Paper short abstract:

Ecotrons, advanced ecological platforms, replicate controlled environments for studying ecosystem dynamics. This communication explores the history of the Île-de-France Ecotron, emphasising its 'model organism' approach and the interplay between "climate" and "ecosystems" in scientific discourse.

Paper long abstract:

In the field of ecology, a new type of experimental platform has been developed at the turn of the 21st century. Ecotrons are replicated climatic chambers whose environmental parameters (CO2, humidity, temperature, etc.) are very finely measured and controlled in order to experiment on the functioning and evolution of ecosystems. In their enclosing of life, Ecotrons thus make it possible to reconstitute artificial ecosystems, through which scientists and engineers aim to unravel the interrelationships between multiple ecological phenomena otherwise impossible to discriminate ‘in the wild’, or studied individually in other experimental contexts. From the standpoint of STS, they testify to the way in which ‘ecosystems’ are being made into a scientific object experimentally. In this presentation, I propose to retrace the history that led to the building of the Île-de-France Ecotron, drawing from extended interviews with major actors of its inception since the 1990s, as well as a physical description of platforms whose gradual material archeology of construction maps onto a conceptual lineage. I focus on the role granted to model organisms as a source of inspiration for ecologists to affirm the legitimacy of their field in a context of defiance from other biophysical sciences. Most importantly in relation to the panel theme, I grant specific attention to the way “climate” is being situated as a scientific object in relation to “ecosystems" and their organisms through the emergence of Ecotrons facilities and associated discursive apparatuses, especially in comparison with previous facilities such as phytotrons.