Urban ecology - iEES Paris

In recent years, the urban environment has been an environment of major interest in ecology and evolution. It is, in fact, a constantly expanding environment with its own particularities, the functioning of which is closely linked to human activities.

Urban ecology is the study of the processes determining the abundance and distribution of organisms, interactions between organisms, interactions between organisms and the environment, and flows of energy and matter in the urban ecosystem. It has become a central discipline in ecology and it is therefore important that S-U become one of the major players in the development of this discipline at the international level.

The urban environment is essentially dependent on human activities (physico-chemical, sound, light, topographic environment, etc.) but also on their behavior and their choices with regard to nature in the city (population regulation, nature management, perception of nature, trash and market as a source of food, park and garden, domestic species that have become feral …).
Thus, the functioning of the urban ecosystem is subject to a particular dynamic for which we have very little information in comparison with non-anthropized ecosystems. In order to best characterize the functioning of the urban ecosystem, an interdisciplinary approach integrating the social, political and economic sciences is therefore essential.

We are currently working on 6 themes:

• Functional and evolutionary ecology of urban populations
• Aquatic ecology of peri-urban lakes
• Perceptions and uses of nature in the city
• Urban floors
• Ecotoxiology
• Connectivity and flow dynamics

Interactions with local authorities (Mairie de Paris, CD Val de Marne), the EMS cluster (Eau-Milieux-Sols) are already important and we would prefer to promote them within the Institute.
We would also like to develop links with the Paris School of Urban Planning.