Restoring a River Without Water: tirer des leçons du Colorado

Le chercheur Eduardo González-Sargas sera de passage à l’Université Laval le 24 novembre 2026, le temps de partager des leçons tirées des efforts de restauration effectués le long de la rivière Colorado, aux États-Unis. Lors de la conférence, il sera notamment question du contrôle des espèces envahissantes et de la création d’habitats dans un contexte de pénurie d’eau et de contraintes sociopolitiques. 

Informations générales

📅 Mardi 24 novembre 2026 à 10h00

📍 Local 1240 du pavillon Envirotron, Université Laval, 2480 boul. Hochelaga, Québec, G1V 5C3

✅ Activité gratuite hybride

🎥 En ligne: en cliquant ici

👥 En personne: places limitées

Eduardo González-Sargas a plus de 20 ans d’expérience en recherche et publié plus de 70 articles scientifiques portant sur l’écologie des cours d’eau et la restauration écologique. Découvrez ses publications en cliquant ici.

Résumé *

The Colorado River is one of the most iconic rivers of North America and a compelling example of a social-ecological system. More than one thousand kilometers of canyons attract tourism from around the world, while the river provides water to over 40 million people and supports a significant portion of the agricultural and meat industries in the United States. Ecologically, it traverses the coniferous forests of the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado Plateau, and the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, sustaining regionally important riparian biodiversity along the way. Unfortunately, these riparian systems have been severely degraded by overallocation of water rights, intensive hydrological regulation, plant invasions, and an unprecedented megadrought that is expected to exacerbate both social and ecological conflicts. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the Colorado River as a social-ecological system and discuss how efforts to restore riparian ecosystems have been carried out along its course. I will pay special attention to the control of invasive plants and the creation of riparian habitat through federal and binational (US–Mexico) programs. I will reflect on the gap between the ecological complexity we aim to recover and the sociopolitical context that constrains what restoration can realistically achieve.

* La conférence sera en anglais

Une conférence co-organisée par