Welcome to the CEFE

Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology

Mission: perform independent, fundamental scientific research on the dynamics of biodiversity, planetary environmental change, and sustainable development. We work at a great variety of field sites around the world, but developed particular expertise in Mediterranean and tropical ecosystems. One of our main objectives is to develop scenarios on the evolution of biological systems, as well as strategies for their conservation and their restoration.

Our contribution to international excellence in Ecology is structured along four research axes:

1)      Human impacts, the anthroposphere, conservation biology

2)      The evolutionary ecology of life history traits in a rapidly changing world

3)      The role of biodiversity in ecosystem functioning

4)      Global change and ecosystem functioning

Our research unit was founded in 1961 as the ‘Centre d’Etudes Phytosociologiques et Ecologiques’ (CEPE). From 1988, it has been known as the ‘Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive’ (CEFE).

The CEFE is on 1919 route de Mende, F-34293 Montpellier, France.

Since 2003 it operates as a mixed research unit (UMR5175) composed of staff from the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the universities Montpellier I, Montpellier II, Montpellier III and Nîmes, Montpellier SupAgro International Center for Higher Education in Agricultural Sciences, CIRAD, Ecole Pratiques des Hautes Etudes (EPHE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), and the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA).

The CEFE is directed since 01/01/2011 by Philippe Jarne

Internally, the CEFE is organised in four research departments, supported by a series of joint technical services.