SENAT
Report n° 230 (2006-2007) by M. Christian GAUDIN, Senator (for the parliament office for the evaluation of scientific and technological choices)
Disponible au format Acrobat (12 Moctets)
III. FRANCE'S FIRST-CLASS BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH
French biological research in the polar environment is not always given the respect it deserves, because it is often eclipsed by research carried out on the ice or oceans, which requires greater funding and is more concerned with global warming.
This traditional assessment is unfounded. If one considers IPEV's database of scientific publications appearing in journals with an international readership and indexed by the Journal Citation Report (JCR) and stemming from IPEV-supported programmes, it can be seen that since 1998 the life sciences represent half of all publications. This erroneous impression undoubtedly has something to do with the fact that since 2000 the sciences of earth and astronomy have accounted for a greater number of publications in Nature (10 vs. 5) and Science (9 vs. 3). However, the life sciences seem to publish articles in a greater array of journals that are often of a higher caliber than those of the sciences of earth and astronomy.
These excellent results are to be explained by an exceptional scientific heritage, innovative research and the development of research topics suited to the most important scientific questions.
A. AN EXCEPTIONAL HERITAGE
French polar biologists benefit first and foremost from an exceptional scientific heritage linked to the history of French operations and research in these regions.
1. A unique geographic situation
The most important asset for French researchers is their access to exceptional research sites.
Your rapporteur would here like to discuss the location of our various bases in the sub-Antarctic islands and in Adélie Land.
The sub-Antarctic islands form an exceptional gradient of territories lying at different latitudes, from the Kerguelen Islands at the edge of the polar front to the islands situated in more temperate zones at the level of the subtropical convergence. This represents the foundations of the first comparative studies concerned with the adaptation of either a single species or of related species.
All the superior predators of the Antarctic Ocean are concentrated in these islands, because they are the only bodies of land several thousand kilometres in circumference. Therefore, there is a very high concentration of different species. Colonies of several hundred thousand individuals are not rare. As a researcher asserted to your rapporteur: "The real treasure of these islands is their biomass."
The animals are very accessible, because they have never known terrestrial predators and therefore have developed no wariness vis-à-vis man. Their behaviour has not been modified by the few periods of hunting.
There are 52 species of bird 14 ( * ) . The Crozet archipelago is, in terms of the number of species, the richest in the world, with 38 different species. Ile aux Cochons ("Pig Island") is home to the world's largest colony of king penguins, with more than 550,000 couples in the beginning of the 1990s. Such large colonies must be counted with the help of satellite imaging. Indeed, average colony density can be calculated according to the rule by which the king penguin will sit on a single egg at a distance safe from the beaks and wings of its neighbours, or 65 cm (equivalent to two wing-tip lengths). Therefore, it is possible to determine a given colony's population from the surface area it covers.
These regions are rich in endemic species. Several examples are especially telling. Your rapporteur would like to discuss two such examples from among the insects: the Kerguelen weevils ( Ectemnorrhinines ) are only found in these islands. No close species exists anywhere else on Earth, so it is supposed that this insect is a relic of the animal life present in Antarctica a long time ago and that these weevils migrated to warmer land when the continent became too cold. A second example consists of the wingless or apterous flies and butterflies. Scientists believe that this adaptation - abandoning the ability to fly - allows them to build fatty reserves that make up 40-45% of their weight and which take the place of wing muscles, allowing them to better deal with the harshness of their climate.
The Dumont d'Urville base in Adélie Land is exceptionally well located to study the region's animal life. It is the closest Antarctic station to a colony of emperor penguins, first discovered in 1950.
This colony is truly unique. It is accessible by foot, while most penguin colonies are located rather far off and researchers must use heavy logistical means to visit them. This proximity is especially valuable for making observations during the winter, when moving about is difficult. The extraordinary animal documentary March of the Penguins could never have been filmed without this proximity.
Indeed, it should be pointed out that there are only 35 emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica, for a total estimated population of 135,000 to 175,000 couples 15 ( * ) .
