PhD STUDENT
Behavioural Ecology

My PhD project, which began in December 2024, is in the field of behavioral ecology. More specifically, I am studying the impact of personality on the reproductive behavior of Corsican blue tits Cyanistes caeruleus ogliastrae in the face of biotic (predation, parasitism) and abiotic (climate change) constraints.

Aside from my thesis, my main research topics of interest include reproductive behaviour, in particular sexual selection, host-parasite interactions, and the links between anthropogenic factors and behaviour. I have a preference for birds as a study model, but have also worked on fish and mammals.

I am also a member of the Comité pour l'Equité.

Contact :

CEFE - CNRS
1919, route de Mende
34293 Montpellier Cedex 5

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Bluesky : @radicalmoineau.bsky.social

ORCID : 0009-0006-2079-7362

Supervisors :

• Anne Charmantier (Researcher, CEFE - CNRS)
• Claire Doutrelant (Researcher, CEFE - CNRS)
• Denis Réale (Researcher, UQAM)

PhD title: Links between personality and reproductive strategy in a context of biotic (predation, parasitism) and abiotic (climate) environmental variability

In a context of rapid global warming and increasingly frequent extreme weather events, numerous studies have shown the impact of these changes on the life-history traits of wild organisms, in particular the advancement of reproduction phenology for plants and animals. In the case of birds, we know that many populations respond to global warming by adjusting individual egg-laying dates. However, much less is known about the functional reasons for individual differences in this plasticity, and very little about the implications of inter-individual behavioural (personalities) or demographic (e.g.  longevity) differences in the phenotypic plasticity of reproductive decisions.

In this thesis:

• We will exploit a database resulting from long-term monitoring of blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) initiated in 1976 and now providing 47 years of data on bird reproduction, and 13 years of behavioural data (docility, exploration score) on breeding birds in four populations occupying white oak and holm oak forests.
• We will test whether the differences in bird personalities  (proactive/reactive, i.e. highly or less aggressive and fast or meticulous explorers) between populations and individuals, are linked to the plasticity of life-history traits in the face of global warming. In particular, we predict that because of their different reactivity to environmental signals, proactive individuals will be less plastic than reactive individuals in their reproductive decisions.
• We will also study the effects of environmental pressures (climate, predation, parasitism) and personality on the pairing of individuals approximated by homogamy and the propensity to divorce. In particular, we will use repeated observation data collected over several decades to test the hypothesis that proactive individuals are more likely to change partners over the breeding seasons, particularly following failure events such as the predation of their brood or an extreme
  climatic event.

The overall aim of this project is to integrate animal personalities in the study of phenotypic plasticity in the face of environmental constraints, in the context of a study of wild birds initiated almost half a century ago.

 Education:

• 2016 - 2018   CPGE BCPST
                      Lycée Joffre, Montpellier
• 2018 - 2023   Interface programme in Biology, Health, and Physiopathology
                      Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay
  
• 2019 - 2023   Veterinary studies (double degree with ENS)
                      Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort
  
• 2022 - 2023   M2 BEE specialised in Evolutionary Ecology
                      Université Paris-Saclay - Sorbonne Universités
  
• 2023 - 2024   Wildlife rehabilitator                                                                                                        Centre de Sauvegarde de la Faune Sauvage à Chambéry

Internships :

• 2019  Center for Biological Diversity - St-Andrews, UK
  
  • Supervised by Helen Spence-Jones and Mike Webster
• 2020  CEBC - Chizé, France
  
  • Supervised by Sydney Hope and Frédéric Angelier
• 2022  Cornell University (Leadership Program) - Ithaca, NY, USA
  
  • Supervised by Michael Sheehan
• 2023  Helsinki Institute of Life Sciences - Helsinki, Finland
  
  • Supervised by Rose Thorogood

Publications :

Vogt, C. C.; Zipple, M. N.; Sprockett, D. D.; Miller, C. H.; Hardy, S. X.; Arthur, M. K.; Greenstein, A. M.; Colvin, M. S.; Michel, L. M.; Moeller, A. H.; Sheehan, M. J. Female Behavior Drives the Formation of Distinct Social Structures in C57BL/6J versus Wild-Derived Outbred Mice in Field Enclosures. BMC Biol. 2024, 22 (1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-024-01809-0.

Conferences :

• 2023                        Animal Behaviour Live: Annual Online Conference - Presentation   
• 2022                        National Veterinary Scholars Symposium (Minneapolis) - Poster              
• 2022                        Forum de la Formation Vétérinaire (Maisons-Alfort) - Conférence "Vétérinaire dans la Recherche"
• 2021                        Forum de la Formation Vétérinaire (Maisons-Alfort) - Conférence "Vétérinaire dans la Recherche"
• 2020                        Soirée recherche de l'ENVA - Presentation