The OBServatory of Water and Erosion in the Antilles (ObsERA)
UMR Geo-Ocean is involved in the OBServatory of Water and Erosion in the Antilles (ObsERA), a French CNRS-INSU observation service dedicated to chemical and physical erosion, and their influence on the environment (soil development, river chemistry, etc.) in the specific context of a tropical volcanic island.
Member of the Réseau de Bassins Versants de Recherche and the Critical Zone Observatory Network, this observatory involves teams from the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, the Observatoire Volcanologique et Sismologique de Guadeloupe, the Université Antilles-Guyana, the Ocean Geosciences Laboratory (UBO) and the Earth Sciences Laboratory of the Claude Bernard University (Lyon I).
The objective of ObsErA is to build a database of water flows (precipitation and river flows), sediment flows and organic matter (especially carbon). In the rivers and on the slopes as well as in the chemical composition of rivers and soils in the particular context of the island of Basse-Terre in Guadeloupe, marked by a tropical climate and active volcanism. This database will enable the scientific community to study and quantify chemical and physical erosion patterns and their impact on the environment (soil composition, river chemistry, carbon flux, etc.).
To date, ObsErA follows the evolution of 3 watersheds located within the National Park of Guadeloupe: Capesterre, Bras-David and Vieux-Habitants.