Opening lecture by Prof. Chris Bowler

In this portrait from the " CourTs du Collège de France" series, he presents the research and teaching activities of this new chair.

A specialist in understanding the response of marine plants and diatoms to environmental signals, Chris Bowler is also one of the scientific coordinators of the Tara Ocean project, which aims to explore the biodiversity, ecology and evolution of plankton in the world's oceans. He has an exceptional understanding of the global issues surrounding biodiversity.

Biodiversity refers to the variety of life on earth. This life, in all its forms and dimensions, occurs in the context of ecosystems: it depends on, and interacts with, other organisms and the physical environment. Biodiversity represents the collective "knowledge" acquired by evolving species over millions of years, on how to survive in the highly variable environmental conditions that the Earth experiences. In other words, biodiversity, as shaped by evolution since the appearance of life on Earth over three billion years ago, is an essential component in the functioning of the Earth system. This biodiversity is of course directly linked to the geoclimatic and physico-chemical conditions of the ecosystems in which it thrives. However, as a result of rapid climate change induced by human activity, we are witnessing a veritable collapse in biodiversity on a planetary scale.

The annual Biodiversity and Ecosystems Chair at the Collège de France is supported by the Fondation Jean-François et Marie-Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre.