Gérard PERGENT is Director of Coastal Ecosystem Team. His research focus is to assess and measure if coastal ecosystems can record global changes and contribute to mitigate their effects, via three complementary approaches: (i) the location and vitality of these habitats, (ii) role in carbon sequestration and (iii) use as indicator of the human activities. A reference state of coralligenous assemblages and rhodoliths beds in Corsica is carried out since two years. He is author of 20 book chapters and near 100 publications in international journals (h-index is 23). He is Scientific responsible of numerous research programs: EU (DG XI / XII; INTERREG, LIFE), international cooperation (Vietnam, Tunisia), UNEP^? (MAP - RAC/SPA^?) and an active member of international scientific networks (World Seagrass Association^?, SeagrassNet, Medcoast Institute and GIS^? Posidonie).