The EPICEs project aims to explore the climate and environmental variability of past interglacials across temperate Europe in order to 1) discuss the human-climate-environment relationships during Prehistory and 2) document changes in biodiversity through time, which provides keys to understand current distribution and manage modification of biocenoses in response to global climatic change. Since a few decades the proposing team have developed a well-proven multidisciplinary methodology (stratigraphy, geochemistry, malacology, palaeobotany, archaeology) to study tufa deposits. These continental carbonates have been demonstrated to be the only record of past interglacial optima in fluvial areas, and are one of the best continental archives capable of building true synergistic records of both past environments and climates. Amongst Pleistocene interglacials, the MIS 5e (last interglacial or Eemian) is the best represented by numerous tufas across Europe, some of them also preserving archaeological remains. Two Eemian tufas will be newly investigated: Resson (Aube, France) and Burgtonna (Thuringia, Germany) while a possible third deposit from Slovakia (Ganovce) have been identified. Results will be compared with available data (Caours, France) in order to build a European west-east transect of the environmental and climatic variability during the last interglacial and position Neandertal occupations within this dynamic framework. Additionally, past interglacials (and especially MIS 11, 5e and the pre-Anthropocene Holocene) will serve as ‘references’ to better understand the present-day anthropogenically-disturbed biodiversity.

The California coast is a worldwide biodiversity hotspot with a long and rich history of prehistoric and colonial migration, contacts and peopling processes. However, little is still known about the role that these processes played in the configuration of Californian landscapes over time. MeSCAL is designed to fill in this gap in current research by examining the role that past cultural interactions and human mobility played in the configuration of Southern California (SoCal) landscapes during the last 4000 years. Main goals are to analyse the spatial distribution of land-uses and plants following migratory and colonial processes, and to assess their impact into native terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, particularly in terms of floristic richness, landscape structure, and impact on native flora, wetlands and soilscapes. This ambitious interdisciplinary project proposes a novel approach based on the coupling of 1) high temporal resolution multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental analyses –i.e. pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPP), fire history analysis, diatoms, sedimentology, geochemistry- in continental wetlands and marine records, respectively providing local and regional information on vegetation and land-use changes and their impact in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems; 2) calibration of fossil palaeoenvironmental datasets with modern pollen and NPPs analogues of vegetation and land-uses; 3) archaeobotanical analyses furnishing direct information on past consumption and use of plants in relation to migratory and colonial processes; and 4) coupling of paleoenvironmental results with archaeo-historical and ethnographic datasets to gauge landscape changes following prehistoric and colonial settling. Selected study areas are located in coastal (San Diego city and Santa Barbara region) and nearby backcountry (San Emigdio Hills, Kern County) areas. This transect of records will allow us to track differences in landscape changes following colonial settling between coastal areas under direct colonial control and hinterland areas exposed to a lesser colonial influence that may have served as refuge for native populations and landscapes. MeSCAL will contribute to a better understanding of the long-term shaping of SoCal Mediterranean landscape heritages, identities and cultures, and will provide Californian societies and land-management agencies with important historical and cultural information on their landscapes and wetlands that can help promote culturally conscious and sustainable landscape management tools and mitigate current degradation and over-exploitation of SoCal landscapes and wetlands. It will also provide local SoCal Native tribes with historical information on their ancestral landscapes and traditional land-uses that will enrich their cultural identities and help to protect their landscape heritage and traditional lifeways. MeSCAL will surely be a springboard for the candidate’s young career as it will 1) broaden her competences as project manager; 2) help her build an international network of palaeoenvionmentalists and archaeologists working on a ground breaking research topic; 3) foster her visibility at the national and the international spheres; and 4) consolidate her scientific independence.

This project will deliver the first in-depth examination of the cross-national rural geographies of both the concept and phenomenon of gentrification, through an integrated comparative study of the theory, forms and dynamics of gentrification across rural France, UK and USA. The project aims to investigate the salience of rural gentrification as a concept that is capable of explaining rural change in France, the UK and the USA. As a starting point, the project draws upon the concept of 'sociologies of translation' to understand past and current differential meanings and uses of the term rural gentrification within academic, policy and popular discourses in France, UK and USA. An asset-based theorisation of rural gentrification will be developed to create empirical indicators of the presence and use of social assets within rural gentrification. Using these empirical indicators and comparable measures of rural, urban and peri-urban spaces, census and other national datasets will be mapped to analyse the geographies of gentrification in rural France, UK and USA, and to develop a typology of rural gentrification. Using this typology, detailed comparative studies of rural gentrification spanning a contrasting range of rural regions and rural settlement areas within France, UK and USA will be undertaken using comparable interviews, surveys, and focus groups.

