The Antilles Group of the ESPACE DEV laboratory, BIORECA “BIOdiversity, Ecological Risks in the CAraibbean Island Territories” serves as a training and Scientific Research tool where all aspects of biodiversity are considered.
Despite themes that identify different disciplinary approaches to the multiple facets of the diversity of life, the activities of this unit are part of a tree like pattern rich of complementarities between the methodologies of the exact sciences (biology, ecology, particularly conservation ecology, botany, biogeography, etc.), social sciences, legal and economic sciences. The aim is to explore the material (ecosystem dynamics, chorology, self-ecology, synecology, landscapes, data processing, etc.) and immaterial (anthropogenic processes of perception and representation) aspects of life as well as the legal and economic fields associated with its use. In other words, to explore the factorial determinisms influencing the spatiotemporal variations of the organizational forms of the living being: the latter being necessary resources to the development.
Research themes emerge from the primordial data for territorial planning with biodiversity as an important axis in urban and rurality. These data are also likely to seed innovation in the sense of economic development and the maintenance of a minimum balance (homeostasis) between Nature and Society. As a consequence, the outcome of this research contribute both at the level of the conservation of the environments necessary for biogeochemical cycles (fundamental elements of ecosystem resilience) and the use of molecules from the chemical spectra of plants, and at the level of the economic values attributed to the different degrees of biodiversity under legal constraints. Consubstantially, Master and PhD courses allow students to build a high level of competence with regard to the stakes of the Caribbean Region related to the various issues related to biological diversity in a context of global climate change.