Natural landscapes and environment

Les populations de cerfs, de chevreuils et de sangliers explosent en Europe, générant des difficultés de gestion en ville et en milieu rural. Qui commet les dégâts : l’homme qui détériore l’environnement naturel de la faune dans son intérêt économique ou bien la faune qui prélève les productions humaines pour survivre ? Selon l'auteur, l’équilibre entre les Ongulés et les milieux forestier ou agricole repose sur la connaissance du comportement des animaux et sur la régulation par la chasse, sans oublier la mortalité naturelle due à la réapparition des grands prédateurs. La solution résiderait avant tout dans la concertation entre usagers de la nature.
Public : chasseurs, forestiers, agriculteurs et passionnés qui recherchent l’équilibre entre le grand gibier et son milieu.

Rupicolous environments include rock faces, coastal cliffs, screes, bare and stony soils of proglacial surfaces and also quarries and ore dumps. This book presents the riches of rupicolous environments, explains how they operate as ecosystems in relation with their media, explains their heritage interest as a species repository and innovation laboratory, discusses how to restore them and advocates their integrated and sustainable management.

Partly instrumentalised by the policies, the nature conservation movements and the economists, ecology is the vector for many perceived ideas. The ecologists themselves fuel the debate dramatising the future of the planet, in the belief that they are giving legitimacy to their discipline. But are the resources used for ecological research in line with the anxieties and appeals from society and managers? This work is the testimony of an ecologist at the heart of this multi-discipline research.

The coastal marine area between Cap d'Antifer and Cap d'Ailly was the subject of a geological mapping programme in 2006. The previously unpublished results are presented as six 1:20000 scale maps and an explanatory booklet. The abundantly-illustrated booklet comments on the different geological structures surveyed. The findings should be of interest to professionals, teachers, developers and policymakers.

Fruit of the photosynthesis of plants, the biomass is an essential resource for humans, supplying them with food, energy and materials. With its three sources (forest, crops and waste), the energy-biomass is restricted by the production capacity of soils and its competition with its other uses. Could it therefore contribute to the growing energy needs of humanity and to the energy transition that must take place to reduce our oil and gas consumption substantially?

La carte des sols de Besançon à 1/100 000 occupe une position centrale dans la région de Franche-Comté. Elle est représentative de la distribution des sols développés sur le calcaire jurassique.

La carte des sols de Langon à 1/100 000 couvre 2280 km2 situés en Aquitaine, et pour l'essentiel dans le département de la Gironde et le Bordelais. Cette carte, située au carrefour des sables des landes, de la vallée de la Garonne, des graves, et des pays de collines de l'Entre-Deux-Mers,  présente une diversité remarquable, représentative d'un secteur aquitain bien plus vaste.

This book traces the history of birds right back to their reptilian origins. It underlines their homogeneity - flight, beak, skeleton and feathers are a bird's reference points - without losing sight of their diversity. Morphological and biological diversity (reproduction especially), but also adaptative. How do they withstand the cold and the predators, how do flightless birds run, how do you fly when you are a vulture? This book explores the intimacy of birds whose habits awaken the curiosity - the Grey Cuckoo, certain species of pigeon or the Hamerkop. It also discusses the relationship between humans and birds.

The work addresses the interactions between landscapes and sustainable development measures in a few French regions. The landscape is studied as a whole at the crossroads of numerous disciplines: social sciences (geography, economics, sociology, development and town planning), living sciences (biology and ecology) and political science (participation, governance modes).

The oceans cover over 70% of our planet. They are host to a biodiversity of tremendous wealth. Its preservation is now a global priority featuring in several international conventions and a confirmed objective of European policies and national strategies. Understanding the dynamics and the uses of the marine biodiversity is a genuine scientific challenge. Fourteen international experts have got together and identified five priority research themes to address the problem, based on analysing the state of knowledge.