A co-modelling process of social and natural dynamics on the isle of Ouessant: Sheep, turf and bikes

An interdisciplinary team has applied the multi-agent system formalism to study shrub encroachment in the Biosphere Reserve on the isle of Ouessant. The main goals were (1) to understand vegetation dynamics, and (2) to represent how main agents, or actors view the dynamics of natural resources in relation to their own living practices. The management strategies established for each type of stakeholders were formalised and the impact of these strategies on biodiversity was analyzed at various temporal and spatial scales. Following a short description of the model, three aspects of the modelling process are discussed in more detail: the use of the chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) population as a representative variable for the interactions between stakeholders and territory, the use of non-monetary economic indicators, and the ways that multi-disciplinary scientific knowledge can be integrated into the model.

[1]  I. Berre,et al.  Land-use changes and implications for management of a small protected island off the coast of Bretagne , 2001 .

[2]  William J. Sutherland,et al.  Modelling the foraging habitat selection of lesser kestrels: conservation implications of European Agricultural Policies , 2004 .

[3]  A. Gibon,et al.  Agricultural abandonment in mountain areas of Europe: Environmental consequences and policy response , 2000 .

[4]  Christian Kerbiriou,et al.  Tourism in protected areas can threaten wild populations: from individual response to population viability of the chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax , 2009 .

[5]  Larry B. Crowder,et al.  An individual-based, spatially-explicit simulation model of the population dynamics of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, Picoides borealis , 1998 .

[6]  Niandry Moreno,et al.  Biocomplexity of deforestation in the Caparo tropical forest reserve in Venezuela: An integrated multi-agent and cellular automata model , 2007, Environ. Model. Softw..

[7]  Hans Van Dyck,et al.  Butterfly diversity loss in Flanders (north Belgium): Europe's worst case scenario? , 2001 .

[8]  O P Judson,et al.  The rise of the individual-based model in ecology. , 1994, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[9]  Stephen R. Baillie,et al.  Population declines and range contractions among lowland farmland birds in Britain , 1995 .

[10]  Herbert Marcuse,et al.  Culture et société , 1970 .

[11]  Jean-Jacques Brun,et al.  Effects of landscape structure on vegetation and some animal groups after agriculture abandonment , 1995 .

[12]  James Brasington,et al.  Coupling agent-based models of subsistence farming with individual-based forest models and dynamic models of water distribution , 2009, Environ. Model. Softw..

[13]  Brian G. Wolff,et al.  Forecasting Agriculturally Driven Global Environmental Change , 2001, Science.

[14]  C. Kerbiriou,et al.  Impact des changements d'usage sur la viabilité d'une population menacée dans un espace multi-protégé : le Crave à bec rouge (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) sur l'île d'Ouessant , 2006 .

[15]  Frédéric Jiguet,et al.  The impact of human frequentation on coastal vegetation in a biosphere reserve. , 2008, Journal of Environmental Management.

[16]  H. Levrel,et al.  OECD pressure–state–response indicators for managing biodiversity: a realistic perspective for a French biosphere reserve , 2009, Biodiversity and Conservation.

[17]  Steven F. Railsback,et al.  ANALYSIS OF HABITAT‐SELECTION RULES USING ANINDIVIDUAL‐BASED MODEL , 2002 .

[18]  E. Bignal,et al.  Environmental variability, life-history covariation and cohort effects in the red-billed chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax , 2003 .

[19]  Christophe Le Page,et al.  Cormas: Common-Pool Resources and Multi-agent Systems , 1998, IEA/AIE.

[20]  Christophe Le Page,et al.  A Step-by-step Approach to Building Land Management Scenarios Based on Multiple Viewpoints on Multi-agent System Simulations , 2003, J. Artif. Soc. Soc. Simul..

[21]  J. Greenwood,et al.  A second silent spring? , 1995, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[22]  V. Grimm.  Ten years of individual-based modelling in ecology: what have we learned and what could we learn in the future? , 1999 .

[23]  Nelson Minar,et al.  The Swarm Simulation System: A Toolkit for Building Multi-Agent Simulations , 1996 .

[24]  Christophe Le Page,et al.  Co-Modeling Process, Negotiations, and Power Relationships: Some Outputs From a MAB Project on the Island of Ouessant , 2009 .

[25]  Christian Kerbiriou,et al.  Biologie de la reproduction du crave à bec rouge Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax en bretagne (France) , 2006 .

[26]  Frédéric Jiguet,et al.  Linking territory quality and reproductive success in the Red-billed Chough Pyrrhocorax pyrrochorax : implications for conservation management of an endangered population , 2006 .

[27]  Christian Kerbiriou,et al.  Demographic consequences of prey availability and diet of Red-billed Choughs Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax , 2007 .

[28]  Venkataraman Balaji,et al.  Tourism, biodiversity and information , 2002 .

[29]  Françoise Gourmelon,et al.  Eléments de prospective environnementale dans une réserve de biosphère , 2008 .

[30]  Deborah J. Pain,et al.  Farming and birds in Europe: the common agricultural policy and its implications for bird conservation , 1997 .

[31]  Elsa Faugère,et al.  Science et démocratie dans la gestion de la nature : des ethno-sociologues pris dans la modélisation d'accompagnement. , 2008 .

[32]  Silas C. Michaelides,et al.  A multi-agent system for meteorological radar data management and decision support , 2009, Environ. Model. Softw..

[33]  F. Gourmelon.  La contribution des SIG à la connaissance et à la gestion de l'environnement littoral , 2003 .

[34]  Justin M. J. Travis,et al.  The evolution of dispersal in a metapopulation: a spatially explicit, individual-based model , 1998, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences.

[35]  Stephen T. Buckland,et al.  Trends in the abundance of farmland birds: a quantitative comparison of smoothed Common Birds Census indices , 1998 .

[36]  Michel Etienne,et al.  Use of a Multi Agent System for management planning of a rare and threatened population of bird in a multi protected area undergoing drastic land use change , 2007 .

[37]  Jacques Ferber,et al.  Les Systèmes multi-agents: vers une intelligence collective , 1995 .