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COMPLEX SYSTEMS from Biology to Landscapes Expertise of the scientific community in the Occitanie area (France) COMPLEX SYSTEMS From biology to landscapes 1000 avenue Agropolis F-34394 Montpellier CEDEX 5 France Tel: +33 (0)4 67 04 75 75 Fax: +33 (0)4 67 04 75 99 [email protected] www.agropolis.fr Number 23 February 2019 AGROPOLIS INTERNATIONAL agriculture • food • biodiversity • environment With its headquarters in Occitanie region, Agropolis International brings together an outstanding group of organizations and institutions involved in agricultural and environmental sciences. Agropolis International—an association founded by research and higher education institutes with the support of the French government and local authorities—continues to provide an open space for collective expertise and collaboration. Agropolis International fosters links between different stakeholders involved in agriculture, food, environment and biodiversity sectors: • Institutions of the regional scientific community • Foreign and international research organizations • Local authorities • Technology transfer, innovation and economic development stakeholders • Civil society structures By marshalling such a broad range of institutions and backed by an outstanding scientific community, Agropolis International has become France’s leading agroenvironmental research hub addressing issues affecting Mediterranean countries and the Global South. Agropolis International—a forum for exchange and dialogue, training and capitalization of knowledge, a think tank, a support structure for collective projects and international outreach, and a place to host structures and events—applies and tailors its expertise acquired over the past 30 years to the major missions entrusted by its members. Agropolis International is structured around a broad range of research themes corresponding to the overall scientific, technological and economic issues of development. Research and training themes of the Agropolis International community: • Agronomy, cultivated plants and cropping systems • Animal production and health • Biodiversity and aquatic ecosystems • Biodiversity and land ecosystems • Economics, societies and sustainable development • Environmental technologies • Food: nutritional and health concerns • Genetic resources and integrative plant biology • Grapevines and wine: regional specific supply chain • Host-vector-parasite interactions and infectious diseases • Modelling, spatial information, biostatistics • Water: resources and management A few figures regarding the East Occitanie scientific community: • 27 higher education and research institutions • 35 interinstitutional and interdisciplinary open research infrastructures • 150 training courses • 2,700 researchers and teachers in 74 research units • 300 expatriate researchers in 50 countries • 5,000 French and international students • 1,000 international researchers hosted Complex systems Complex 2 Complex systems research expertise in Occitanie region On 1 January 2016, the former French Languedoc- Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées regions merged to become the new Occitanie/Pyrénées-Méditerranée region (2015 French territorial reform). This issue Complex Systems of Les dossiers d’Agropolis International thus showcases the scientific actors conducting research From biology to landscapes activities related to complex systems throughout this new region—for the first time. The scientific community includes 44 research teams (research units, service units, hosting and project teams, and Foreword 4 observatories). Several federative research bodies oversee the scientific activities of the teams: an institute, six laboratories of excellence (LabEx), an equipment of excellence project (EquipEx) and Complex systems, data collection 7 a Convergence Institute. Finally, several French and management national and European research infrastructures and data and computation centres essential for Data harvesting 9 managing complex systems are also based in Occitanie. Data interpretation 12 This Dossier, launched in 2013 by Fabien Boulier Data provision: accessibility and interoperability and finalized by Isabelle Amsallem (Agropolis 19 International), aims to enhance awareness of the Montpellier complex systems research community Understanding and 23 within the framework of the French National Network for Complex Systems (RNSC). Meanwhile, analysing complex systems with the recent inclusion of the Toulouse research community, Occitanie has become one of the Organism dynamics 25 most outstanding hubs of research in this field at national and European levels! In this fresh setting, Population dynamics 33 Agropolis International is perfectly fulfilling its role of promoting the scientific expertise harboured in Ecosystem dynamics 40 this new region in a field that has clearly emerged from a relatively marginal initial situation. Territorial management 46 Moreover, not primarily striving to reduce the complexity of the phenomena studied is becoming increasingly important, both intellectually and Different applications 55 operationally. Ways must also be found to address of the complex systems approach these issues amidst the wealth of interactions involved, and in a world that is ever more interlaced Use of observatories 57 with social and natural processes! Multicriteria decision support 60 Although not comprehensive, this Dossier will provide readers with an overview of these regional Participation and consultation scientific stakeholders through specific examples 64 of activities they develop in relation to complex systems in three main thematic areas: Data New decision-support models 68 collection and management; Understanding and analysing complex systems; and Different Federative research bodies 70 applications of the complex systems approach. related to complex systems Finally, among the many training courses offered in Occitanie region in relation to complex systems Topics covered 72 —irrespective of whether or not they lead to a degree—only a few examples of training courses by the research teams specifically devoted to gaining a more in-depth understanding of complex systems are presented. Training offered in the ‘complex 76 However, a broad array of degree courses (from systems’ field in Occitanie undergraduate to PhD levels) are available that explore complex systems. A list of these training List of acronyms and abbreviations 78 opportunities may be found on the websites of Agropolis International (www.agropolis.org/training) and the Université Fédérale de Toulouse Midi- Pyrénées (https://en.univ-toulouse.fr/courses-all). Cover photos: Apical meristem of Arabidopsis thaliana. © Jan Traas Stochastic simulation of a mango tree. © F. Boudon/CIRAD/INRIA systems Complex Bernard Hubert Spatial distribution of Aedes Albopictus densities in Réunion. © Annelise Tran/ 3 Advisor to the President of Agropolis International CIRAD/Alborun project (ARS Indian Ocean) Illustration from Pixabay released under © CC0 public domain Summary Systèmes complexes, collecte et gestion des données Foreword omplex systems have emerged as a focus items of which nature is composed….it would of cross-disciplinary research over the past embrace in a single formula the movements of the C 30 years. In the wake of the pioneering greatest bodies of the universe and those of the work of the Santa Fe Institute in the United States tiniest atom; for such an intellect nothing would be and the research centre headed by Ilya Prigogine in uncertain and the future just like the past would Brussels in the 1980s, centres conducting research be present before its eyes.” This implies knowing on complex systems have emerged in Italy, Spain, the initial situation of all beings in the universe—a UK, Poland, Hungary and France. Meanwhile, data issue—while also recognizing all the laws researchers have also founded an international of nature—a dynamics issue. Contemporary association (Complex Systems Society1), specialized science has shattered this dream of such a journals, and international conferences are held demon, indeed: quantum physics has introduced regularly. The field is especially well organized absolute uncertainty, which makes it impossible in France, including regional centres (Paris-Île- to ascertain the state of the universe at any de-France, Rhône-Alpes, Toulouse, Rennes and given time; chaos theory implies that a very slight Normandy) and thematic networks, all of which initial difference can spawn completely different are embedded in the French National Network novel behaviours (Does the flap of a butterfly’s for Complex Systems (RNSC), which fosters wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?); and the coordination and brainstorming on the topic. scale-dependence of dynamic interactions often Within the scope of Agropolis International, we makes it impossible to deduce the overarching felt it was essential to draw up a comprehensive behaviour of a process solely on the basis of inventory of research on complex systems in the elementary component properties—this is Occitanie region (France), focusing on topics called emergence. Understanding contemporary ranging from living organisms to the environment challenges, particularly those concerning adaptation and land management, with emphasis on biology, to global change and territorial management, and ecology, geology, hydrology, agronomy, human then intervening in these major systems with and social sciences. The approaches often involve their multiscale interaction dynamics, cascading, modelling, while also relying on both quantitative feedback
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