Vincent Florens

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Francois Benjamin Vincent Florens (* 1971 in Mauritius ), often Vincent Florens , is a Mauritian ecologist and conservationist .

Life

From 1983 to 1991 Florens graduated from the College du Saint-Esprit in Quatre Bornes , from which he graduated with the Higher School Certificate (HSc) in biology , geography and art . From 1993 he studied biology at the University of Mauritius in Moka , where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in 1996 . From 1998 to 1999 he studied applied ecology and nature conservation with a Master of Science degree. From 2003 he studied ecology and nature conservation at the Université de La Réunion , where he wrote his dissertation Ecologie des forêts tropicales de l'Ile Maurice et impact des espèces introduites envahissantes in 2008. Laboratory: Laboratoire Peuplements végétaux et Bioagresseurs en Milieu Tropical (PVBMT) for Ph.D. received his doctorate. From January 2002 to December 2002 he was a lecturer, from January 2003 to September 2006 he was a visiting lecturer and from September 2006 to March 2012 he was a senior lecturer in ecology at the University of Mauritius. From February 2012 to February 2014, he headed the Life Sciences Department at the University of Mauritius. Since March 2012 he has been Associate Professor in Ecology at the University of Mauritius.

His research focus is on the conservation of biodiversity in tropical terrestrial systems with a special focus on the effects of invasive species on biodiversity in tropical forests. Further research interests are the restoration ecology as well as the taxonomy of the mottled and terrestrial pulmonate of the Mascarene . He is also involved in research projects in the fields of paleoecology and molecular ecology . He was a member of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation , a non-profit conservation organization. In 2001 he and his colleague Jean-Claude Sevathian at the Corps de Garde succeeded in rediscovering the species Trochetia parviflora from the mallow family, thought to have been lost since 1863 . In 2002, together with his wife Cláudia Baider, a Mauritian ecologist born in Brazil, he rediscovered the terrestrial snail species Omphalotropis plicosa, thought to have been lost since 1878 .

Florens began his conservation work in Mauritius as a volunteer in 1987. After making the acquaintance of Owen Lee Griffiths in 1991 , he expanded his interest in the land snail fauna of the Mascarene Mountains. In 2006 Griffiths and Florens published the work A field guide to Non-Marine Molluscs of the Mascarene Islands , in which 250 species were presented in words and pictures.

Florens and his wife described the species Syzygium pyneei from the myrtle family (Myrtaceae) and, together with Owen Lee Griffiths, ten land snail species of the Maskerene, including Madgeaconcha sevathiani , Madgeaconcha gerlachi , Omphalotropis bassinblancensis and Naggsiaconcha mauritianus .

In 2015, Florens was one of the critics of a mass shooting of Mascarene flying foxes ( Pteropus niger ) in which the government shot 18,000 specimens. The fruit growers consider the animals a nuisance. Florens argued that an annihilation of 36 percent of the population would be devastating to the survival of the species.

Dedication names

In 2000, Owen Lee Griffiths named the subfossil land snail species Tropidophora vincentflorensi in honor of Florens, who collected the holotype at Trois Mamelles Mountain in Mauritius in May 1996.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marion Herzog: Botanists find extinct tree on Mauritius In: Bild der Wissenschaft from June 26, 2001
  2. ↑ James W. Byng, FB Vincent Florens, Cláudia Baider: Syzygium pyneei (Myrtaceae), a new critically endangered endemic species from Mauritius PhytoKeys 46: 61-66 (05 Feb 2015)
  3. ^ A b c d Owen Lee Griffiths, FB Vincent Florens: Ten new species of Mascarene land snails (Mollusca: Gastropoda) and their conservation status Molluscan Research, 2004, 24, 161–177
  4. ↑ Chelsea Harvey: The island that was once home to the Dodo wants to kill off thousands of protected bats. The Washington Post October 23, 2015.
  5. ^ Owen Lee Griffiths: Nine new species of Mascarene land snails (Mollusca: Gastropoda) , Molluscan Research, Volume 20 (2), 2000, pp. 37-50
personal data
SURNAME Florens, Vincent
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Florens, Francois Benjamin Vincent (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Mauritian ecologist and conservationist
DATE OF BIRTH 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Mauritius