MANGROVES UNDER AMAZON INFLUENCES (MANGAS): a paradoxical resilience ?
Abstract: The coastal mangrove forests of French Guiana are subject to intense oceanographicsedimentaryconditions and are characterized by relatively low plant biodiversity within the Amazon region, yet paradoxically, they are resilient. How can such resilient ecosystems be realized and sustained in this physically dynamic context, and to what extent are the ecological concepts generalizable? Based on recent research, we think that mangrove ecosystem resilience islargely determined by the exceptional capacity of mangroves to colonize newly available mudbank substrate rather than resistance to erosional processes. An interdisciplinary team has been assembled within the proposed project: MANGAS, to evaluate this hypothesis, and specifically to characterize and explain the physical–biological interactions that play a role in establishing pioneering mangroves and the rapid expansion of mangrove forest. The proposed study will be conducted at the station scale (intertidal mud, propagule fluxes), at the French Guiana scale (sedimentary and hydro-climatic processes), and at the larger regional scale (the Amazon dispersal system). MANGAS fits into a rich national and international scientific framework. In the end, its ambition is to form a research team in French Guiana dedicated to the study of Amazonian mangrove and coastal dynamics.
Current status: in revision
MANGAS web site

FRENCH CALLS FOR COLLABORATION (FRENCO)

Idea: French Guiana coastal dynamics depends on Amapá coastal dynamics. Although there is a geographic continuity of ecosystems and the influence of Amazon sediment discharge, functioning, phenomena and characteristics may be extremely different. Taking benefits from understanding of both regions is promising for developing and calibrating a range of methods in biology, ecology, sedimentology, geomorphology and remote sensing. French scientists need collaborations with Brazilian scientists to help their studies dedicated to the study of the French Guiana coastal dynamics. These collaborations may be initiated as following.

Principle:
A student in ‘mestrado’ or ‘graduação’ of the north-eastern Brazil is coached by a local scientist within the frame of its university formation. Theme and proposal of collaborations are discussed by Brazilian and French scientists in order to define a work planning adapted for all. One of the main criteria should be a opportunity for a rapid publication in an international journal.

BRASILIAN CALLS FOR COLLABORATION (BRANCO)
Idea: The study of the Amazon coastal region requires a wide range of techniques, skillness, materials which are difficult to combine at the same time in the same region of study without collaborations. Although the following propositions of collaborations do not give direct information for the study of French Guiana coastal dynamics, the development of a common base of methodologies to measure processes occurring in the Amapá or Pará regions may contribute to reinforce efficiency of methodologies used in other regions. Within this frame, the BRANCO proposition combines the formation of a student (1 month?) which will have to user material, method in another context and will come back to its region of experiment in Brasil to apply it.
Principle:
A student in ‘mestrado’ or ‘graduação’ of the north-eastern Brazil is coached by a local scientist within the frame of its university formation. Theme and proposal of collaborations are discussed by Brazilian and French scientists in order to define a work planning adapted for all. One of the main criteria should be a opportunity for a rapid publication in an international journal.