Henri Décamps

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Henri Décamps, born on 18 December 1935 in Paris, is a French biologist specialising in the ecology of rivers and river landscapes. He has been a member of the French Academy of sciences since 2008 (correspondant in 1993),[1] of the Académie d'agriculture de France since 2004[2] (correspondant in 1998) and a member of Academia Europaea since 2009.

Biography[edit]

Student at the Lycée Lapérouse in Albi, he obtained a degree in natural sciences and a diploma of advanced studies in hydrobiology at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Toulouse. He was appointed a researcher at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in 1961. He was awarded the title of emeritus in 2001 and is attached to the Functional Ecology and Environment Laboratory (ECOLAB).[3]

Scientific work[edit]

Henri Décamps first worked on the ecology of aquatic insects of the order Trichoptera, highlighting the influence of the vegetation cover of drainage basins on the diversity of aquatic fauna in mountain streams in the Pyrenees.[4] He then participated in the study of planktonic algal blooms in the Lot River, and identified the causes and consequences of this phenomenon.[5] This work led him to launch two cooperative projects: "large rivers" within the framework of PIREN (CNRS's Environmental Research Programme) and "ecotones" within the framework of UNESCO's Man and Biosphere (MAB) programme.[6] In 1980, he was appointed Director of the CNRS Vegetation Map Service, with the mission of developing this service laboratory into an ecological research laboratory. He then created a team on the study of riverside corridors, in collaboration with the University of Washington in Seattle. This approach has led to several publications on the structure and functioning of river ecosystems.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] It demonstrates the importance of riparian areas as an interface for exchanges between running water ecosystems and neighbouring terrestrial ecosystems, leading to a better understanding of the dynamics of riparian vegetation cover, the decomposition of their litter and their role in recycling carbon and nitrogen into floodplains. These results have played an important role in the development of two key concepts in landscape ecology: the concepts of corridor and connectivity, which are particularly used in conservation biology. In his book "Ecologie du paysage", written with Odile Décamps, he presents a synthesis of advances in landscape ecology and introduces the notion of Panarchy and sketches a synthesis between multiple approaches to landscape (in particular that of landscape ecologists in relation to that of landscape ecology).

Elected to the French Academy of sciences, Henri Décamps directed a report on extreme weather events,[19] which led him to participate in the drafting of the IPCC special report on this issue.[20] His most recent work focuses on issues related to the development of scientific ecology.[21][22][23][24][25]

Other functions and offices[edit]

Henri Décamps was a member of the National Committee for Scientific Research at the CNRS. He has chaired various research committees within the framework of the environmental programmes of the CNRS, the Ministry of the Environment and UNESCO. He also chaired the International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE), the Scientific Council of the Adour-Garonne Basin Committee and the Public Interest Group "Forest Ecosystems - GIP ECOFOR".

Distinctions[edit]

The Sénouillac school in the Tarn has been named after him since 2014[26] and the collège des Trois Vallées in Salies du Salat, Haute-Garonne, adopted him as the sponsor of its "La Main à la pâte" school project in 2018.[27]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Académie des sciences".
  2. ^ "Académie d'Agriculture de France".
  3. ^ "ECOLAB".
  4. ^ H.Descamps, « Ecologie des Trichoptères de la vallée d’Aure (Hautes-Pyrénées) », Annales de Limnologie, (1967) 3, p. 399-577
  5. ^ H. Descamps, « Qualité des eaux et développement de la vallée du Lot », Annales de Limnologie, (1978) 14, p. 59-84
  6. ^ H.Décamps, R.J. Naiman et F. Fournier, « Role of land/inland water ecotones in landscape management and restoration », MAB Digest, (1989), p. 1-93
  7. ^ H.Décamps, Towards a landscape ecology of river valleys; in Trends in Ecological Research for the 1980s, NATO, J.M. Cooley et F.B. Golley, 1984, p. 163-178
  8. ^ H. Décamps and G. Pinay, « The role of riparian woods in regulating nutrient fluxes between the alluvial aquifer and surface water: a conceptual model », Regulated Rivers, (1986) 2, p. 507-516
  9. ^ H. Décamps and E. Chauvet, « Lateral interactions in a fluvial landscape: the river Garonne, France », J. North American Benthological Society, (1989) 8, p. 9-17
  10. ^ H. Décamps, « River margins and environmental change. », Ecological Applications, (1993) 3, p. 441-445
  11. ^ H. Décamps, R.J. Naiman et M. Pollock, « The role of riparian corridors in maintaining regional biodiversity », Ecological Applications, (1993) 3, p. 209-212
  12. ^ H. Décamps et al., « Are species-rich communities more invisible? A riparian point of view », Conservation Biology, (1996) 10, p. 598-607
  13. ^ H. Décamps, « The renewal of floodplain forests along rivers: a landscape perspective », (Edgardo Baldi Memorial Lecture). Verhandlungen Internationalen Vereinigung für theoretische und angewandte Limnologie, (1996) 26, p. 35-59
  14. ^ H. Décamps and J.P. Metzger, « The structural connectivity threshold: a hypothesis in conservation biology at the landscape scale », Acta Oecologica, (1997) 18, p. 1-12
  15. ^ H. Décamps and R.J. Naiman, « The Ecology of Interfaces - riparian zones », Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, (1997) 28, p. 621-658
  16. ^ H. Décamps and E. Muller, « Modeling soil moisture reflectance », Remote Sensing of Environment, (2001) 76, p. 173-180
  17. ^ H. Décamps et O. Décamps, Au Printemps des Paysages, Paris, Buchet Chastel, 2004, 238 p.
  18. ^ H. Décamps, R.J. Naiman & M. McClain, Riparia: Ecology, Conservation, and Management of Streamside Communities, Elsevier Academic Press, 2005, 440 p.
  19. ^ H. Décamps Événements climatiques extrêmes : réduire les vulnérabilités des systèmes écologiques et sociaux (coordonnateur) (2010). Rapport RST n°29 de l’Académie des sciences. Ed. EDP Sciences, 240 pages.
  20. ^ H. Décamps, Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, 2012, 582 p.
  21. ^ H. Décamps, « Ecologues et paysagistes : Agir ensemble sous de nouveaux climats », Les Carnets du Paysage, (2010), p. 13-27
  22. ^ H. Décamps, « River system networks as biodiversity hot lines », C. R. Biol., (2011) 334, p. 420–434
  23. ^ H. Décamps et M. Juffé, « Une même éthique des écosystèmes, des territoires et des habitats ? », Ecologie & Politique, 2016) 52, p. 143-156
  24. ^ H. Décamps, L’écologie face aux causalités multiples; in La causalité dans les sciences biologiques et médicale, Edp sciences. Académie des Sciences, 2017, p. 57-69
  25. ^ H. Décamps, « Les chemins de l’écologie », Nouvelle Quinzaine Littéraire, (2018) 1203, p. 5-6
  26. ^ [Sénouillac / L'école de Sénouillac baptisée "Ecole Henri Décamps de l'Académie des Sciences" "Ecole de Sénouillac"]. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  27. ^ "La Main à la pâte".
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