The African Sahel is one of the most vulnerable regions on Earth. Although it is comprised of highly diverse eco-geographical and social landscapes, the increasing ecological and social vulnerability is clearly the common denominator of the entire zone, translating into an urgent call for action. In this sense, the adoption of the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative (GGW) in 2007 is a step in the right direction. Originally conceived as a reforestation project, it has evolved into a series of multi-sectorial actions, taking into account both the social and ecological dimensions of the system and the diversity of the mosaic landscapes it crosses. The GGW has received a considerable amount of attention in the international arena as a potential game-changer for improving livelihoods and resilience in the Sahel. However, the success of the GGW will depend on its capacity to intelligently gather, generate, integrate, and use knowledge derived from a wide range of disciplines, taking into account the nature and complexity of socio-ecological systems. In this context, FUTURE-SAHEL is particularly timely. Through our multi-sectorial, interdisciplinary partnership composed of leading international academic partners and GGW natural resource decision makers, the research proposal described herein is specifically designed to investigate on-the-ground, pragmatic resource management solutions (gather and generate), provide a conceptual framework to aid the decision making process within the GGW project (integrate), and with the Senegalese National Green Wall Agency as a partner, translate research into direct action (use). Beyond these solution-oriented goals, the possibilities herein for advancing our fundamental understanding of Sahelian social-ecological system structure and function are absolutely boundless at different temporal (we will explore the past, present and future) and spatial scales (ranging from small-scale, kilometer-size “windows” of observation along the GGW path to the full trajectory of Senegal, the focal scale for FUTURE-SAHEL). The research program consists of four individual, yet highly interdependent work packages (WP). In WP 1, a comprehensive database will compile and spatialize data from numerous external sources, research (from WP2, WP3, WP4 and beyond), and GGW actions with the aim to capture the richness and diversity of evolving social ecological systems operating across the GGW. It will further our understanding of the complex relationships among biophysical, social and ecological parameters. WP2 aims to maximize tree biodiversity for GGW reforestation, placing the preferences of local populations, highly dependent on this diversity to fulfill daily needs, at centre stage. This will also produce essential knowledge as to mechanisms of tree species adaptation to climate stress. WP3 contributes to unlocking the socio-economic potential of a model species for dryland reforestation, Balanites aegyptiaca, a drought-resistant, highly useful tree species. To reach this goal, fundamental scientific knowledge of its reproductive biology and genetic determinants of fruit quality traits is needed. Herein, we plan to fill the gap. Finally, WP4 will explore Sahelian landscapes of the past (reforestation history using a practical resilience principles-based lens), the present (mapping of current ecosystems services (ES) along the GGW path using data from WP1, 2 and 3), and the future (though multi-stakeholder, participatory approaches, i.e. resilience assessments and scenarios workshops) to operationalize resilience theory and devise a conceptual framework for GGW decision-making processes. Finally, FUTURE-SAHEL will set a precedent for other GGW countries and more broadly for large-scale development initiatives as an example of a functional research-development interface, highly promoted at the highest political level, but rarely found in practice, to solve eco-societal issues of this caliber.

At the crossroads of human and environmental geography, eco-acoustics and cognitive sciences, this project aims to study the relationship of individuals and groups to the ordinary soundscapes associated with the presence and/or reappearance of water in urban, peri-urban and rural environments in the Ile-de-France region, by assessing the human capacity to auditively and emotionally process the acoustic information conveyed by this resource. To do this, we will be analysing the sounds of three small rivers in the Paris region (the Bièvre, the Morbras and the Vieille Mer), with varying hydrogeomorphological profiles and varying degrees of urbanisation and restoration. We therefore hypothesise that these rivers contribute to the construction of distinct soundscapes according to various criteria: hydrogeomorphological (size of the watercourse, types of flow and currents, sediment load, etc.), temporal (low-water or high-water periods, seasons, day/night, etc.), land status (public spaces/private spaces), the more or less urbanised contexts in which these rivers are located and the ecological restoration efforts undertaken. Combining these different criteria will enable us to define the elements that contribute to the definition of ordinary water soundscapes and to analyse the sensitive consequences of the restoration work underway for the users of these rivers. We will thus seek to understand not only how water plays a part in the organisation of these soundscapes, but also to what extent it promotes the well-being, attachment and knowledge of small urban rivers by their users. The sound of water will not be studied in and for itself; on the contrary, it will be understood in its relationship to the environment, both human and non-human, in order to gain a better understanding of how it can contribute to the resourcing of populations, to their attachment, particularly emotional, to places and to their ability to adapt or even protect themselves from the risks associated with this resource (flooding but also low water levels in a context of climate change). The project is expected to make a number of contributions: 1) theoretical, in that it aims to provide a better description of the ordinary soundscapes of water, as well as the relationships of local people to these landscapes; 2) methodological, since it combines in an original and innovative way devices from human and environmental geography, eco-acoustics and cognitive sciences; 3) social, through the attention it pays to sharing the knowledge that will be produced in the course of this research with the users, local people and developers of these small rivers in the Paris region.