Face à l’érosion globale de la biodiversité des écosystèmes aquatiques continentaux, l’identification des mesures de gestion les plus urgentes à mettre en place est cruciale. En s’appuyant sur une approche innovante et multi-facettes de la diversité, les priorités de conservation pour les assemblages de poissons de rivière ont pu être déterminées à l’échelle de la France. La durabilité de ces priorités de conservation face aux principales composantes des changements globaux a ensuite été évaluée afin d’identifier les zones qui protégeront efficacement la biodiversité actuelle dans le futur. La méthodologie développée a finalement été appliquée au réseau hydrographique du département du Pas-de-Calais dans le but d’identifier précisément les priorités locales de conservation et de restauration. Ces outils pourront par la suite être utilisés comme support d’aide à la décision et adaptés selon les besoins des gestionnaires des milieux aquatiques. / The global loss of biodiversity affects freshwater ecosystems, making it crucial to identify the priority management actions in order to protect freshwater biodiversity in an effective and sustainable way. Based on an innovative multi-faceted framework of diversity, the spatial priorities for the conservation of stream fish assemblages have been identified at the scale of France. Their robustness to several drivers of global changes has then been assessed to identify the areas that are likely to efficiently protect the present-day biodiversity in the future. The methodological framework proposed herein has finally been applied to the river network of the Pas-de-Calais department located in northern France to accurately identify the local conservation and restoration priorities. These management tools can be used to support the establishment of management actions in accordance with the needs of the local environmental decision-makers.

La zone économique exclusive Mauritanienne est le siège d’upwelling et constitue une zone de transition où cohabitent des espèces d’affinités tempérée et tropicale. Pour comprendre le comportement spatio-temporel des assemblages démersaux du point de vue de leur composition, structuration, distribution de probabilité et diversité face aux préoccupations écologiques. Les facteurs abiotiques contribuent à la structuration des assemblages démersaux persistants au cours du temps. Les effets de la pêche étaient relativement faibles. Les trajectoires temporelles entre les assemblages et les conditions environnementales ont été mises en évidence pour certaines années et des zones. Dans les types d’habitats, un groupe minoritaire d’espèces très agrégatives obéissant au modèle de distribution en log-séries de Fisher et un autre majoritaire peu ou pas du tout agrégatives obéissant au modèle de distribution binomiale négative tronquée ont été identifiés. La diversité spécifique peut être divisé en deux groupes distincts et complémentaires : la richesse spécifique et l'autre associé à l’équitabilité. Un seul composant de la diversité ne peut donc pas représenter la diversité des poissons démersaux de la zone étudiée. Les GLM des indices complémentaires ont montré essentiellement un effet temporel et l’interaction Année-Strates bathymétriques. Aucun effet de l’effort de pêche n’a été observé sur la richesse spécifique, ni de la concentration en chlorophylle sur l’équitabilité. Ce travail pourrait fournir aux gestionnaires et aux scientifiques des connaissances complémentaires sur la dynamique spatio-temporelle des assemblages démersaux exploités dans des écosystèmes d’upwelling. / The Mauritanian exclusive economic zone is the seat of an upwelling phenomenon and constitutes a transition zone where species of temperate and tropical affinities coexist. To understand the spatio-temporal behavior of demersal assemblages from the point of view of their composition, structure, distribution of probability and diversity faced to ecological concerns. Abiotic factors contribute in the structuring of persistent groundfish assemblages over time. The fishing effects were relatively low, although significant in some years and in some specific geographic areas. Temporal trajectories between groundfish assemblages and environmental conditions have been highlighted for some years and in some specific areas. In each type habitats, two species groups were identified: a minority group of species very aggregative well fitted by Fisher’s log-series distribution and another majority of species little or not aggregative well fitted by the truncated negative binomial distribution. Diversity indices analyzed reveal that this set can be split into two distinct and complementary groups: a group associated with the species richness and another group associated with evenness. One component of diversity may not represent the diversity of the groundfish in the study area. GLMs of complementary indices showed essentially a temporal effect and Bathymetric strata-Year interaction. No effect of fishing effort was observed on the species richness and neither was the concentration of chlorophyll a on the evenness. This work could provide managers and scientists to further knowledge on the spatio-temporal dynamics of groundfish species assemblages exploited in upwelling ecosystems.

