摘要
Have you ever seen scientists listening attentively to research talks whilst sitting, standing or lying on the sand? Well-known scientific personalities presenting their results on an improvised black board leaning a gainst afour-wheel drive vehicle, or an acacia tree (we avoided camels which definitively move too much)? If not, you should have taken part to the first of six international meetings on“Rapid and catastrophic environmental changes in the Holocene and humanresponse”. This conference was held in Mauritania from 4 to 18 January 2004, with the first week along the coast of the Nature Park of Banc d'Arguin and the second one on the Adrar plateau. In attendance were 29 participants from 17 countries who were drawn there to examine in the field various phenomena linked to the theme of the meeting,
