MARBEC

MARBEC, MARine Biodiversity, Exploitation and Conservation, is a research unit whose objective is the study of marine biodiversity in lagoon, coastal and offshore ecosystems, at different integration levels, molecular, individual, population and community aspects and the way humans use this biodiversity. It gathers some of the staff of 4 organizations: IRD, Ifremer, UM and CNRS.

This unit is spread across three main sites in metropolitan France (Sète, Montpellier, Palavas-les-Flots) and others located in the Indian Ocean, Asia, Africa and South America. It has three main objectives:

• to describe marine biodiversity, and understand its dynamics and the functioning of marine ecosystems;
• to analyse the impact of anthropogenic pressures on these ecosystems and develop global change response scenarios;
• to reconcile exploitation and conservation.