Le changement climatique et les invasions biologiques sont parmi les plus grandes menaces de la biodiversité et leurs impacts pourraient augmenter jusqu’à la fin du siècle. Parmi les espèces envahissantes, les fourmis sont un groupe particulièrement néfaste dû à leurs impacts sur les espèces natives, les processus écosystémique, la santé, l’agriculture et l’économie. L’objectif de cette thèse était de prédire les invasions de fourmis – en particulier avec le changement climatique qui pourrait favoriser les invasions en éliminant des barrières thermiques. J’ai utilisé trois approches complémentaires afin d’étudier le potentiel de différentes espèces à envahir : des modèles de distribution, des expériences comportementales et l’analyses d’une base de données de traits écologiques. J’ai modélisé l’aire favorable pour 15 espèces de fourmis parmi les pires, à la fois globalement, par continents, et dans les 34 hotspots de biodiversité. La distribution potentielle de seulement cinq espèce est prédite de diminuer (jusqu’à 35.8%) avec le changement climatique et l’aire potentielle diminue pour la plupart des espèces jusqu’à 63.2%. Les hotspots d’invasions de fourmis se situaient surtout dans des régions tropicales et subtropicales et ils correspondent particulièrement aux hotspots de biodiversité. Contrairement à ce qui est généralement admis, le changement climatique et les invasions biologiques n’agiront pas de manière synergique pour les fourmis. Par contre, les invasions de fourmis resteront probablement un problème global majeur, en particuliers dans les zones où les hotspots de biodiversité et les hotspots d’invasion se superposent. Les modèles de distribution ont identifié de larges zones de recouvrement entre aires favorables de plusieurs espèces de fourmis envahissantes. Dans le futur, ces espèces pourraient arriver simultanément dans les mêmes régions et entrer en compétition. Dans une série d’expériences, j’ai testé les différences comportementales entre 7 espèces de fourmis envahissantes (Anoplolepis gracilipes, Paratrechina longicornis, Myrmica rubra, Linepithema humile, Lasius neglectus, Wasmannia auropunctata et Pheidole megacephala). J’ai découvert deux stratégies comportementales différentes. Les interactions au niveau de la colonie ont suivi des processus démographiques plus complexes. De plus, j’ai mis au point deux expériences pour tester la capacité des fourmis envahissantes à explorer un nouvel espace et à exploiter des ressources. J’ai trouvé des différences significatives entre espèces et leur capacité à dominer par interférence comportementale était négativement corrélée à leurs capacités à découvrir et exploiter des ressources. Cette série d’expériences suggère que les ‘mécanismes’ d’invasion sont plus complexes que ce qui est généralement suggéré et que différentes espèces pourraient utiliser des stratégies comportementales différentes. Étant donné qu’il existe plus de 250 espèces de fourmis exotiques, il serait intéressant de pouvoir identifier à l’avance des futurs envahisseurs potentiels. Afin d’identifier des traits associés au caractère envahissant des fourmis, j’ai mis en place une base de données qui contient 2193 espèces de fourmis et 24 traits écologiques. J’ai effectué une analyse préliminaire de différences de traits entre fourmis natives et envahissantes qui a montré qu’il existe clairement des groupement distincts de natives et envahissantes, avec les espèces exotiques au milieu. Ces résultats pourraient servir de base pour construire un modèle prédictif des invasions de fourmis. Ces différentes approches (modèles, expériences, base de données) sont complémentaires car elles s’intéressent à des aspects différents du futur des invasions de fourmis qui sera vraisemblablement fortement influencé par le changement climatique. Le pires envahisseurs de demain ne seront probablement pas les même qu’aujourd’hui et les zones les plus à risque pourraient changer également. / Climate change and biological invasions are both among the greatest threats to biodiversity and their impacts might increase by the end of the century. Among invasive species, ants are a prominent group due to their negative impacts on native species, ecosystem processes, human and animal health, agro-ecosystems and the economy. The objective of this thesis was to forecast future ant invasions – especially in the light of on-going climate change, which is generally thought to favour invasive species by removing thermal barriers. I used three complementary approaches to study the potential of different ant species to invade in the future: species distribution modelling, behavioural experiments and the analysis of a database of ecological traits. I modelled suitable area for 15 of the worst invasive ant species, both currently and with predicted climate change, globally, regionally and within the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots. Surprisingly, the potential distribution of only five species was predicted to increase (up to 35.8%) with climate change, with most declining by up to 63.3%. The ant invasion hotspots are predominantly in tropical and subtropical regions of South America, Africa, Asia and Oceanic islands, and particularly correspond with biodiversity hotspots. Contrary to general expectations, climate change and biological