Relative Sea-level Rise & biodiversity Changes in the Mediterranean basin (ReSeaRChMed)

Project description (no results)

Coastal wetland ecosystems are at risk world-wide due to sea-level rise and direct human impacts. The biological consequences of these changes, depending on resistance and adaptive capacity of ecosystems, remains unclear, especially in the long-term. Yet, this knowledge is essential for planning long-term integrated conservation strategies and maintain cultural heritage. In a recent study, Poher et al. (2017) have demonstrated the potential of paleoecological multi-proxy analysis to investigate the consequences of past sea-level changes on a Mediterranean coastal wetland. In particular, multi-disciplinary studies involving both fossil insect, palynological and geochemical analyses can provide a robust estimation of local habitat changes and the factors that influenced its past dynamics. The aim of this project is to conduct such multi-disciplinary approach on a back-barrier marsh located on a deltaic floodplain in Corsica, aiming (1) to reconstruct the impacts of past changes in sea-level on the biodiversity of a particular Corsican coastal wetland and (2) to explore the risks of wetland loss at a larger scale in the Mediterranean basin.