The Dumont d'Urville base also provides access to other species emblematic of Antarctica, such as the Adélie penguin and various species of Pinnipedia.
There are other species with extraordinary features. For example, the Antarctic midge can survive the continent's extreme temperatures by accepting the presence of ice particles within its body. Other continental insects are able to survive thanks to a very high level of glycerol, alcohol or sugar in their blood. As for plant life, one must mention the endolithic lichens which survive thanks to the light which infiltrates certain rocks which also serve to protect them from the cold.
The list wouldn't be complete if one didn't mention Antarctica's marine life, of which Dumont d'Urville also provides a good cross-section and which provides scientists with a deeper understanding of how animals adapt to extreme conditions.
2. 40 to 50 years of continuous observations
These exceptional sites could have remained under-exploited by the researchers. Such has not been the case.
French biological research in these regions benefits from nearly 50 years of continuous work with the same colonies. Indeed, from the very beginning, French researchers have progressively compiled a database for the various populations of species present. For example, the database takes into account homogeneous data over a 40-year period for the emperor penguin in Adélie Land and the great albatross in Crozet. 27 species of seabird and Pinnipedia are monitored on a yearly basis.
The database gathers together population countings over time for each colony in the different locations. The number of couples, the reproduction rate, the survival rate of the young and mature, and their physical conditions are, of course, precisely monitored. All of this data can be correlated with meteorological observations. This database also includes information on individual subjects. Most species of superior predators present in these regions are long-lived animals which live several decades and reproduce slowly. This specificity is explained by the animals' slow metabolism due to the cold, as well as by the necessity to adapt to the quantity of prey.
While it remains constant in the mid-term, it can vary widely from year to year. Predatory species must therefore be able to give priority to the survival of their adults over reproduction. For example, the black-browed albatross is reproductively mature at the age of 10. Couples have one chick per year. As for the great albatross, it can live up to 70 years, with couples having one chick every two years. The same individuals have therefore been monitored over several decades in some cases, which is obviously exceptional. It is not rare for the same great albatross to be studied by two or three generations of researchers!
This continuous 40 to 50-year database is today managed by the Chizé laboratory. It is completely computerized and is capable of making readouts according to the wishes of the researchers.
Very few countries have such precise information at their disposal.
The French researchers can only be compared to their British counterparts of the BAS who have been present during a comparable amount of time in the Falklands, in South Georgia, in the South Sandwich Islands and in Rothera on the Peninsula (from the north to the south).
This data is clearly indispensable for any long-term analysis of the interactions between the populations of different species and their environment and to study the species themselves, considering their longevity.
B. ADAPTING TO GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE AND EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS
Two main research areas have been developed: the adaptations of animals to climate change and the specific mechanisms they have developed to survive in these extreme environments.
1. Adapting to climate change
Due to the polar regions' much more rapid warming compared to the rest of the planet, their flora and fauna are subject to much more intense pressure. They therefore represent important control subjects.
Looking first at fauna , a principal tool is the long-term demographic database. This has already allowed scientists to demonstrate a change in the climatic regimen between the late 1960s and the mid-80s linked to a rise in temperature . Demographic changes are quite distinct for the emperor penguin, the king penguin, the Adélie penguin, the rockhopper penguin, several species of albatross, the fulmar, the sea elephant and the fur seal. What is probably most surprising is that the changes are not unequivocal.
For example, the populations of several species are declining: the emperor penguin, the rockhopper penguin, the black-browed albatross and the sea elephant. On the other hand, other species seem to be profiting from the current climate change, with their populations increasing: the king penguin, the Adélie penguin and the fur seal. Finally, a few species, such as the fulmar, don't seem to be much affected. It is very interesting to note that it is quite useful to compare data for the same species from several different islands, because the intensity of change varies.
