Kévin BARRÉ

Presentation

I am a conservation biologist interested in the human pressures on biodiversity (i.e. communities, functional traits, behaviour). I try as much as possible to make my work applied in order to propose solutions to limit human's footprint on ecosystems and understand what are the most effective possibilities for change in our society today.

My work focuses around several major themes:

• the biodiversity-agriculture relationship, mainly focused on agricultural practices linked to inputs and tillage. In particular, I work on small changes realist for farmers in conventional farming which generate strong ecological gains for biodiversity, by studying farming systems that do not result in yield losses.

• the impact of wind energy on biodiversity: in particular, I am studying a type of impact that has so far been ignored by assessment impact studies and the environmental authority, habitat loss by revulsion. I also work on metadata needed in French environmental assessment/monitoring studies to answer a wide range of questions, and how standardize the data transmitted by the consulting offices at national scale.

• the ecological offsetting and ecological equivalence in farming contexts, which is a particularly applied subject that aims to (i) quantify the habitat losses generated by any development project to make them compensable and (ii) find equivalent alternatives in terms of biodiversity to a given offsetting measure, in order to facilitate the implementation and to contextualize offsetting to avoid blocking situations.

• the artificial light at night (ALAN), for which my work focuses mainly on the spatial variation of effects on biodiversity as a function of the landscape context, as well as on changes in bat behaviour in relation with light parameters, and in particular changes in the use of ecological corridors for moving and foraging.

Such societal issues often involve to work directly with stakeholders and to understand the social levers to transfer my research into the real life, seeking the best trade-offs to prevent this new knowledge from ever being useful in halting the decline of biodiversity.

Publications

Barré K., Le Viol I., Julliard R., Pauwels J., Newson S., Julien J-F., Claireau F., Kerbiriou C. & Bas Y. 2019. Accounting for automated identification errors in acoustic surveys. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 00: 1-18

Barré K., Le Viol I., Bas Y., Julliard R. & Kerbiriou C. 2019. Addendum to “Estimating habitat loss due to wind turbine avoidance by bats: Implications for European siting guidance” [Biol. Conserv.] 226, 205–214: Wind turbine impact on bat activity is not driven by siting altitude. Biological Conservation, 235: 77-78

Claireau F., Bas Y., Pauwels J., Barré K., Machon N., Allegrini B., Puechmaille S., and Kerbiriou C. 2019. Major roads have important effects on insectivorous bats activity. Biological Conservation, 235: 53-62

Omar M., Schneider-Maunoury L., Barré K., Al Sayed N., Halwani J. & Machon N. 2019. Dynamics of colonization and extinction of plant species in alignment tree bases of Paris (France). Ecology and Evolution, 00: 1-15

Omar M., Al Sayed N., Barré K., Halwani J. & Machon N. 2018. Drivers of distribution of spontaneous plant communities and species at urban tree bases. Urban forestry & urban greening, 35: 174-191

Barré K., Le Viol I., Bas Y., Julliard R. & Kerbiriou C. 2018. Estimating habitat loss due to wind turbine avoidance by bats: Implications for European siting guidance. Biological Conservation, 226: 205-214

Barré K., Le Viol I., Julliard R. & Kerbiriou C. 2018. Weed control method drives conservation tillage efficiency on farmland breeding birds. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 256: 71-84

Barré K., Le Viol I., Julliard R., Chiron F & Kerbiriou C. 2017. Tillage and herbicide reduction mitigate the gap between conventional and organic farming effects on insectivorous bats. Ecology and Evolution, 00:1–11

Coly R., Barré K., Gourdain P., Kerbiriou C., Marmet J. & Touroult J. 2017. Études chiroptérologiques dans les dossiers réglementaires éoliens : disponibilité de l’information et conformité avec les recommandations nationales et européennes. Naturae, 3: 1-10

Students

2019

Iuna Thomas, Master 2, Université Rennes 1 (CESCO), Influences croisées du spectre et de l’intensité lumineuse des LEDs sur l’usage des continuités écologiques par les chiroptères – Financement FRB-AFB

Mélanie Darnault, Master 2, Université Rennes 1 (Groupe Mammalogique Breton), Elaboration d’une stratégie de suivi des chiroptères anthropophiles au gite

2018

Mélanie Darnault, Master 1, Université Rennes 1 (co-encadrement avec Arnaud Le Houedec, Bretagne Vivante), Influence des facteurs climatiques sur la phénologie des espèces de Chiroptères sur deux sites de swarming (Bretagne, France)

Yann Parmentier, Master 2, Université de Reims (co-encadrement avec Patrick Longchamps, Fédération départementale des chasseurs du Jura), Evaluation de mesures agro-environnementales pour l’avifaune nicheuse : cas du semis direct et du retard de fauche dans le Jura

2016

Paul Nicolas, Master 1, EBE-MNHN (co-encadrement avec François Chiron, AgroParisTech), Impacts de différents systèmes de production de blé (biologique, labour et non labour conventionnels) sur les chiroptères

2015

Roger Coly, Master 2 Pro, Université de Picardie (co-encadrement avec Julien Touroult & Christian Kerbiriou), Evaluation des possibilités d'exploitation des données Chiroptères collectées dans le cadre d'implantation d'éoliennes (études d'impact et suivis post-implantatoires)

Anaïs Demagny, Master 1, EBE MNHN (co-encadrement avec Christian Kerbiriou & Julie Marmet, CESCO), Relation entre l'occurrence passée et présente des colonies de chiroptères en fonction de l'évolution de l'occupation du sol. Cas du Grand rhinolophe (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) dans les Pays de la Loire

Mathilde Pau, Master 1, EBE MNHN (co-encadrement avec Christian Kerbiriou & Julie Marmet, CESCO), Impact des variables d'usages des sols sur la probabilité de disparition des haies pour l'optimisation des mesures compensatoires

Career

2019 Post-doctoral researcher – Metadata needed to improve knowledge on understanding, predicting and offseting the impacts of wind turbines on biodiversity, CESCO-MNHN

2018–2019 Post-doctoral researcher – Impacts of artificial light at night on corridor use and flight behaviour of insectivorous bats, CESCO-MNHN & NIOO-KNAW

2014–2017 PhD – Measure and offset wind energy impacts on biodiversity in farming areas. Supervised by Christian Kerbiriou, Isabelle Le Viol and Romain Julliard, CESCO-MNHN

2013–2014 Project engineer – Engineering consultants, Calidris & Latitude UEP

2011–2013 Msc Ecology and Engineering of continental and coastal wetlands, Angers University

2009–2011 Degree Biology of Organisms and Populations, Angers University

2007–2009 BTEC Higher National Diploma Management and Nature Protection, Briacé Le Landreau