain 500 million people worldwide. However, reefs are degrading rapidly due to the overlap between climate-induced disturbances and chronic stress. While reefs are recovering from the most prolonged global coral die-off on record (2015-2016), the effect of multiple stressors is still hard to disentangle and managers or conservation practitioners are charged to take decisions in a context of high uncertainty. Solving this issue would require the development of a set of complementary indicators that evaluate the status of reefs considering the taxonomic and the functional facets of biodiversity. These should be built using large-scale and long-term datasets to capture a wide range of environmental, biogeographical and anthropogenic conditions. In SCORE-REEF, we merged and analysed global-scale and long-term datasets deriving from monitoring programs running in the French Overseas Territories and other regions. We evaluated the relevance and inter-operability of available datasets and assessed the temporal dynamics of benthic and fish assemblages using taxonomic and functional approaches. We then discuss the relevance of indicators used within the European Water Framework Directive, IFRECOR and MPAs monitoring, paving the way to the development of region-tailored indicators.
Talk
December 2024
Sonia CHAABANE (CEREGE, CNRS, France)
Thibault DE GARIDEL-THORON (CEREGE, CNRS, France)
FORCIS project
Abstract
Rising CO2 emissions are driving ocean warming and acidification, disrupting marine ecosystems and threatening calcifying organisms like planktonic foraminifera. These organisms, with their well-preserved fossils in sediments, serve as excellent paleo-environmental indicators. However, their ability to adapt to the rapid pace of modern environmental changes remains uncertain, and a global-scale assessment of their historical distribution is lacking. The FORCIS project addressed these uncertainties by compiling a comprehensive database of planktonic foraminifera diversity and distribution from 1910 to the present. With over 180,000 samples collected from various depths and sampling devices, this dataset enabled analyses of species abundance across size classes, and depth. A new size normalization scheme facilitated comparisons across data sampled with different mesh sizes. Our analysis revealed clear evidence of poleward migrations, with species diversity increasing at mid- to high-latitudes and some species moving deeper into the water column to escape warming surface waters. Additionally, foraminifera abundance declined by 24% over the past eight decades at these latitudes. Projections for ocean conditions in 2050 and 2100 suggest that low-latitude species will face conditions beyond their historical and present ecological range. Ecological niche modeling, using ESM and GRNN models, indicates that these species distribution will likely continue shifting poleward, reducing foraminiferal diversity in tropical and subtropical regions. Shifting alone may be insufficient for those species to cope with anthropic changes.
Talk
November 2024
Sylvain GLEMIN (ECOBIO, Rennes, France)
Jos KAFER (ISEM, Montpellier, France)
DIVERS project
Abstract
Angiosperms (flowering plants) present an exceptional diversity of breeding systems, with variation both in gender distribution within and among individuals (from hermaphroditism to separate sexes) and in mating patterns (from strict outcrossing to predominant selfing). Breeding systems were shown to affect species diversification and to be associated with other life-history and ecological traits. Consequently, these systems could have been an important determinant of the observed species diversity in flowering plants.
The DIVERS project aimed to explore the hypothesis that the combination of traits associated with breeding systems could be a key factor in understanding evolutionary success and plant species diversity. This project sought to define integrated evolutionary strategies among these traits and to investigate how these strategies could shape the diversification process in flowering plants. This approach helped identify key components that could explain why some groups of flowering plants are more diverse than others and how combinations of traits could influence invasiveness and extinction risks.
Talk
October 2024
Cyrille VIOLLE (CEFE-CNRS, Montpellier, France)
FREE 1 project
Abstract
Rarity has always fascinated conservation and evolutionary biologists with the goal to uncover species characteristics causing extinction risk. Recently, some results suggest that rare species may over-contribute to the diversity of traits within communities thus supporting irreplaceable roles while others show that rare species are functionally redundant with common species. Beyond the rarity of species, the rarity of functions played by species, coined as functional rarity, is thus key to understand the impact of biodiversity decline on ecosystem functioning. However, functional rarity still lacks a clear definition and a quantitative framework while its emergence and maintenance within communities is largely unknown.
As part of the FRB-CESAB FREE 1 working group, we have contributed to advance the concept of functional rarity and examine the causes and consequences of functional rarity from local to global scales. We showed that common assumptions notwithstanding, rare species can play unique and essential ecological roles, and that ecologically rare species are already more threatened by humans than ecologically common species and will be more impacted by future climate change. Finally, we highlighted that, in most taxonomic groups, hotspots of functional rarity differ from the areas where the most vulnerable species are found. This has major implications for species and ecosystem conservation where functional rarity appears to be an additional criterion to be considered urgently for the establishment of lists of so-called species at risk and for deciding on the location and size of areas to be protected.
Talk
September 2024
Isabelle GOUNAND (CNRS, iEES-Paris, France)
RED-BIO project
Abstract
Biodiversity and abiotic resource distribution are intrinsically intertwined. Resource distribution influences productivity and biodiversity, but animal movement also redistributes resources across landscapes. Metaecosystem theory integrates this dynamic feedback between biological communities and abiotic resources, but classically considers predefined fixed habitat patches. The assumption of fixed patches, however, does not match well with patterns observed in natural food webs where mobile organisms of different trophic levels forage across contrasting spatial scales.
RED-BIO synthesizes principles from meta-food web and metaecosystem theory to develop an integrated modelling framework of food web dynamics in spatially explicit landscapes. We began with a spatially explicit extension of a resource-plant-herbivore occupancy model, where habitat patches emerge from ecological feedbacks rather than being pre-defined and fixed. With this model, we investigate in which conditions dispersal and foraging scales of organisms drive the emergence of resource heterogeneity.
Future extension should include a body size-based version enabling to integrate food web complexity and evolutionary potential, in order to let the spatial and temporal heterogeneity emerge from both ecological interactions between animal movement and resource recycling, and eco-evolutionary feedbacks under global change.
Talk
June 2024
Brendan COOLSAET (FNRS & UCLouvain, Belgium)
Neil DAWSON (University of East Anglia, UK)
JUSTCONSERVATION project
Abstract
From 2018 to 2023, the JUSTCONSERVATION group has worked on reviewing the science on 50 years of biodiversity conservation. As conservation initiatives expand in response to biodiversity loss, there remains limited understanding about what forms of governance and roles for different actors produce the best social-ecological outcomes.
Drawing on evidence collected from 723 studies published in English-language peer-reviewed journals that describe and explore conservation efforts at a single site in 104 countries, we took stock of the geography of knowledge production in conservation science and studied its effect in upholding longstanding narratives about what should be conserved and by whom. We also explored relationships between conservation initiative types, governance types (including different levels of influence by Indigenous Peoples and local communities), and reported social and ecological outcomes.
Findings reveal that positive ecological and social outcomes are strongly associated with higher levels of influence of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and their institutions, implying equity in conservation practice should be advanced not only for moral reasons but because it can also enhance conservation effectiveness.
Talk