An article published in Nature in 2001 dealt with the changing population of the emperor penguin. The Chizé researchers demonstrated that over a 4-5 year period (1975-1980), the number of reproducing birds had abruptly fallen from 5 to 6 thousand to some 2 to 3 thousand individuals. This change is explained by an excess mortality of adults linked to a decrease in the surface area of the sea ice which led to decreased amounts of krill 16 ( * ) . This excess mortality rate is even greater among males who go without food during 3 ½ months in the winter to ensure the brooding of their young and can thereby lose up to 30% of their body weight.
On the other hand, this reduction in sea ice seems to have favoured the Adélie penguin, even though this trend is undoubtedly deceiving, because continued warming would certainly lead to a decrease in the population of Adélie penguins.
This mechanism also explains in large part the changing populations of other birds, because they feed in the polar front, the location of which varies according to the temperature. The colder it is, the farther north the polar front is to be found, and vice versa.
Plant life is also subject to climate change. There is very little flora specific to Antarctica. There is more plant life in the sub-Antarctic islands, with a high rate of endemism.
The main risk for plant life is the invasion of outside species due to global warming. Indeed, Antarctica's flora was previously subject to the invasions of plants imported (voluntarily or not) by the men and women working at the scientific bases; however, the harsh climate prevented their spread. For example, a plant or animal could not survive outside the greenhouse used to provide the base with fresh food. Over the past several years, however, a wild environment of escaped species has been discovered. These are often very common and very resistant species from our regions which find an environment favourable for their growth. Provided with a more active metabolism than the local species, they tend to take their place.
For example, in the Kerguelen Archipelago, where the average temperature has risen by 1.3°C in 50 years, the bluebottle fly of our regions, Calliphora vicina , began to colonize the main island, moving out from the base, in the 1980s and is putting ever greater pressure on the local, wingless fly species (see above). In those environments already greatly degraded by man through the introduction of foreign fauna (cats, rats, sheep, cows, rabbits) and flora (for example, the dandelion), the removal of one element can have an aggravating effect on the environment - for example, getting rid of the rabbits which eat the dandelions.
Another example is that of the introduction of cows to the islands of Saint Paul and Amsterdam to provide passing vessels with fresh meat.
When first discovered, these islands were covered with a very dense, shrubby vegetation up to an altitude of 250 m, made up mostly of Phylica arborea (endemic shrub 3-4 m in height). This vegetation has almost completely disappeared due to overgrazing, fires and ships stopping for wood. Today, this vegetation is entirely protected thanks to enclosures and a replanting programme.
Therefore, the ideal solution remains increasing preventive measures against invasions, in particular by the tourists (footbaths, special clothing) , and a precise understanding of the environment in order to attempt their restoration.
2. Understanding the adaptation to extreme environments
The adaptation of animals to extreme environments is another great area of research.
The Antarctic continent's penguins and fish must live and reproduce in conditions which normally would preclude any form of life.
This is especially true for fish living off the coast of Adélie Land. Research carried out since 1996 seeks to inventory the species present and to study in the long-term the pelagic conditions and the functioning of the food chain. Living in water temperatures which should freeze them , the species of fish present must have adopted certain adaptations. Two important changes have been discovered: the decrease, even the total disappearance, of haemoglobin in the blood and the secretion of an antifreeze protein.
The same is true for the penguin species . Penguins are endothermic, meaning they are warm-blooded animals which maintain their constant, elevated internal temperature independent of any variations in the ambient temperature, as opposed to ectothermic or cold-blooded animals, whose internal temperature - and thus their physical activity - is dependent upon fluctuations in the ambient temperature. The emperor penguin has an internal temperature of 38°C.
It must produce enough heat to maintain this temperature while dealing with ambient temperatures well below zero and must make long dives in water close to freezing, which increases by 190% its loss of body heat.
The list of adaptations employed by the penguins is long: a reduced heat-exchange surface, a very insulating covering, a very unique cardiovascular system, group protection (huddling together) or burrowing in the snow (the Adélie penguin), specific growth mechanisms for juveniles, etc.
