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  • Publication
    Accès libre
    Fonctions multiples, contraintes multiples : les défis du nouveau paradigme de gestion des zones alluviales suisses
    Les zones alluviales constituent un objet environnemental complexe, très révélateur des enjeux sécuritaires, culturels, économiques et écologiques à l'œuvre dans la gestion actuelle des cours d'eau. Cet article, construit sur les résultats d'une recherche interdisciplinaire récente, interroge, à travers trois études de cas, sur la transformation des modes de gestion des cours d'eau en Suisse. Articulant dorénavant les principes de sécurité et de conservation de la biodiversité, cette transformation prend en compte les contraintes écologiques, hydrologiques et socioculturelles qui délimitent l'action publique dans le domaine de la gestion des cours d'eau. L'émergence des nouvelles procédures de communication, de médiation et de négociation est au cœur d'un processus d'apprentissage social collectif qui devrait, à terme, produire un changement des valeurs, des représentations sociales de la nature et des risques, ainsi que des principes qui orientent l'action., Floodplains are a complex environmental "object" which reveal the cultural, economic and ecological as well as safety stakes nowadays to be taken into account in river management. This paper is based on the results of a recent interdisciplinary research involving scientists in sociology, hydrology and soil ecology. Taking three case studies it examines the changes in the river management paradigm in Switzerland. This new paradigm pays growing attention to environmental protection issues and complementarily articulates safety and biodiversity conservation principles. Its application is nevertheless faced with various ecological, hydrological and socio-cultural constraints that limit public action. Floodplains represent a multidimensional ecosystem whose natural dynamic is crucial for maintaining the richness of its biodiversity. In this perspective, the new paradigm aims to reconcile ecological concerns with modern hydrological techniques and public acceptance. Complex social negotiations govern the implementation of the new revitalization measures. Public and private actors are the main pivots of these processes. New communication, collaboration and mediation procedures are enabling a process of social collective training. This process could facilitate in the future a deeper change in the values, the social representations of nature and risks, and the principles of value-based action.
  • Publication
    Accès libre
    Identification of facies models in alluvial soil formation: The case of a Swiss alpine floodplain
    This paper describes different conceptual facies models intervening in alluvial soil formation in the case of the Sarine River floodplain, a partially embanked floodplain situated in the northwest of the Swiss Alps. Alluvial soils are submitted to processes of deposition and erosion and exhibit various characteristics reflecting the composition and properties of the material transported. Moreover, these processes of sedimentation and erosion vary in space and time and contribute thus to the heterogeneity of the whole floodplain system. Detailed analyses of the different soil layers permit a precise description of the variability and complexity of soil formation. In addition, the vertical succession of the horizons is useful to reconstruct the different natural or artificial events that occurred in this alluvial valley since the nineteenth century. On a larger scale, this study aims to contribute to floodplain management by identifying zones for restoration. The investigation was undertaken using data from 109 auger borings carried out in the Sarine River valley. Several morphological attributes of the different horizons and of the different profiles were first reduced in number and then grouped by a hierarchical agglomerative clustering. Profile factors were analysed by means of correlation analyses as well as other data summaries. The results showed positive correlations between several factors, particularly between the total profile thickness and the number of horizons found in the profile. Four facies models of alluvial soil formation are then proposed to illustrate and explain the variability of alluvial soil formation in the Sarine floodplain. Finally, these facies models are placed into the context of the Sarine floodplain scale case, according to the levels of organization of the alluvial system.
  • Publication
    Accès libre
    Spatial and Seasonal Patterns of Cattle Habitat use in a Mountain Wooded Pasture
    (2006)
    Kohler, Florian
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    ;
    Reust, Stéphanie
    ;
    Wagner, Helene H.
    ;
    Gadallah, Fawziah
    ;
    ;
    Buttler, Alexandre
    Management-oriented models of cattle habitat use often treat grazing pressure as a single variable summarizing all cattle activities. This paper addresses the following questions: How does the spatial pattern of cattle effects vary between cattle activities in a highly heterogeneous landscape? Do these patterns change over the grazing season as forage availability decreases? What are the respective roles of natural and management-introduced structures? We estimated the intensity of herbage removal, dung deposition and trampling after each of three grazing periods on a grid of 25 m × 25 m cells covering an entire paddock in the Swiss Jura Mountains. We found no significant positive correlations between cattle effects. Spatial patterns weakened through the season for grazing and trampling, whereas dunging patterns changed little between grazing periods. Redundancy analysis showed that different cattle effects were correlated with different environmental variables and that the importance of management-introduced variables was highest for herbage removal. Autocorrelograms and partial redundancy analyses using principal coordinates of neighbour matrices suggested that dunging patterns were more coarse-grained than the others. Systematic differences in the spatial and seasonal patterns of cattle effects may result in complex interactions with vegetation involving feedback effects through nutrient shift, with strong implications for ecosystem management. In heterogeneous environments, such as pasture-woodland landscapes, spatially explicit models of vegetation dynamics need to model cattle effects separately.
