PSDR DYNAMIQUES -Dynamics of biodiversity and ecosystem services during peri-urban development
Abstract
The DYNAMIQUES project is a multidisciplinary research programme that studies the consequences of peri-urban development both on biodiversity and the services it provides to humans. The project is being carried out on the Saclay Plateau, an area located in the junction zone between the Paris conurbation and the great plains surrounding it, with the dual characteristic of being in the process of urbanization following the development of the great Paris Saclay science and technology cluster, and of integrating more than 2,000 hectares of some of the most fertile agricultural land of France. The general objective of the project is to produce knowledge to promote sustainable coexistence on the same territory between agriculture, the city and biodiversity, in conjunction with urban and agricultural development partners. One of the major characteristics of peri-urban spaces is the coexistence of two types of spaces that are highly modified by human presence, agricultural spaces and urbanized spaces. It is already known that this strong modification has negative consequences for biodiversity, and that agricultural and urbanised spaces contain on average much lower biodiversity than natural spaces. The simultaneous presence of agricultural and urban areas on a territory could therefore seem particularly problematic for biodiversity, but it is also possible that these two types of highly modified areas complement each other and that their association is on the contrary relatively beneficial for biodiversity. The project has shown that in some cases there is a positive synergy between agricultural and urban spaces. Insect pollinators seem to benefit from the simultaneous presence of these two types of spaces, while in other cases the synergy is negative: peri-urban ponds suffer from double contamination when they are located in the agricultural and urban interfaces.
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