This research on the energy functioning of polar animals is directly linked to human-based studies. Indeed, the study of these energy-use mechanisms - and, therefore, the animal's storage of lipids, carbohydrates and proteins - can be quite useful for treating certain human illnesses, such as obesity. Penguins are birds which, like humans, do not have brown adipose tissue, which allows mammals to withstand the coldest temperatures. Following studies of penguins, human-based studies will be carried out at Concordia.
In addition, within the framework of their adaptation to these environments, a common characteristic shared by most of these species is their reproduction on land being carried out several hundred kilometres from their feeding areas. The mating couples must therefore take turns first brooding and then feeding their young and withstand long periods without eating : the period of brooding and feeding their young, combined with the length of the trip to the fishing zone, usually located in the polar front several hundred kilometers from the colony. They have therefore developed unique mechanisms to control their digestion and utilize their energy, so as to be able to not eat during several weeks while they feed their young. This mechanism is even more active during the El Niño phenomenon. For example, the male king penguin must be able to wait during a longer period of time for its female partner to return while the egg is hatching. This unique phenomenon has led to the discovery of a very powerful peptide in the male's stomach: spheniscine (from the latin name for penguins, Spheniscus). It allows the food to remain well preserved during the final two or three weeks of brooding. In this manner, the male can feed the young chick while awaiting the return of the female. There are numerous biomedical applications possible for this peptide.
C. INNOVATIVE RESEARCH
The polar environment and the specificities of the species studied have forced scientists to innovate. Researchers have developed instruments far removed from the naturalist's more traditional tools and which allow them to observe the animals during their movements at sea.
What's more, they are developing leading-edge technologies for physiological and genetic analysis, allowing to propose certain changes in the organization of this sector to increase even more the research effort.
1. The equipment of animals
In these regions, researchers are mostly interested in the superior predators - birds, mammals and large fish - because, occupying as they do the summit of the ecosystems, they serve as reliable indicators. The quality and productivity of the entire environment affect the health and population sizes of the predators. They are also the most accessible animals on land.
But dry land, where reproduction takes place, is clearly not the principal environment of animals entirely dependent on the sea for their food. They find no nourishment on the islands. There is a marked spatial segregration. Therefore, the land-based study of these animals offers only a limited field of observation. It was necessary to find ways to observe them at sea.
Sailors have long known that albatrosses cover immense distances. For example, the 13 survivors of the Tamaris, a French three-masted vessel shipwrecked in the Crozet Islands on 4 August 1887, attached an iron plate on which they had engraved their location to the neck of an albatross, to serve as a sort of messenger pigeon or message in a bottle. 5,000 km and 45 days later, the albatross was found dead on an Australian beach. Help was organized, but it was too late. Upon their arrival, the castaways had disappeared without a trace.
Researchers at Chizé were the first to install a tracking device to birds. The first tracking by satellite of the great albatross was carried out in 1989 and made the cover of Nature in 1990. For the first time ever, it was possible to know where the birds went at sea. It was now possible to measure the very long trips made by these animals in search of food - 5 to 7 thousand km on average and up to 16,000 km over a period of 15 to 20 days - and to locate their diverse feeding areas. Since this initial experiment using an Argos tag weighing some 200 g, much progress has been made in the techniques employed. Satellite tracking now uses tags weighing around 20 g and GPS, allowing scientists to monitor smaller birds and to receive a signal every second and precise to within one metre, as compared to one signal every two hours for a precision of some 350 m.
In particular, this technique allowed scientists to understand why a certain species of albatross at Crozet was threatened with extinction since the 1970s due to the very great decrease in the number of females.
The researchers demonstrated that, as opposed to the males, outside the reproduction period, the females flew to the subtropical zones of the Indian Ocean, 1,000 km to the north, where they were the accidental victims of drop-line fishing. An effective policy for their protection was able to be proposed.
