Mis à jour le 20/07/22

The TABASCO JEAI proposal is focused on the reinforcement of the research on the ecology of the tropical seabirds in Brazil. It lies on the fact that

  1. seabird ecology is a remarkably under-invested discipline for a gigantic country bordered by a 8500 km-long coastline and
  2. the center of gravity of the small existing teams is in Southern Brazil, very far from the tropical fields.

Relying on the strong partnerships built by IRD both in the Nordeste universities and the seabird ecology teams from Southern Brazil over the last years, the aim of this JEAI is to accompany these teams in their projection towards Brazil's tropical ecosystems, with the mediumterm aim of having this discipline better represented in Nordeste universities. From this perspective and given the continental scale of this country, this project is coherent with the IRD strategy of supporting South-South collaborations aimed at building capacity in less developed regions.

On a scientific point of view, the JEAI is organized around three main thematics:

  1. Biogreography and populations connectivity;
  2. Behavioural and trophic ecological niches and
  3. tropical seabird conservation and Marine Spatial Planning.

The JEAI will support fieldwork activities in five tropical insular ecosystems targeting six study species. The five study sites will provide an ideal setting of gradients along latitude, distance to the coast and level of anthropic pressures to develop comparative approaches for identifying the drivers of the health of the seabird population and identify the variety of conservation challenges that should be taken into account into the governance policy of those areas.

Période de soutien janvier 2020 - Décembre 2022