invasions will not systematically act synergistically for ants. In addition, I found that the impacts of climate change can change over time and even reverse the trend of the impact (i.e., an increase instead of a decrease or vice versa). However, ant invasions will likely remain as a major global problem, especially where invasion hotspots coincide with biodiversity hotspots. The species distribution models have identified large potentially overlapping distributions of several invasive ants. In the future, these species may arrive simultaneously in the same regions and compete with each other. In a series of experiments, I tested behavioural differences among 7 highly invasive ant species (Anoplolepis gracilipes, Paratrechina longicornis, Myrmica rubra, Linepithema humile, Lasius neglectus, Wasmannia auropunctata and Pheidole megacephala). I discovered two different behavioural strategies among invasive ants. Interactions at the colony level, exhibited more complex demographic processes and more variability. Further, I investigated resource competition and differences in resource exploitation. I found significant differences among species, with competitive abilities that were negatively correlated with behavioural dominance. This series of experiments suggests that the ‘mechanisms’ of invasiveness are more complex than previously thought and that different invasive ant species may use different behavioural strategies. Since there are more than 250 exotic species of ants, it would be interesting to identify potential future invaders. In order to identify traits associated with invasiveness in ants, I set up a database with 2193 ant species and 24 ecological characteristics. I performed a preliminary analysis of trait differences between native and invasive ants that shows clearly different clusters of invasive and native species, with exotic species in between. These results could be used as a basis to construct a predictive model of future ant invasions. The different methods used (models, experiments, database) are complementary in that they explore different aspects of the future ant invasions which are likely to be influenced by on-going climate change. The worst invaders of tomorrow may not be the same as today and similarly, areas most at risk are likely to change.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T16:21:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Faleiro Frederico Dissertacao.pdf: 1687158 bytes, checksum: e1a8a44e89beea38d1a839934c890e56 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-28 / The human actions has triggered many threats to biodiversity like land-use and climate changes, overexploitation, pollution, and introduction of invasive species, which can affect organisms both at local and global scale. The science of spatial conservation prioritization emerged as a quantitative approach to support the spatial decisions in face of these threats, while minimizing the socioeconomic and political conflicts. Here we developed spatial solutions to the conservation of non-flying mammals from Brazilian Cerrado considering the socioeconomic costs and the opportunities of environmental governance (first objective). Further, we generated solutions to face the land-use and climate change taking into account the dispersal abilities of species and uncertainties in the species distribution modeling (SDM) process (second objective). We considered the current network of reserves of the Cerrado in both objectives. We built SDMs for 154 species combining model projections weighted by their statistical fit to produce consensus maps of species distribution grouped in three distinct types of models (envelope, statistical and machine-learning models), for both current future scenarios of climate (used only in the last aim). For the first goal, we used the current predicted distribution to run spatial prioritization analyses indicating the best sites for the conservation investment considering human population density, land cost, anthropogenic land use, level of environmental governance, and the distribution of species in trade-off analyses. For the second goal, we used both current and future predicted distribution to run optimization procedures and propose priority sites for conservation, while minimizing species climate-forced dispersal distance , the mean uncertainty associated to the SDM process, and taking into account the future changes in the landscape (by our land use model). SDMs indicated that species-rich sites converge to regions with high population density, high land cost, high anthropogenic land use, and with diverse levels of environmental governance. There was a significant change in spatial priorities when socioeconomic and political dimensions were included in analyses: top priority sites moved towards the north. This spatial change reduced by 68% the potential conservation conflicts with human population, by 72% the likely conflicts arising from land cost and by 68% anthropogenic land use. It also increased by 51% the beneficial effect of environmental governance. Including land-use changes and the modeling uncertainty in the conservation planning process changed significantly the spatial distribution of priority sites in the region. While the inclusion of land-use models altered the spatial location