Bruno Senterre

• PhD
• Lecturer at University of Seychelles

Pulau Babi Tengah is a small granitic island, ca. 106 ha, lying off the south-east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Except for plantation of coconut trees in the early 1900s and deforestation by refugees during the Vietnamese civil war, 1975-1981, the island has not been affected by human development and very few species have been introduced. Recently...

The Seychelles vegetation has been relatively poorly studied and vegetation maps have been designed mostly with a focus on forestry and/or land use. The current study aims at improving knowledge on the types of terrestrial ecosystems present in Seychelles, their geographical distribution and their state of conservation, as a basis for the study of...

Over the last several years, the IUCN Red List approach for assessing the risk of extinction faced by species has been adapted into a Red List of Ecosystems methodology. This endeavor faces several important challenges, including how to define the types of ecosystems to which the Red List criteria are applied, and how to manage information on the g...

Invasive species training guide I EXECUTIVE SUMMARY After just a few decades of research in invasion ecology, the concept of "Invasive Alien Species" (IAS) remains deeply rooted in our minds. Yet, that concept is far too simplistic and very much misleading. Not all 'alien' (introduced) species can or will become invasive given enough time; an invas...

In this study, we evaluate the flora and vegetation of Assomption Island based on a compilation of literature and specimens, complemented by a field trip done from the 5th to the 12th of December 2023, at the beginning of the wet season. Twenty different types of ecosystems are distinguished, described and illustrated. The ecosystem map provides a...

Although the Seychelles have one of the highest coverage of protected areas (PAs) in the world (48%), the main current pressure on biodiversity is urban development on the two most populated islands, namely Mahé (89% of the population) and Praslin (7.7%), which are also among the most species-rich islands of Seychelles. Yet the currently protected...

This dataset compiles data gathered on ecosystem-types and their distribution based on a series of studies led by the author, in Seychelles and West and Central Africa. The aims are: 1. To share in an explicit and transparent way data on proposed taxonomies of ecosystems, including management of explicit synonymies. 2. To develop ecosystem red li...

This report is a complement (Annex) to the following main report: http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.13433.34401 It makes use of a satellite image classification (Sentinel2) done by others and edits it using visual interpretation of very high resolution imagery (Google Earth, BING). The results include a map at 2m resolution classifying all 'savanna...

We propose a floristic description of the montane savannas of the Nimba, an interpretation in terms of ecosystem typology, and a discussion on the spatial distribution and geomorphology, based on a discussion of the literature and vegetation plots surveyed during a field visit. The dynamics of the different types of savannas is then discussed and a...

This report provides the first complete map of vegetation and ecosystem-types for the Seychelles Inner Islands. It is based on Sentinel-2 image analysis, at a resolution of 10m. The produced datasets are freely available on Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7644784). Some of the criteria used for Red Listing of Ecosystems (RLE) are evaluated a...

This report review the main threats from invasive creepers in Seychelles and proposed ways to prioritize different types of actions depending on the type of threat. We argue that invasion ecology aspects need to be integrated with (phyto)sanitary aspects, and that both approaches have their pros and cons. We propose some ideas on how to do such int...

This report is one of the deliverable (5d) described in the TOR. It is based on the other main deliverables, namely the stakeholders' consultation (5c), the evaluation of the biological factors (5a), and the evaluation of the legal factors and eventual gaps (5b). Ultimately, the various recommendations and priorities suggested here will need to be...

The report discussed in the prompt focuses on reviewing policies and societal issues that impact national creeper management. It aims to provide recommendations for enhancing policy frameworks, mobilizing human resources, securing sustainable financing for implementing a creeper management program, and developing a costed framework plan for creeper...

The report emphasizes the significance of involving all stakeholders in the development and implementation of the policy framework. This inclusive approach ensures that various perspectives are considered, leading to more comprehensive and effective policies. By engaging government agencies, non-governmental organizations, private sector entities,...

The Seychelles granitic islands have been small, mid-oceanic, equatorial, mountainous and moist islands for at least 50 million years, with an uninterrupted vegetation cover since their separation from Gondwana. Therefore, unlike hotspot oceanic islands that drastically vary in environmental heterogeneity according to their age, the Seychelles can...

This report complements the other report that present the habitats and build-out analysis of the Fond Boffay-Nouvelle Découverte watershed area on Praslin island. It compiles the list of elements to be considered for that watershed management.

In this report, we evaluate the watershed areas of Praslin, and the other main islands of the Seychelles, as context to the Fond Boffay-Nouvelle Découverte watershed. We develop some very basic watershed value modeling, and include information gathered on water catchment sites where the Public Utility Corporation (PUC) collects water. This report i...