However, knowing where the animals go is no longer enough. Researchers wanted to know where, when and how much they fed. That is why they developed a stomach probe coupled to a GPS tag. Each time the fish dove in the water to feed, the probe detected a decrease in temperature, which was then transmitted. This research carried out on the great albatross was published in Science in 2003. This study revealed that these birds, which weigh 10 kg for a wingspread of 3.5 m, could capture cuttlefish of up to 2 kg, the researchers estimating the weight of the prey according to the amount of time it took the bird's stomach to return to its initial temperature of 39°C. The same studies also allowed researchers to understand how the great albatross is able to cover such great distances. This was explained through the combination of a GPS transmitter, a heart-rate monitor and a transmitter attached to one foot of the bird to know if it was flying, on water or on land. The researchers were thereby able to show that the great albatross flies in zigzagging glides, carried by the wind, allowing it to not use any more energy during these flights than while at rest in its nest. Taking flight and flying by beating its wings are the two phases requiring the most energy.
This type of instrument also allows scientists to monitor changes in the feeding zones over the years. The tagging of petrels, birds with an exceptional sense of smell, has allowed scientists to better understand how they locate their feeding areas and relocate their nests. It appears that they are able to detect the molecule dimethyl sulphate - which has a strong sulphurous smell - emitted by zooplankton feeding on phytoplankton several tens of km away by flying and hunting into the wind. A similar experiment was carried out on the king penguin between 1992 and 2001 during the El Niño phenomenon (El Niño South Oscillation, ENSO). In 1993, the penguins only had to cover 338 km on average (one way trip) to reach the polar front for their fishing and in 1996, 437 km. This was once again the case in 2000, with an average distance of 366 km. But during the ENSO, the king penguins had to cover 526 km in 1997 and 642 km in 1998, which obviously had a great impact on their reproduction.
More-advanced monitoring equipment has been developed and attached to penguins, allowing scientists to monitor the depths to which the fish feed . Thanks to this new instrument, it is possible to monitor the success of their fishing in relation to the depth of their dives during the penguins' trip to the polar front and back. The studies have yet to be published.
An experiment on equipping sea elephants is also currently being carried out within the framework of an international programme. The sea elephants are equipped with tags capable of measuring ambient pressure and therefore the depth of the animal's dive, as well as temperature and conductivity, and therefore a certain number of ambient characteristics.
The studies are being carried out on animals living in the Kerguelen Archipelago and which in fact feed off the coast of Antarctica! The results are very important, because they have shown that the sea elephants dive as far down as 1,500 m once a day on their way to the continent. Nearly 7,000 oceanic profiles of temperature and salinity have been established, which, along with the information they furnish biologists, will be transmitted to oceanographers.
For all of these animal studies, a request must be made to the Ethics Committee of the CNRS of the Midi-Pyrénées region and they must also obtain prior approval by the IPEV's Scientific Council. For Spitzberg, a Norwegian authorization is necessary, and in the TAAF an authorization by the prefecture is required. These studies must always be justified and proportionate, must not disturb the animals and must not induce abnormal behaviour which would not be in the scientists' best interest. They play an important role in our understanding of these species and their environment, as well as in their conservation.
However, researchers are questioning the necessity to maintain all of these different filters and the need to re-request each year the same authorizations for the same programmes on the same animals. Indeed, shouldn't a lightening of these regulations be considered , one which would not be harmful to the protection of these species, but which would take into account the routine character of certain operations and the trust we can legitimately have in our scientific personnel within the framework of multi-year programmes?
2. Hormonal, molecular and genetic research
Biological research in the polar regions makes increasing use of extremely sophisticated scientific equipment to study metabolism from the inside and to explain certain adaptations. It calls upon specific hormonal, molecular and genetic research.
Research on the role of hormones in adaptation mechanisms is being carried out at Chizé, in particular within the framework of studies carried out in the Arctic on the black-legged kittiwake. This Franco-Norwegian programme is aimed at understanding why this bird common to our coasts is two to three times less fertile in the Arctic (a single chick instead of two or three). Of course, the answer lies in the particular climatic situation and the general environment, but the researchers want to understand the energy-use and hormonal mechanisms that affect the level of reproduction, the date at which the eggs are laid and the regulation of the population. The kittiwakes could, in fact, lay just as many eggs as in our latitudes, but suffer heavy losses among the chicks. To do this, the scientists must therefore have the necessary means for the characterization of these hormones.