of priority sites at the regional scale, the effects of climate change tended to take place at the local scale. Note that, our solutions already include possible dispersal corridors linking current and future priority sites for mammal conservation, as well as a formal risk analysis based on planning uncertainties. Our results allowed dealing with both complex nature of conflicts among socioeconomic and political dimensions, and the dynamic problem imposed mainly by land-use and climate change. Thus, our analyses figure as a methodological prospect supporting the decision-make process and the consequent translation of conservation planning outcomes into conservations actions / As ações humanas têm desencadeado diversas ameaças a biodiversidade como as mudanças de uso do solo e do clima, sobre-exploração, poluição e introdução de espécies invasoras, que afetas os organismos da escala local até a global. A ciência da conservação espacial para conservação emergiu como uma abordagem quantitativa que tem o objetivo de auxiliar escolhas espaciais que lidem com essas ameaças enquanto minimizam conflitos socioeconômicos e políticos. Aqui nós desenvolvemos soluções espaciais para conservação de mamíferos não voadores do Cerrado considerando os custos socioeconômicos e as oportunidades vindas da governança ambiental (primeiro objetivo). Além disso, nós geramos soluções espaciais que lidem com as mudanças do uso do solo e climáticas levando em consideração as capacidades de dispersão das espécies e as incertezas associadas ao processo de modelagem de distribuição de espécies (MDE) (segundo objetivo). Em ambos objetivos nós consideramos a atual rede de reservas do Cerrado. Nós modelamos a distribuição de 154 espécies combinando as projeções dos modelos e pesado pelo ajuste estatístico para produzir os mapas consenso de distribuição das espécies, agrupados em três distintos tipos de modelos (modelos de envelope, estatísticos e de inteligência artificial), para a atualidade e projetados para o futuro (usado apenas no último objetivo). Para o primeiro objetivo, nós usamos as predições da atual distribuição das espécies para realizar as análises de priorização espacial, indicando os melhores locais para investimento considerando a densidade humana, custo da terra, uso do solo antropogênico, nível de governança ambiental e a distribuição das espécies na perspectiva da análise de demandas conflitantes. Para o segundo objetivo, nós usamos a distribuição atual e futura das espécies para realizar o procedimento de otimização e propor locais para conservação que minimizem os efeitos da dispersão induzida pelas mudanças climáticas, incertezas associadas ao processo MDE e considerando as futuras mudanças na paisagem (através do nosso modelo de uso do solo). A MDE indicou que locais ricos em espécies convergem para locais com alta densidade populacional, alto custo de terra, alta proporção de uso do solo voltado para atividades humanas e diversos níveis de governança ambiental. Houve significativas mudanças nas prioridades espaciais quando as dimensões socioeconômicas e políticas foram incluídas nas análises, fazendo que os locais prioritários mudassem para o norte. Essa mudança espacial reduziu em 68% de potenciais conflitos com população humana, em 72% de conflitos de custo da terra, em 68% de conflitos com o uso do solo antropogênico e 51% de aumento dos possíveis benefícios da governança ambiental. Quando incluímos as mudanças de uso de solo e a incerteza da modelagem no processo de planejamento, os locais prioritários mudaram significativamente na região. Enquanto a inclusão das mudanças no uso do solo alterou a localização espacial dos locais prioritários em escala regional, os efeitos da mudança climática tenderam a ocorrem em escala local. Note que nossas soluções já incluíram possíveis corredores de dispersão para ligação entre as atuais áreas prioritárias com aquelas importantes no futuro, tão bem quanto a análise de risco baseado nas incertezas do planejamento. Nossos resultados permitiram lidar tanto com a complexa natureza dos conflitos entre dimensões socioeconômicas e políticas quanto com problema dinâmico imposto principalmente pelas mudanças do uso do solo e climáticas. Assim, nossas análises auxiliam metodologicamente a dar suporte no processo de tomada de decisão e a consequente tradução dos resultados de planejamentos de conservação em ações de conservação

Abstract Not Available.

Die Hauptursachen für die derzeitige weltweite Krise der biologischen Vielfalt sind Lebensraumzerstörung und Übernutzung. Wir wissen jedoch nicht, wie sich diese beiden Faktoren einzeln und zusammen auf die verschiedenen Aspekte biologischer Vielfalt auswirken und wie sie sich im Laufe der Zeit verändern. Da beide Bedrohungen weit verbreitet sind, verhindern dies die Entwicklung wirksamer Schutzstrategien. Das übergeordnete Ziel dieser Arbeit war räumliche und zeitliche Veränderungsmuster der Auswirkungen von Lebensraumzerstörung und Übernutzung auf die biologische Vielfalt zu verstehen. Ich habe diese Bedrohungsgeographien mit hoher räumlicher Auflösung und über drei Jahrzehnte hinweg für verschiedene Aspekte biologischer Vielfalt untersucht: Arten, Lebensgemeinschaften und taxonomische, phylogenetische und funktionale Facetten biologischer Vielfalt. Ich konzentrierte mich