Points to remember

Centre de Recherches sur les Écosystèmes d’Altitude Observatoire du Mont-Blanc 67, lacets du Belvédère 74400 Chamonix Mont-Blanc France

Tél : +33 (0)4 50 53 45 16

Site web : https://creamontblanc.org/en

ASSOCIATION D’INTERET GENERAL LOI 1901

N° SIRET : 410 162 663 00026

About the Mont-Blanc Atlas

This website forms part of a project led by CREA Mont-Blanc (Centre de Recherches sur les Écosystèmes d’Altitude), focusing on the studies conducted by its research team and academic partners.

The information available on Mont-Blanc Atlas is an accumulation of vast quantities of automated data, academic research of the terrain, and the growing engagement of local scientific volunteers.

This online resource offers access to indicators that are regularly updated through data collection, summary analyses of ecological, glaciological, and climatological issues in the context of climate change, and a database detailing the studies and equipment deployed on the massif by numerous research teams.

A scientific network : multidisciplinary research across the Alps

Studies concerning the evolution of the Mont Blanc massif cannot be solely carried out by one institution. CREA Mont Blanc, a scientific non-governmental organisation based in Chamonix since 1996, undertakes one element of ecological research in the region. CREA deploys programmes in the Mont Blanc area which are also used in massifs across the Alps. These programmes have either been ‘imported’ following development by researchers in other massifs, or are tried and tested in the Mont Blanc range with a view to being replicated elsewhere in the Alps. This shared framework of procedures and studies, conducted on various scales (Alpine / massif / slopes / plots), is vital for the comparison of the evolution of massifs and gaining a nuanced understanding of the local and global policies at play.

The ecological monitoring projects undertaken in the Mont Blanc range are therefore incorporated into the broader framework of the ZAA - Zone Atelier Alpes - a research programme established by the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). The ZAA encompasses a diverse network of research laboratories and protected areas across the Alps. CREA is actively engaged in one of the long-term monitoring projects coordinated by ZAA, called ORCHAMP - Observatoire spatio-temporel de la biodiversité et du fonctionnement des socio-écosystèmes de montagne-, This observatory implements standardised protocols across 24 slopes throughout the Alps, encompassing a total of 137 permanent plots of land for study spanning an altitudinal range between 330m and 3160m. Mont Blanc, along with Grand Lautaret in the Southern Alps, serves as one of the two ‘master sites’, encompassing three slopes (or ‘gradients’). ORCHAMP brings together such alpine scientific partners as LECA - Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine du CNRS, le LESSEM de l’INRAE (National Research Institude for Agriculture, Food and Environment) and ‘operational’ partners such as national parks and several alpine regional parks, CBNA - Conservatoire botanique national alpin, ASTERS which manages the Haute Savoie reserves and, of course, CREA Mont-Blanc.

Under the current conditions of significant environmental change, climatic, ecological and physical factors combine and there is a need for multidisciplinary ecological study. The Mont-Blanc project therefore combines ecology, climatology and glaciology, and will eventually seek to integrate other disciplines, notably socio-psychology, to gain a better understanding of the means by which landscapes, environments and species evolve.

Content under the Creative Commons license

Unless expressly stated otherwise (copyright or reserved rights), the content (text and images) of the Mont Blanc Atlas may be used under license of CC BY 4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

This international license is compatible with Etalab 2.0 open license chosen by l’INRAE for the data.pheno platform: la plateforme data.pheno : national network of observatories dedicated to the phenology of all living creatures (plants and animal species, both farmed and wild), in which CREA Mont-Blanc actively participates via the programme Phénoclim.

partners of the Mont-Blanc Atlas