As regards molecular research, a good example can be seen in the research carried out in Lyon by the Laboratory of Integrative Cellular and Molecular Physiology on the penguin's adaptation to the cold . As your rapporteur already pointed out above, birds - and, therefore, penguins - have no brown adipose tissues in which mitochondria 17 ( * ) produce heat. In these tissues, thermogenesis is provoked by a decoupling of oxidations linked to the presence of a particular protein known as UCP1. Penguins have developed other thermogenic mechanisms, located principally in the musculus skeleti. A protein homologous to UCP1 has there been characterized. The laboratory has been able to demonstrate that this protein is the result of an adaptation mechanism linked to the necessity for juvenile penguins to prepare for their adult life at sea, where thermal stress is much greater. Following muscular biopsies, it was possible to demonstrate that it is indeed successive immersions that provoke the production of this UCP. The presence of this protein is detectable by molecular biology techniques such as RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) which is correlated with the increase in messenger RNA codifying the protein. This research also suggests that another protein of the mitochondria's internal membrane (ANT - adenylic nucleotide transporter) plays an important role.
Genetic research is increasingly utilized to study polar animals. The objective of sequencing their DNA is to understand the genetic particularities which, for instance, explain their resistance to cold . This is particularly the case with regard to certain species of fish.
Genetic analysis also allows scientists to understand the history of a species , comparing those members of the same family which remained north of the polar front and those now located south of the front and which needed to become acclimatized to their new climatic conditions. It can also provide scientists with information regarding the evolution of the polar front . At one time, the polar front was most likely located much further north, which explains why certain species of fish have genetic adaptation mechanisms even though they now live north of the front.
Genetics is also a powerful tool for population studies , considering the fact that in this immense ocean with very few landmasses, the same species are to be found on islands or on the coast several hundred or thousand kilometres from one another, even though they are philopatric and therefore have a low dispersal rate. For example, genetics has recently shown that the rockhopper penguin is not one but two species of penguin , one living along the polar front, the other at the subtropical convergence (there is a difference in water temperature of 10° C between the two locations).
Until then, this genetic distinction was only a hypothesis stemming from observations made by French researchers (Pierre Jouventin) who had noted differences in the size of the birds' yellowish-orange crests above the eyes and in their singing, event though the other biometric characteristics traditionally utilized by taxonomy remained similar. The scientists took advantage of the gradient of the French territories. Indeed, the southern rockhopper penguin is characteristic of the Kerguelen Islands and Crozet, while its northern cousin is to be found on Amsterdam Island. Thirty years were needed to transform this hypothesis into a scientific fact, following the genetic analysis of blood and feather samples taken from various specimens.
The data thus obtained doesn't just allow for the determination of separate species, it also allows scientists to hypothesize on the history of these populations and the evolution of the polar front . It is believed that the early group of rockhopper penguins separated in two during the transition from the Pliocene to the Pleistocene, which resulted in the polar front moving 7° farther north 1.8 million years ago. This isolated the southern islands and provoked a process of speciation in the north. Afterwards, in the north, the rockhopper penguins from the island of Gough in the South Atlantic colonized the island of Amsterdam following its formation 690,000 years ago. In the south, the rockhoppers from the Kerguelen Islands and Crozet (in the Indian Ocean) colonized the Falklands (in the South Atlantic) during a recent period. These migrations would therefore be quite exceptional, following the direction of the polar front (from east to west) over several thousand kilometers.
The likelihood of these migrations is strengthened by other known cases that are comparable. For example, the phanerogams (flowering plants) in Crozet and the Kerguelen Archipelago, which are native to Tierra del Fuego, located 15,000 km away.
3. The implications for the organization of research
All of these new instrumentation and analysis techniques at the service of the life sciences have several important implications for the laboratories. Your rapporteur can identify at least seven : the cost of research, the teams' multi-disciplinary character, the critical size of the laboratories, the cooperation with the French and foreign teams, the economic impacts and the social issues.
· The cost of research
The days when all the naturalist needed to carry out his research were a good pair of hiking shoes, a backpack, some paper, some pencils and a few tags are long since over. Today, the study of polar flora and fauna is a leading edge research necessitating extremely sophisticated technical means: computers, miniaturized equipment, satellites, genetic sequencing, etc.
These technical means, indispensable to research at the international level, are clearly much more expensive. Making available adequate funding for this new reality is therefore an unavoidable issue.
· The teams' multi-disciplinary character
The mobilization of all this know-how is also only possible in teams or multi-disciplinary research centres which, in addition to traditional knowledge on the polar environments and species, have access to the necessary technical (for the equipment) and scientific competences to carry out new research in these regions.
· The critical size of the laboratories
Significant financial means and a marked, multi-disciplinary character necessarily imply laboratories either of a certain critical size or integrated into larger research centres, so as to be able to pay for the expensive scientific equipment and have the technical capacity for managing and supporting their research. This dimension is also indispensable for the development of international cooperation.
· Cooperation at the national level
During the hearings, your rapporteur heard most of the researchers express their disappointment concerning the absence of a more active policy of national cooperation, in particular via the research zone created some fifteen years ago. Several researchers also argued that the monitoring of species via the database should be the object of an ORE (Environmental Research Observatory) recognized by the CNRS .
More generally, they expressed their desire for a better coordination between IPEV and the financing research bodies , in particular the CNRS and its new department dedicated to the environment and sustainable development (EDD).
One can also hope for greater and better-coordinated funding .
· Cooperation at the international level
In both the Antarctic and Arctic, the geographic conditions strongly encourage international collaboration to progress in our understanding of the species and of their environments.
Following a period marked by the study of colonies and species present in the vicinity of national research stations, we can now expect to see a new period of exchange between scientists of different nationalities working on the same species. Whether for long-term monitoring or genetic population studies, the usefulness of comparing French data with data collected by our foreign counterparts is obvious. Adapting to a changing climate and the preservation of biodiversity are international issues.
· The economic impacts
This research also has a significant economic impact, at two very different levels.
The first level is that of fish management . Antarctic fishing is an important economic issue. It poses management and conservation problems in which the scientists, whatever their speciality, play a major role by providing a vision of the state of the ecosystem and by proposing suitable technical solutions for the preservation of species.
The second level is that of uncovering and making economic use of proteins and molecules that can be used for medical or veterinary ends . This dimension is often glossed over, but in the future it could represent an area of significant research development and a closely related source of funding.
· Societal issues
Finally, biological research in the polar environment has become symbolic of such important societal issues as climate change and the preservation of biodiversity. To the regret of some, the public readily identifies with the polar bear and the emperor penguin, perceiving threats to the animal as threats to mankind. This perception also engenders increased ethical requirements for the study of animals. Beyond this rise in awareness, the accentuated climate change at the poles makes these species early indicators and increases the societal demand for research.
* 14 Throughout this section, your rapporteur is referring to Les 40 e rugissants, un sanctuaire sauvage , by Charles-André Bost, Christophe and Dominique Guinet, Benoît Lequette and Henri Weimerskirsh, Gerfaut, 2003, 208 pages.
* 15 The penguins living in the Antarctic are birds which have lost their ability to fly. They are in no way similar to the 23 species of penguin living in the Arctic and which can fly
* 16 Krill is a pelagic shrimp which plays a central role in the entire food chain of the Antarctic Ocean. In the winter, it lives beneath the ice shelf which serves as protection.
* 17 Mitochondria are cellular organelles about a micrometre in length. They stock energy in the form of ATP following an oxidation process. ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is a molecule used by all living organisms to produce energy. It is used in the synthesis of RNA.