The aim of this report consists in identifying ecosystems of special conservation value in order to review the current Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) in the Lofa-Gola-Mano and Nimba complexes (Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast), using up-to-date international standards (Bland et al. 2015; KBA Standards and Appeals Committee 2019; Rodriguez...

The genus Craterispermum (Craterispermeae, Rubiaceae) is distributed in the tropical rain forests of Africa and Madagascar, with one morphologically variable species (Craterispermum microdon) hitherto recognized in the Seychelles Archipelago. We conducted a Bayesian analysis of the combined ETS and ITS sequence data to: 1) test the monophyly of the...

Modern tools to do Project Management & Planning based on Asana, Instagantt, Gleeo Time Tracking, including Smartphone-based project management

The granitic islands of the Seychelles harbor about 268 native angiosperm species, with 28% being endemics there. The Seychelles biota contains a mix of ancient taxa with Gondwanan origins and young taxa that arrived there via dispersals. We investigate the phylogenetic position of an enigmatic, critically endangered, Seychellean endemic of the cof...

Until the end of the 19th century, biodiversity data collection was focusing on species taxonomy, collecting specimens with few field notes often limited to the country of origin. As floras became more refined, biologists started to dedicate more effort to the data related to their species observations, adding notes on the exact locality and finall...

The present study has been done from December 2018 to June 2019. Unlike previous exploration studies within the study area (which focussed on high biodiversity conservation value areas), we focussed this time more on areas which would potentially be better candidates for restorations actions. Biodiversity surveys were done using up-to-date method b...

A biodiversity database system has been developed as a cross-platform standalone application (Windows, Mac, Linux) which is designed to allow the integration of all data related to biodiversity and being collected by Island Conservation Society, and potentially other organizations in Seychelles. This application is named the “Bio Holistic Database”...

We created a project "Seychelles Bio Gallery" in iNaturalist to allow people of Seychelles to contribute observations of organisms from nature in a way that stimulate interaction and communication between scientists and civil society, and in a way that valuable observation made on rare species (obscured coordinates) can be downloaded by the local s...

UniSey lecture for second year students

We investigated the monophyly of Costularia (25 species), a genus of tribe Schoeneae (Cyperaceae) that illustrates a remarkable distribution pattern from southeastern Africa, over Madagascar, the Mascarenes and Seychelles, to Malesia and New Caledonia. A further species, Tetraria borneensis, has been suggested to belong to Costularia. Relationships...

Based on a review of recent literature on CMP best practice (Alexander 2013) and extensive discussions with stakeholders and especially ICS, we suggest that the key aspects for a CMP to be adaptive (working document) and to better assess efficiency and implementation are: • The definition of a clear and simple conceptual framework, or in other word...

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS) presents validated and verified checklists (inventories) of introduced (alien) and invasive alien species at the country level. Phase 1 of the project has focused on developing validated and verified checklists (inventories) of countries that are Party to the Convention on Biological Di...

Recent studies on both genera Abrodictyum and Trichomanes (Hymenophyllaceae) in western Indian Ocean (Madagascar and neighbouring islands) resolved many taxonomic problems and led to the identification of new species. We propose here to finalize the taxonomic revision of both genera for the region, by completing and combining an expanded rbcL molec...

Rumohra is a fern genus comprising seven species, three in South America, three in Madagascar and one (R. adiantiformis) which is widely distributed across the Southern Hemisphere. Our goals were to assess species delimitation based on molecular data and to infer the biogeographical history that led to such contrasting distributions among species....

In this study, we describe the main types of ecosystems in south-east Kouilou using remotely sensed staellite image classification combined with landform and ecosystem interpretations. The species of conservation value and their distribution is also described.

The fern flora of the Seychelles archipelago remains relatively poorly known. Recent projects involving the development of the Seychelles National Herbarium and study of key biodiversity areas have resulted in extensive explorations of the ferns on the granitic islands. Historical literature, newly collected specimens and older collections have bee...

To assess the conservation value and the rehabilitation potential of the forests in the Mare aux Cochons water catchment, we compiled all historical records from specimens and literature (using the 'KBA database') and we made new field observations based on plot-less explorations focussing on species of special conservation value (KBA species) and...

Databasing biodiversity is an issue in all countries and organisations and the problems encountered are often the same. Biodiversity is complex (made of many interconnected things) and therefore it is generally dissected into small specialized datasets, e.g. on turtles, on beaches, on climatic data, on a given geographic area, etc. Island Conservat...

Introducing resources and concepts for learning about plant identification through 4 levels of difficulty.

