Aix-Marseille Université's presence at the World Conservation Congress was in line with its ongoing commitment to sustainable development and provided an opportunity to promote a cross-disciplinary approach to biodiversity.AMU highlighted the scientific advances made by its researchers, such as the Biodiv'Aquart project led by Thomas Changeux (MIO, attached to the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) and Aix-Marseille Université), with fisheries historian Daniel Faget from the UMR TELEMMe based at the Maison Mediterranéenne des Sciences de l'Homme (MMSH), Anne-Sophie Tribot (post-doctoral student) and Thomas Richard (doctoral student). Together, the four scientists were able to present the fruits of their research and promote this multidisciplinary approach to biodiversity, described as "historical ecology". This is why a project to create a research unit dedicated to the issue is underway. "The issue of biodiversity and, more broadly, sustainable development concerns the whole of the younger generation, whatever their discipline. This common thread of biodiversity is an interesting avenue for training, because it is the future", emphasises Eric Berton, President of Aix-Marseille University.
Biodiv'Aquart: understanding marine biodiversity through art" What if paintings could be used to observe changes in marine biodiversity? Thomas Changeux, a hydrobiologist at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) attached to the Institut Méditerranéen d'Océanologie, came up with the idea while walking through the corridors of the Louvre. With fisheries historian Daniel Faget from the UMR TELEMMe based at the Maison Mediterranéenne des Sciences de l'Homme (MMSH), and with the help of several colleagues and students, they began by carrying out a statistical analysis of nearly 80 tables dating from the period between the 16th and 18th centuries, and representing different 'taxa' (groups of species with common characteristics). They were then joined by Anne-Sophie Tribot and Thomas Richard, post-doctoral and doctoral students respectively in the BiodivAquArt project for Aquatic Biodiversity in Art. Their findings can be illustrated using another work by Frans Snyders, 'The Fish Market' (Hermitage Museum), which features, alongside common taxa such as carp, herring and cod, a porpoise and an otter, which were more common and consumed in the 16th century than in the 18th. The approach is a complex one: you have to be able to distinguish in a painting what reflects an ecological situation, the potential offered by the catching and conservation/transportation techniques of the time, a food preference or even simply an aesthetic choice. So it's a question of having both a historical and scientific knowledge of the period".