Projects
Underwater Noise Pollution: Monitoring and Impact
Anthropogenic (man-made) noise is one of the most pervasive symptoms of human activities. It is expected to increase worldwide and ecological impact remains unclear, especially in freshwaters. We use a multi-scale approach with highly controlled experiments in aquariums to study behavioural responses to noise and controlled experiments in mesocosms to test whether these individual responses spread to the community and disturb ecosystem processes. We compare tolerance to noise between invasive and native species. We also use passive acoustic monitoring to quantify nautical activity and understand the phenology of noise pollution (POLLUSON project).
Aquatic Invasive Species: Impact Prediction and Mitigation
Risk assessment is critical to manage invasive species and reliable methods are needed to identify likely future invaders and to predict their ecological impact. Predation by invasive species has been shown to significantly contribute to biodiversity loss in aquatic habitats. We work on the use of the functional response approach (modeling the relationship between ressource use and ressource availability) to assess the trophic impact of invasive species. However, a big gap in terms of complexity remains between lab experiments and the field. To promote extrapolation of lab results to natural populations, we investigate context dependencies, testing whether functional response comparisons are robust to various environmental (biotic and abiotic) factors. Regarding mitigation, we work on the use of acoustic lures to selectively catch and remove invasive species like the round goby.
Host-Parasite Interactions: Eco-Evolutionary Implications
and Adaptive Strategies
To some extent, all species are concerned with parasites either because they practice this way of life or serve as host. Infection typically alters host phenotype and reproductive success can be reduced directly through virulence effect or indirectly for instance when infected hosts become easy prey for predators. We use mathematical modeling and experimentation to study the eco-evolutionary consequences of these direct and indirect effects at the community level.
Under the manipulation hypothesis, the parasite-induced alterations in host phenotype that promote parasite transmission are considered adaptive. They are common among trophically-transmitted parasites: complex life cycle parasites whose transmission relies on a predation event. Typically, infected intermediate hosts display alterations in appearance, behaviour or morphology that promote predation by definitive hosts. But in the trophic network, infected intermediate hosts are exposed to a wide range of predators including species that do not risk infection (non hosts). We explored the existence of non-host predator avoidance mechanisms using acanthocephalans and their amphipod hosts as models.
PhD Students
Théophile Turco
2021 - 2024
Noise pollution in Lake Bourget: Monitoring and Impact
Supervision: Vincent Médoc (80%) & Marilyn Beauchaud
Emilie Rojas
2019 - 2022
From Individual to Communities: Scaling Up the Ecological Impact of Noise Pollution in Freshwaters
Supervision: Vincent Médoc (80%) & Nicolas Mathevon
Loïc Prosnier
2015 - 2018
Eco-Evolutionary Implications of Parasites in Trophic Networks
Supervision: Nicolas Loeuille & Vincent Médoc (50%)
Master-2 & Erasmus Students
Morgane Millot (2023)
Acoustic cues as triggering stimuli for foraging in the Mexican blind cavefish
Matilde Case (2023)
Response of the invasive killer shrimp to anthropogenic noise
Paola Casole (2022)
Response of invasive bivalves to anthropogenic noise
Marine Courtois (2022)
Investigating the relationship between feeding performance and metabolic rate
Lucas Voirin (2022)
Mitigating the spread of round goby through the use of acoustic traps
Théophile Turco (2021)
Soundscape analysis in a freshwater system
Marina Fernandez (2021)
Functional response and metabolic rate of two competitors: the invasive Neogobius melanostomus and the endangered native Zingel asper
Mélanie Gouret (2020)
Noise-mediated trophic cascade along a freshwater food chain
Emilie Rojas (2019)
Functional response of the invasive Pumpkinseed sunfish under motorboat noise
Loïc Prosnier (2015)
Coexistence and stability in a parasitized trophic module
Hélène Albert (2013)
Role of ratio-dependence in functional-response comparison between invasive and native amphipods
Quentin Mori (2012)
Adaptive value of host phenotype manipulation by the acanthocephalan parasite Polymorphus minutus
Romain Durieux (2010)
Aggregative behaviour in Pomphorhynchus laevis-infected amphipods
Fundings and Partnerships
2022: Principal Investigator (PI) the GobyTrap project
Funded by the Université Jean Monnet, the Office Français pour la Biodiversité, the Parc Naturel du Verdon, the Syndicat de Rivière Asse Bléone, the Fédération de pêche du Var, the Gaule Oraisonnaise (11K€)
Development of an acoustic trap to mitigate round goby populations
2021: PI of the ACTNAU project
Funded by the Institut rhônalpin des systèmes complexes (5K€)
Can we use acoustic to quantify nautical activities and discriminate between boat typologies?
2021: Partner of the DEGRADASOUND project (PI: Camille Desjonquères)
Funded by AQUACOSM-Plus Transnational Access (7K€)
Effect of noise pollution on leaf-litter breakdown by benthic invertebrates
2020 - 2025: PI of the POLLUSON project
Funded by the Région Auvergne Rhône Alpes (196.4K€)
Monitoring and impact of underwater noise pollution in Lake Bourget
2020 - 2022 : Partner of project on the competition between round goby and Zingel asper
(PI: Loïc Teulier, further detail)
Funded by the Région Auvergne Rhône Alpes / AMI Espèces prioritaires (16.7K€)
Prediction and mitigation of the effects of round goby on Zingel asper populations
2019 - 2022: PI of the PhD project of Emilie Rojas
Funded by the ministère de l'enseignement supérieur, de la recherche et de l'innovation (90K€)
Ecological impact of underwater noise pollution in freshwaters: from individuals to interactions
2019: PI of the Master-2 project of Mélanie Gouret
Funded by the Fondation pour la Recherche sur la Biodiversité / Appel Masters (3.5K€)
Testing the cascading effect of underwater noise pollution
2019: PI of a project on underwater noise pollution
Funded by the Fondation Université Jean Monnet (11K€)
Purchase of a sound level meter
2018: PI of a project on underwater noise pollution
Funded by the Université Jean Monnet (17.5K€)
Ecological impact of underwater noise pollution in freshwaters
2018: Co-PI of the AQUANOISE project (Co-PI: Paulo Fonseca)
Funded by AQUACOSM Transnational Access (7K€)
Testing the cascading effect of underwater noise pollution
2018: Partner of the PISCES project (PI: Jaimie TA Dick)
Funded by AQUACOSM Transnational Access (7K€)
Predicting invasive species under climate and environmental stress
2017: PI of a project on the ecological impacts of parasites in food webs
Funded by the CNRS-INSU EC2CO program (11K€)
Effect of parasitism on the distribution of energy fluxes in food webs
2015 - 2018: Co-PI of the PhD project of Loïc Prosnier (Co-PI: Nicolas Loeuille)
Funded by the ministère de l'enseignement supérieur, de la recherche et de l'innovation (90K€)
Eco-evolutionary implications of parasites in trophic networks
2015 - 2017: Partner of a project on the interaction between parasites and micropollutants
(PIs: Aurélie Goutte and Marc Chevreuil)
Funded by the Agence de l'Eau Seine Normandie (184.2K€)
Role of acanthocephalan parasites on the metabolization of organic pollutants by chub
2011 - 2017: Partner of the PLANAQUA project (PIs: Jean-François Le Galliard and Gérard Lacroix)
Funded by the ANR EQUIPEX program (3.2M€)
Development of an experimental platform dedicated to research in aquatic ecology