3-6 rue Raphaël Dubois, Bât. Forel, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France
Prof. Christopher Carcaillet is a disturbance ecologist. He studies the influences of climate and social processes on the patterns of biodiversity or socio-ecosystems in space and time. His main research focuses on the chronoecology of fire in relation to climatic changes and plant community dynamics in boreal, mountain, Mediterranean and tropical areas. He is also concerned by global studies, notably by the function of fire on carbon budget through the release of carbon to the atmosphere, and the long-term sequestration of black carbon in soil. Chris Carcaillet teaches ecology (the bases, landscape ecology, disturbance ecology, biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, ecosystem services, ecological management, etc.) at the EPHE , the PSL University, at the University of Lyon and in an Engineering School of the University of Bordeaux. He has also taught at the University of Montpellier for 10 years. Chris Carcaillet graduated in Master of Technology in Ecological land management (1992) from the University of Rennes (France), a M.Sc (1993) and a PhD (1996) in Ecology from the Aix-Marseille University (France), and a Habilitation in 2001 from the Paul Sabatier University (Toulouse, France). He was post-doctoral fellow at the Dept of Geography of the Univ. of Montréal, Canada (1997-98), at the Univ. of Québec at Montréal (1999) and, research fellow at the Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences in Umeå (SLU, 1999-2001). He became Professor at Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE, Paris) in 2001 at the Dept of Life and Earth sciences, and honorary Professor at PSL University in 2014. In 2022, he was elected Overseas By-Fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, UK. Chris Carcaillet is editorial board member of Ecosphere (since 2024), Ecosciences (since 2008), Plant Ecology (since 2019), and Forest Ecology and Management (since 2020). He has been associated editor of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research [2002-2024], Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution [2013-2023], and PLoS ONE [2014-2018].
Le CNRS s’apprête à couper l’accès, le 1 janvier 2026, au Web-of-Science, WoS. Le CNRS paie cet accès au WoS pour les personnels rattachés à ses unités : chercheurs, enseignants-chercheurs, étudiants, personnels d’appuis. Cette coupure est argumentée par la lutte contre la bibliométrie. Mais le WoS, c’est bien plus que cela : c’est l’accès à la connaissance. Couper l’accès au WoS, c’est d’abord et avant tout interrompre la chaine de la connaissance. La perte sera plus grande que le gain.
Cette suppression de l’accès au WoS est l’annonce d’un décrochage de la recherche des entités CNRS qui va s’amplifier si un tel abonnement n’est pas compensé par nos universités ou nos écoles. Le message du Directeur Général Délégué à la Science du CNRS en arguant de lutte contre la "bibliométrie commerciale" https://lnkd.in/ekiDCNqc est une supercherie pour masquer les soucis financiers du CNRS, soucis bien réels, et par-delà, ceux de l’ESR français. Ça ne trompe personne.
Mais le WoS est, d’abord et avant toutes choses, la plus efficace des possibilités d’accès à l’information pour la plus grande partie du monde académique. Le WoS est un formidable outil de bibliographie avant d’être un outil de bibliométrie. Qui ne se soucie pas de la « graphie » peut parfaitement en faire un usage intense et efficace pour sa recherche sans se soucier de la « métrie ». En d’autres termes, ne voit la bibliométrie que celui qui s’en soucie.
Avec cette interruption d’accès au Web-of-Science, la recherche des laboratoires du CNRS va connaitre des difficultés croissantes qui annonce des heures sombres pour la recherche française. Les universités et les écoles, auront-elles les moyens de compenser. J’en doute au vu des restrictions budgétaires gouvernementales en cours.
Florian VAST will defend his thesis in forestry engineering on Monday 15th December. Title: Protection of tree plantations against deer: comparison of individual protection devices, browsing and plant mortality.
The defence will occur at Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 54 boulevard Raspail, Paris, at 13:30. Jury: Pierre de Villemereuil (EPHE-PSL Univ, Paris), Catherine Collet (INRAE, Nancy), Gauthier Ligot (Univ. of Liège, Belgium), Jérôme Moreau (Univ. of La Rochelle), and Chris Carcaillet (EPHE-PSL Univ, Lyon).
Claude Bernard contributed to the development of the École Pratique des Hautes Études, EPHE, from 1868 onwards. In 1875, he merged his laboratory at the Collège de France with the EPHE and therefore became Director of experimental physiology at EPHE. Later, he created the "Physiology" laboratory at the National Museum of Natural History at Paris, which was also placed under his authority at the EPHE.
After 5 years of hard work, Benjamin BOULLEY will defend his thesis on Friday 5th December. The title of his thesis is: Soil charcoal stock and sequestration by wildfires: spatio-temporal analysis using radiocarbon dating of charcoal in natural Mediterranean soils at Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 54 boulevard Raspail, Paris, on 5th December at 9:00. The jury is composed of Samuel Abiven (ENS-PSL Univ., Paris), Dominique Marguerie (CNRS, Rennes), Sophie Montuire (EPHE-PSL Univ., Dijon), Thomas Thiébault (EPHE-PSL Univ., Paris), and Chris Carcaillet (EPHE-PSL Univ., Lyon).
I am pleased to present the latest article by Justin Badeau (doctoral student) on wildfire regimes in Corsica over the past 350 years (1659-2024). Published in the Journal of Environmental Management. The article highlights variations in the average intervals between fires, burned areas, and the fire season in black pine forest. The study focuses on four montane forests located from north to south of Corsica, comprising 22 plots and 270 sampled trees. Dendrochronology (ring-ring analysis) allows for the reconstruction of fire dates and seasons, as well as burned areas, using a spatial model applied to the geolocated sampled trees. The article shows that the wildfire frequency and burned areas have varied several times over the past 350 years, but not the fire season. Currently, the regime is characterized by longer intervals between wildfires than in the past, which contradicts the idea that climate change would lead to more frequent fires. Finally, the study shows that public fire suppression policies are creating an unprecedented situation, because, as far back as history goes, Corsican forests have regularly experienced wildfires. These results call into question the coherence of public fire suppression policies when wildfires provide ecosystem services.