Introduction. As part of the project ‘Ecosystem-based adaptation to climate change in Seychelles (EbA project)’, the Government of Seychelles has requested the current consultancy. The EbA project seeks to reduce the vulnerability of the Seychelles to climate change, focusing on two key issues: water scarcity and flooding. Anse Royale and North-Eas...

Knowledge of the monocot flora of the Seychelles remains relatively weak and new taxonomic studies, including both herbarium specimens and field observations, are needed. Extensive new explorations in the key biodiversity areas of the Seychelles granitic islands resulted in the discovery of an unknown species of Costularia. After careful examinatio...

The filmy fern Abrodictyum cupressoides, initially reported from Madagascar and the Seychelles (locus classicus), is often confused in the field and in collections with similar local species, especially the pantropical A. rigidum. A comparative morphological investigation of Malagasy and Seychellois specimens finds strong differences between A. cup...

A slideshow illustrating the corresponding report.

Hummingbird Resources PLC is in the exploration phase for a gold mining project in the Dugbe and Joe village exploration licence areas in south-eastern Liberia. In order to assess the presence and distribution of “Critical Habitats” (critical biodiversity areas), several teams of specialists conducted surveys in the mining concession to document th...

The fern flora of the Seychelles archipelago remains relatively poorly known. Current projects involving the development of the Seychelles National Herbarium and study of key biodiversity areas have resulted in extensive new explorations on the granitic islands. Historical literature, newly collected specimens and older collections have been revise...

The last comprehensive account on the Seychelles orchids dates from 1989, by Robertson, and was mostly based on literature synthesis. This document recorded 33 taxa: 21 natives and 12 introduced. The Seychelles orchids remain poorly studied and poorly collected. There is a need for more taxonomic studies, and more collections associated with cultiv...

The status of the tree Pisonia sechellarum F. Friedmann (Nyctaginaceae) endemic to the western Indian Ocean is reviewed. Five populations have been located: four in the Seychelles Islands (three on Silhouette Island and one on Mahe) and one on Mayotte. The species is associated with montane forest and ravine habitats and the genetic identity of dif...

The diversity of species belonging to the filmy fern genus Crepidomanes (Hymenophyllaceae) in the Mascarene archipelago was studied, based on morphological investigations and focusing especially on the most dwarf species that are easily confused in the field and in herbarium collections. Morphological potential clusters and discriminations were the...

Background The refuge hypothesis is often invoked for explaining the spatial structure of species diversity (SSDS) in central African rainforests. However, the present-day SSDS could also result from environmental filtering and stochastic processes. Thus, species distributional data are not sufficient for inferring the role of biogeographical facto...

The Seychelles have been affected by numerous forest fires since the late 18th century, and maybe occasionally before that. The most impacted islands are by far Praslin and Curieuse. The first noticeable trials to rehabilitate burnt areas date back from the early 20th century, with the introduction of e.g. Prinn-de-frans (Chrysobalanus icaco). A gr...

Much work on the impact of past climatic fluctuations on the structure, distribution and genesis of biodiversity in Central Africa has focused on contrasts between rainforest and savannah biomes, and to a lesser extent on montane vs. lowland rainforests. Each of these biomes is characterized by different dominant plant taxa: grasses in savannahs, d...

Aim Our aim was to evaluate the extent to which we can predict and map tree alpha diversity across broad spatial scales either by using climate and remote sensing data or by exploiting spatial autocorrelation patterns. Location Tropical rain forest, West Africa and Atlantic Central Africa. Methods Alpha diversity estimates were compiled for trees w...

Background and aims Recent collecting in Equatorial Guinea, a country with incompletely documented biodiversity, resulted in an ample collection of the plant family Acanthaceae. Identifications resulted in the discovery of novelties, presented here. Methods Specimens from BRLU, BR, BM, P and K were investigated. Critical point-dried pollen was obse...

Background and aims - Inselbergs are rock outcrops standing out from the surrounding plains. In the rainforest landscape they can be considered as forming “xeric islands“. Plants on inselbergs endure very harsh edaphic and microclimatic conditions. The inselberg - rainforest ecotone is characterized by the spatial transition from monocotyledonous m...

The granitic Seychelles are the only mid-oceanic islands of continental origin. Botanists have long focused on taxonomy, and plant communities were described in a qualitative way, based on simple observation. Therefore the altitudinal belts, their floristic characteristics and distribution are still poorly understood and conservation efforts focus...

The granitic Seychelles are the only mid-oceanic islands of continental origin. Botanists have long focused on taxonomy, and plant communities were described in a qualitative way, based on simple observation. Therefore the altitudinal belts, their floristic characteristics and distribution are still poorly understood and conservation efforts focus...