auf den 1,1 Millionen km² großen Gran Chaco, den größten tropischen Trockenwald der Welt und einen globalen Entwaldungs-Hotspot. Meine Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich im Laufe von 30 Jahren die räumlichen Auswirkungen der einzelnen Bedrohungen auf größere Gebiete ausdehnten als nur auf die abgeholzte Fläche. Dies führte zu einem Verlust an hochwertigen und sicheren Gebieten für den Jaguar, die gesamte Großsäugergemeinschaft und alle Facetten der Säugetiervielfalt. Beide Bedrohungen trugen wesentlich zum Rückgang biologischer Vielfalt bei, ihre relative Bedeutung variierte jedoch je nach Art und Facette der biologischen Vielfalt. Zudem haben die Gebiete, in denen beide Bedrohungen zusammenwirken, im Laufe der Zeit zugenommen, was den Verlust der biologischen Vielfalt wahrscheinlich noch verschlimmert hat. Diese Arbeit unterstreicht, wie wichtig es ist, die Auswirkungen mehrerer Bedrohungen im Laufe der Zeit gemeinsam zu bewerten, um den menschlichen Einfluss auf die biologische Vielfalt besser verstehen zu können und wirksame Schutzstrategien zu finden. / The main drivers of the current global biodiversity crisis are habitat destruction and overexploitation. Yet, we lack understanding of their individual and combined spatial impact on different aspects of biodiversity, and how they change over time. Because both threats are common, these knowledge gaps preclude building more effective conservation strategies. The overarching goal of this thesis was to understand how the impacts of habitat destruction and overexploitation on biodiversity change in space and over time. I assessed these geographies of threat at high spatial resolutions and over three decades for different biodiversity aspects: species, communities, and the taxonomic, phylogenetic, and functional facets of biodiversity. I focused on the 1.1 million km² Gran Chaco, the largest tropical dry forest globally, and a global deforestation hotspot. Results reveal that over 30 years, the spatial impacts of each threat expanded over larger areas than the area deforested. This resulted in widespread losses of high-quality and safe areas for the jaguar, the entire larger mammal community and for all facets of the mammalian diversity. Such declines suggest a generalized biotic impoverishment that includes the loss of species, evolutionary history, and ecological functions across much of the Chaco. Both threats contributed substantially to biodiversity declines, and their relative importance varied among species and biodiversity facets. Moreover, the areas where both threats synergize increased over time, likely exacerbating biodiversity losses. For each biodiversity aspect, I identified priority areas of safe and high-quality habitats, and hotspots of high threat impacts, which could guide more effective complementary proactive and reactive conservation strategies. This thesis highlights the importance of jointly assessing the impact of multiple threats over time to better understand the impact of humans on biodiversity and to identify effective ways to mitigate them. / Los principales factores de la actual crisis de la biodiversidad global son la destrucción del hábitat y la sobreexplotación. Sin embargo, desconocemos su impacto espacial, tanto individual como combinado, sobre los diferentes aspectos de la biodiversidad, y cómo cambian en el tiempo. Como ambas amenazas son comunes, estos vacíos de conocimiento impiden elaborar estrategias de conservación más eficaces. El objetivo general de esta tesis fue comprender cómo los impactos de la destrucción del hábitat y la sobreexplotación en la biodiversidad cambian en el espacio y en el tiempo. Evalué estas geografías de las amenazas a altas resoluciones espaciales y a lo largo de tres décadas para diferentes aspectos de la biodiversidad: especies, comunidades y las facetas taxonómica, filogenética y funcional de la biodiversidad. Me centré en el Gran Chaco, de 1,1 millones de km², el mayor bosque seco tropical del mundo y un foco global de deforestación. Los resultados revelan que, a lo largo de 30 años, los impactos espaciales de cada una de las amenazas se extendieron por areas mayores que la superficie deforestada. Esto dio lugar a pérdidas extendidas de áreas seguras y de alta calidad para el jaguar, la comunidad de mamíferos grandes y para todas las facetas de la diversidad de mamíferos. Estos declives sugieren un empobrecimiento biótico generalizado que incluye la pérdida de especies, historia evolutiva y funciones ecológicas en gran parte del Chaco. Ambas amenazas contribuyeron sustancialmente al declive de la biodiversidad, y su importancia relativa varió entre especies y facetas de la biodiversidad. Además, las áreas en las que ambas amenazas sinergizan aumentaron en el tiempo, probablemente exacerbando las pérdidas de biodiversidad. Para cada aspecto de la biodiversidad, identifiqué áreas prioritarias de hábitats seguros y de alta calidad, y focos de alto impacto de las amenazas, que podrían orientar estrategias de conservación complementarias más eficaces, tanto proactivas como reactivas. Esta tesis destaca la importancia de evaluar conjuntamente el impacto de múltiples amenazas a lo largo del tiempo para comprender mejor el impacto de los humanos en la biodiversidad e identificar vías eficaces para mitigarlas.