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. Our approaches are also tested on coral reef fishes. 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.
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 develop acoustic-based approaches to help species management.
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
Tilicia Chapman-Dunn (2025)
Response to noise pollution of the Killer shrimp Dikerogammarus villosus
Sheila DiBattista (2025)
Phenology of acoustic production in the wels catfish Silurus glanis
Sandrine Miranville (2024)
Underwater acoustic symptoms of the MUSILAC music festival
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
2025-2027: OFB, ITTECOP program (PI: Philippe Laurent, BIOTOPE)
Effect of river works on endangered and invasive bivalves
2024-2028: ANR PRC-E BAMAS (PI: Samuel Westrelin, INRAE RECOVER)
Development of an acoustic-based tool to mitigate wels catfish predation on migratory fishes
2024-2026: Fundation of the Université Savoie Mont Blanc (PI: Stéphan Jacquet, INRAE CARRTEL)
Deployment of passive acoustics in the Geneva Lake
2024-2025: Fundation of the Université Jean Monnet (PI: Marilyn Beauchaud, Univ. Jean Monnet)
Development of an underwater loudspeaker dedicated to low frequency fish calls
2023-2024: MUSILAC Festival (PI: Vincent Médoc)
Underwater acoustic symptoms and impacts on bivalves of the MUSILAC music festival
2022: Parc du Verdon & OFB (PI: Vincent Médoc)
Development of an acoustic trap to mitigate round goby (Neogobius melanostomus) populations
2021: Institut Rhônalpin des Systèmes Complexes (PI: Vincent Médoc)
Can we combine aquatic and terrestrial acoustic patterns of boat sounds to discriminate between boat typologies?
2021: AQUACOSM-Plus Transnational Access
Welcoming of Camille Desjoncquère (LECA) to conduct experiments on invertebrate responses to acoustic pollution
2020-2025: Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Pack Ambition Recherche (PI: Vincent Médoc)
Underwater acoustic pollution in Lake Bourget: long-term passive acoustic monitoring and biological respon
2020-2022: Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, AMI espèces prioritaires (PI: Loïc Teulier, Univ. Lyon)
Trophic competition between the Apron du Rhône (Zingel asper) and the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus)
2019: FRB, Appel Masters (PI: Vincent Médoc)
Effect of underwater acoustic pollution of a freshwater trophic cascade
2018 & 2019: Univ. Jean Monnet and Fundation of the Univ. Jean Monnet (PI: Vincent Médoc)
Biological responses to freshwater acoustic pollution
2018: AQUACOSM Transnational Access
Welcoming of two foreign collaborators (Paulo Fonseca, Univ. Lisbon, and Jaimie TA Dick, Queen's Univ. Belfast) to do experiments of acoustic pollution and invasives species in the PLANAQUA experimental platform
2017: CNRS INSU EC2CO (PI: Vincent Médoc)
Effect of parasite infection of host profitability
2015-2017: Agence de l’Eau Seine Normandie (PI: Aurélie Goutte, EPHE)
Role of acanthocephalan parasites in the metabolization of organic pollutants by chub
2011-2017: ANR EQUIPEX (PI: Jean-François Le Galliard)
Development of an aquatic platform (PLANAQUA) dedicated to research in aquatic ecology
