Strategic Program 3

Program 3 aims to improve our understanding of the local and global factors that enable coral reefs to provide vital services to humans, assess their vulnerability to anthropogenic and climatic pressures, and study their resilience capacity.

500 million people depend on the services provided by coral reefs for food, income, coastal protection and cultural identity. “Supporting services”, such as nutrient cycling, and “regulating services”, such as climate regulation, are processes that are essential to the functioning of ecosystems. Other services, such as “provisioning services” (eg, the provision of food) or “cultural services” (eg, aesthetic value) are services that bring direct benefits to human beings. Faced with increasing anthropogenic and climatic pressures, the ability of coral ecosystems to provide these vital services is threatened. Today, it is therefore essential to understand the factors behind the many processes and services provided by coral reefs, as well as their vulnerability to anthropogenic and climatic pressures and their resilience to disturbances. Currently, our ability to quantify ecological processes and understand the structure of complex systems is limited.

• 50 years of research on coral reefs at the University of Perpignan (29/01/2022)
• The “Fête de la Science” – 2020 (24/12/2021)
• Day of “Research Conferences” – 2021 (15/12/2021)