  • Publication
    Accès libre
    Spatial and seasonal patterns of cattle habitat use in a mountain wooded pasture
    (2006)
    Kohler, Florian
    ;
    ;
    Reust, Stéphanie
    ;
    Wagner, Helene
    ;
    Gadallah, Fawziah
    ;
    ;
    Buttler, Alexandre
    Management-oriented models of cattle habitat use often treat grazing pressure as a single variable summarizing all cattle activities. This paper addresses the following questions: How does the spatial pattern of cattle effects vary between cattle activities in a highly heterogeneous landscape? Do these patterns change over the grazing season as forage availability decreases? What are the respective roles of natural and management-introduced structures? We estimated the intensity of herbage removal, dung deposition and trampling after each of three grazing periods on a grid of 25 m x25 m cells covering an entire paddock in the Swiss Jura Mountains. We found no significant positive correlations between cattle effects. Spatial patterns weakened through the season for grazing and trampling, whereas dunging patterns changed little between grazing periods. Redundancy analysis showed that different cattle effects were correlated with different environmental variables and that the importance of management-introduced variables was highest for herbage removal. Autocorrelograms and partial redundancy analyses using principal coordinates of neighbour matrices suggested that dunging patterns were more coarse-grained than the others. Systematic differences in the spatial and seasonal patterns of cattle effects may result in complex interactions with vegetation involving feedback effects through nutrient shift, with strong implications for ecosystem management. In heterogeneous environments, such as pasture-woodland landscapes, spatially explicit models of vegetation dynamics need to model cattle effects separately.
  • Publication
    Accès libre
    The palaeoecological history of the Praz-Rodet bog (Swiss Jura) based on pollen, plant macrofossils and testate amoebae (Protozoa)
    (2001) ;
    van der Knaap, W. O.
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    van Leeuwen, Jacqueline F.N.
    ;
    Buttler, Alexandre
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    Warner, Barry G.
    ;
    Stratigraphy, radiocarbon dating and analyses of pollen, plant macrofossils and testate amoebae were used to reconstruct the development and ecology of a small raised bog in a karst-dominated landscape in the Swiss Jura Mountains. Special focus was on past vegetation and on the history of Pinus rotundata in relation to anthropogenic and climatic influences. Testate amoebae were used to reconstruc-t past local soil pH and water-table depth. The inferred development of the Praz-Rodet bog typifies a classic hydroseral tefrestrialization of a small basin. Two features are specific for this site. First, the bog was much wetter than today for a long period; according to our hypothesis, this only changed as a consequence of human activities. Second, two hiatuses are present at the coring location (Younger Dryas--early Preboreal, and 4700-2800 cal. yr BP), the former probably caused by low lake productivity due to cold temperatures and the latter by the erosional activity of the adjacent small river. The date of 2800 cal. yr BP for renewed peat accumulation may be related to climatic change (Subboreal-Subatlantic transition). Pollen indicators failed to show one hiatus: an apparently complete pollen sequence is therefore no guarantee of an uninterrupted sediment accumulation. Evidence of early minor human impact on the vegetation in the Joux Valley dates back to c. 6850 calendar years, congruous with the early Neolithic in the Jura Mountains. The history of Pinuis rotindata appears to be more complex than previously believed. Human activity is clearly responsible for the present abundance of this species, but the tree was naturally present on the bog long before the first evidence of important human disturbance of the site (1500 cal. yr BP). It is suggested that, in karst-dominated landscapes, dense forests growing on mineral soils around raised bogs may significantly reduce summer evapotranspiration by acting as windbreaks. Forest clearance results in increased evapotranspiration, causing a lowering of the water table on the bog and a modification of the vegetation cover. This hypothesis has implications for the management of similar small raised bogs in karst-dominated landscape.