RhônEco : A long term ecological observatory for monitoring the restoration of the Rhône river in a global change context
Résumé
RhônEco is an interdisciplinary research program aiming at monitoring the effects of ecological restoration on the Rhône hydrosystem. Hydraulic infrastructures (e.g. hydroelectric dams) have profoundly altered the river flow, both in the main channel and the side arms, affecting both their biodiversity and their functioning. In last decades, restoring the hydrological connectivity of the Rhône lateral habitats became a priority for managers. Initiated in 1998, the RhônEco program historically focused on the assessment and the long-term monitoring of habitat and biodiversity (especially fish and macro-invertebrates) responses to restoration actions. Recently, the program evolved toward an ecological observatory of the Rhône River in a context of global change, and included new scientific questions and approaches to assess biodiversity across multiple trophic levels and characterize key ecosystem functions. A novel research axis aims at better understanding (i) the effects of restoration actions on side arms functioning, with a focus on key processes involved in carbon cycling (e.g. productivity, decomposition of organic matter, greenhouse gas emissions), and (ii) the relationships between these processes and biological communities living in these habitats. For this a multi-scalecomparative approach has been set up, including multiple side arms distributed along a connectivity gradient to the main channel.
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