{"id":9687,"date":"2020-04-29T10:42:26","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T09:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biomimexpo.com\/?p=9687"},"modified":"2020-11-16T12:30:43","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T11:30:43","slug":"thierry-dutoit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biomimexpo.com\/en\/2020\/04\/29\/thierry-dutoit\/","title":{"rendered":"THIERRY DUTOIT"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Thierry Dutoit is a research director at the CNRS within the Institut M\u00e9diterran\u00e9en de Biodiversit\u00e9 et Ecologie (IMBE), of which he is deputy director. His research focuses on coexistence processes and assembly rules in Mediterranean herbaceous plant communities.<\/p>\n

Thierry Dutoit is particularly interested in the impacts of anthropogenic disturbances over the very long term via approaches that combine paleoecology and historical ecology. The results of his work are applied to ecological restoration or ecosystem rehabilitation, particularly via bio-inspiration, which involves the management of certain key species known as \"ecosystem engineers\", from bacteria to large herbivores.<\/p>\n

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Website(s) :<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Detailed bio<\/a><\/p>\n

Mediterranean Institute of Biodiversity and Marine and Continental Ecology (IMBE)<\/a><\/p>\n

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Contribution to Biomim'week 2020 :<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Restoring nature: an ant's work!<\/strong><\/p>\n

In August 2009, a ruptured oil pipeline in the Crau plain in the Bouches-du-Rh\u00f4ne department caused hydrocarbon pollution in the heart of a national nature reserve. There, for the first time in the world, we experimented with the transplantation of harvester ant founding queens to accelerate the restoration of the soil and vegetation on the land that had been rehabilitated. Eight years later, our results show that this operation has really made it possible to increase soil fertility and accelerate the return of the steppe-like vegetation, unique in the world, which pre-existed where ant nests are present, thus making it possible to validate this bio-inspired process on an operational ecological engineering scale.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Useful resources and links :<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Videos :<\/strong><\/p>\n