Research scope

I am a biologist mainly interested in human pressures on biodiversity (communities, functional traits, behaviour) and the functioning of animal communities (population trends, species interactions, responses to the environment, using of landscape). 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. As a consequence, anthropogenic pressures on which my research are rooted often involve to work in relation with stakeholders, in order to understand the social levers to transfer my research into the real life, seeking the best trade-offs to prevent new knowledge from ever being useful in halting the decline of biodiversity.

Current projects

 Effects of farming landscape characteristics on biodiversity

I investigate effects of agricultural practices linked to inputs and tillage on bats and songbirds. In particular, I work on small changes realist for farmers which can generate strong ecological gains for biodiversity, by studying farming systems that do not result in yield losses. I also work on landscape ecology to assess effectivness of changes in agricultural systems (practices, agroecological infrastructures and their management...) according to landscape composition with the aim to optimize spatialization of conservation measures.

Linked with these questions, I also work on the mitigation hierarchy (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 -often on agricultural lands- to make them compensable and (ii) to find equivalent alternatives to any offset measure in terms of biodiversity gains, in order to facilitate their implementation and to contextualize offsetting, and hence avoid blocking situations.

• Blary C., Kerbiriou C., Le Viol I., Barré K. 2021. Assessing the importance of field margins for bat species and communities in intensive agricultural landscapes. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 319:107494.
• Millon L.*, Barré K.*, Julliard R., Compere P. & Kerbiriou C. 2021. Calculation of biodiversity level between different land-uses to improve conservation outcomes of biodiversity offsetting. Land Use Policy, 101: 105161. * Equal contribution
• 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, 8:1496-1506.

 Understanding and mitigating impacts of wind energy on biodiversity

I am specifically investigating a type of impact that has so far been understudied in scientific litterature and ignored by assessment impact studies and environmental authorities, the habitat loss by revulsion on fauna. Since the implementation of offset measures to counteract impacts (either habitat losses or collision between avian species and blades) is currently very unsatisfactory from a biodiversity point of view, I also work on methods for comparing biodiversity level between land-use/habitats to allow for a better offsetting of biodiversity losses. I also work at national scale on metadata in current French environmental assessment/monitoring studies needed to standardize the data transmitted by the consulting offices, in order to collect a large amount of acoustic and mortality data and scientifically use it. I expect such data will soon allow to answer a wide range of questions, from the understanding of environmental/methodological drivers of bat activity and mortality in relation to wind turbines to the study of consequences on population dynamics.

• Barré K., Froidevaux J., Leroux C., Mariton L., Fritze M., Kerbiriou C., Le Viol I., Bas Y., Roemer C. 2022. Over a decade of failure to implement UNEP/EUROBATS guidelines in wind energy planning: A call for action. Conservation Science and Practice, e12805.
• Leroux C., Kerbiriou C., Le Viol I., Valet N., Barré K. 2022. Distance to hedgerows drives local repulsion and attraction of wind turbines on bats: implications for spatial siting. Journal of Applied Ecology, 59:2142-2153.
• Millon L.*, Barré K.*, Julliard R., Compere P. & Kerbiriou C. 2021. Calculation of biodiversity level between different land-uses to improve conservation outcomes of biodiversity offsetting. Land Use Policy, 101: 105161. * Equal contribution
• 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.
• 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.

 Effects of artificial light at night on biodiversity

For this theme my work focuses mainly on the spatial variation of articifial light effects on bats as a function of the landscape context, as well as on changes in bat behaviour in relation with light parameters (orientation, intensity, spectra composition...). I am specifically studying light-induced changes in bat flight behaviour, their reactions when passing light halo, in term of flight trajectory, flight speed, acoustic behaviour and competition. My research take place in habitats of high importance such as wooded edges or rivers, with the aim to highligh changes in the use of ecological corridors for moving and foraging, and ultimately lighting impacts on functional connectivity of landscapes. I am also part of interdisciplinary projects which aim to indentify socio-political levers to account for actual state of knowledges about ecological impacts in land-use planning.

• Barré K., Vernet A., Azam C., Le Viol I., Dumont A., Deana T., Vincent S., Challéat S., Kerbiriou C. 2022. Landscape composition drives the impacts of artificial light at night on insectivorous bats. Environmental pollution, 292:118394.
• Barré K., Kerbiriou C., Ing R., Bas Y., Azam C., Le Viol I., Spoelstra K., 2021. Bats seek refuge in cluttered environment when exposed to white and red lights at night. Movement Ecology, 9.
• Challéat S.*, Barré K.*, Laforge A., Lapostolle D., Franchomme M., Sirami C., Le Viol I., Milian J., Kerbiriou C. 2020. Grasping darkness: the dark ecological network as a social-ecological framework to limit the impacts of light pollution on biodiversity. Ecology and Society, 26: 1. * Equal contribution
• Barré K., Spoelstra K., Bas Y., Challéat S., Kiri Ing R., Azam C., Zissis G., Lapostolle D., Kerbiriou K. & Le Viol I. 2020. Artificial light may change flight patterns of bats near bridges along urban waterways. Animal Conservation, 24:259-267.
• Kerbiriou C., Barré K., Mariton L., Pauwels J., Zissis G., Robert A., Le Viol I. 2020. Switching LPS to LED Streetlight May Dramatically Reduce Activity and Foraging of Bats. Diversity, 12.

 Monitoring of bat populations and methodological optimizations

Linked with all previous themes above, I think a lot about the methods we use to track bats, particularly the acoustic biases that can affect our results and the most optimal experimental designs to answer a specific question. In particular, I am carrying out methodological developments to take into account the bias due to automated identification errors produced by identification algorithms - which have become a key tool in this new period of big data. I am also working on factors affecting bat population trends as well as how can we optimize long-term monitoring of winter and summer roosts/colonies.

• Dubos N., Kerbiriou C., Julien J-F., Barbaro L., Barré K., Claireau F., Froidevaux J., Le Viol I., Lorillère R., Roemer C., Verfaillie F. & Bas Y. 2020. Calculation of biodiversity level between different land-uses to improve conservation outcomes of biodiversity offsetting. Biodiversity and Conservation, 30: 343-363
• 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, 10: 1171-1188.

Key words: Acoustic monitoring – Applied ecology – Artificial light at night – Bats – Behavioural ecology – Birds – Conservation agriculture – Conservation biology - Ecological offsetting – Farming practices – Landscape ecology – Statistical modelling – Wind energy