CNRS Researcher

Current Research

I work to reveal how animals perceive and adjust to their environment, and why this matters for populations and ecosystems. My model of choice: large herbivores. Because you can (relatively) easily monitor their behaviour in natura, and they have important ecosystem effects. Some have high societal and economical values, so my research sometimes matter beyond basic science. We (as humans) are making the world's climate different. How this affects organisms in the hottest applied ecological question. I do my share to bring an answer to it

Contact:
CEFE/CNRS
Campus du CNRS
1919, route de Mende
34293 Montpellier 5

tél : +33 (0) 467 61 33 02
fax: +33 (0) 467 61 33 36

simon.chamaille -[at]- cefe.cnrs.fr

PhD candidate – Université de Montpellier

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PHD project:What are the drivers of European otter recolonization in France? Making the best of non-invasive sampling with statistical ecology.

Supervisors: Olivier Gimenez (CEFE-CNRS), Sébastien Devillard (LBBE)

Project outline

The aim of my PhD is to study the recolonization of the European otter (Lutra lutra), which has been taking place in France for over a decade. My research mostly focuses on the spatial dimension of recolonization with three main objectives.

First, I am building distribution models that integrate both protocol-based data from a national monitoring plan and opportunistic data to map the species’ range expansion. I will then investigate how this expansion is favoured or hindered by habitat characteristics and landscape connectivity.

In the same time, I am studying how to include alternative sampling strategies like environment DNA in the monitoring plan for this species, using a case study in several catchments near Montpellier.

Finally, using sequencing data from scats collected in several areas, I am using capture-recapture methods to compare the socio-spatial organization of otters – home range size, sex-ratio, individual turnover – in their core range and in the colonisation front.

Publications

• AMÉLINEAU, Françoise, TARROUX, Arnaud, LACOMBE, Simon, et al. Multi‐colony tracking of two pelagic seabirds with contrasting flight capability illustrates how windscapes shape migratory movements at an ocean‐basin scale. Ecography, 2023, p. e06496.

• LACOMBE, Simon, IMS, Rolf, YOCCOZ, Nigel, et al.Effects of resource availability and interspecific interactions on Arctic and red foxes' winter use of ungulate carrion in the Fennoscandian low-Arctic tundra. In preprint.

Directrice de recherche au CNRS - section 39
Ethnoécologue / géographe

Responsable de l'équipe Interactions bioculturelles
Chercheure associée à l'UMR CREDO et l’UMR SENS

A travers un engagement ethnographique avec les agriculteur·rices, je cherche à décrire et comprendre les relations des humains avec leurs plantes, leur rapport à l’espace ou au lieu, et plus largement le rôle des organisations sociales et des institutions dans l’élaboration et la transformation de ces relations. Mes objectifs sont de comprendre comment (i.e. savoirs, ontologies et pratiques) et pourquoi (i.e. valeurs instrumentales, intrinsèques et surtout relationnelles), les agriculteur·rices gèrent, maintiennent et expérimentent une diversité de variétés et d’espèces. J’ai particulièrement étudié, à l’aide d’analyses de réseaux sociaux, les modalités de circulation des plantes et des connaissances associées. Plus récemment, mon objectif est d’identifier les valeurs de bien-être bioculturel chez les agriculteur·rices d’Océanie et de France (vigneron·nes), ainsi que les processus sociaux, écologiques et politiques générateurs d’un vignoble et de vin de « qualité » en Occitanie.

Mes travaux se déclinent ainsi en cinq thèmes : (1) Savoirs hybrides et classification des plantes ; (2) Valeurs associées à l’agrobiodiversité ; (3) Circulation des semences et des savoirs ; (4) Bien-être des agriculteur·rices ; (5) Transition « qualité » des vins occitans.

Through ethnographic engagement with farmers, I seek to describe and understand the relationships between humans and their plants, their connection to space or place, and more broadly, the role of social organizations and institutions in shaping and transforming these relationships. My goals are to understand how (i.e., knowledge, ontologies, and practices) and why (i.e., instrumental, intrinsic, and especially relational values) farmers manage, maintain, and experiment with a diversity of varieties and species. I have particularly studied, using social network analysis, the ways in which plants and associated knowledge circulate. More recently, my aim is to identify the values of biocultural well-being among farmers in Oceania and France (winegrowers), as well as the social, ecological, and political processes that generate a shift to "quality" in vineyard and wine in France (Occitania region).

My work is organized around five themes: (1) Hybrid knowledge and plant classification; (2) Values associated with agrobiodiversity; (3) Circulation of seeds and knowledge; (4) Farmer well-being; (5) Shifting to quality wine production.

PhD candidate – EPHE & CEN Occitanie

Ma thèse a pour objectif d’étudier l’efficacité des mesures compensatoires d’un grand projet d’infrastructure, la LGV « Contournement Nîmes-Montpellier » (CNM). Les mesures sont majoritairement des mesures agro-écologiques à destination des outardes canepetières, œdicnèmes criards, lézards ocellés, orthoptères, dianes… L’étude permet d’appréhender les facteurs de succès ou d’échecs d’un projet compensatoire dans son ensemble et également d’apporter un retour sur des protocoles d’évaluation des mesures. Cette thèse permet aussi d’améliorer les connaissances sur l’écologie d’espèces méditerranéennes et mener à des préconisations de mesures de conservation.

PHD supervisors: Aurélien Besnard (EPHE, CEFE-CNRS) et Olivier Scher (CEN Occitanie)

Contact information

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Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Soumaya-Belghali-3

 Directrice d'études EPHE-PSL

My main field of research is landscape genetics. 

Keywords : Landscape genetics - Landscape connectivity - Adaptive genetic diversity - Local adaptation - Gene flow 

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/stephaniemanel/home

 Contact: stephanie.manel[a]cefe.cnrs.fr Tel. : +33(0)4 67 61 32 35

Founder of the team "Ecologie et Epidémiologie Evolutive"

EVOLEPID website

PUBLICATIONS

Google Scholar

CURRENT POSITION
(Since 2010)  Director of research at CNRS - CEFE, Montpellier, France

Postdoctoral Researcher

My research interests lie at the interface between population dynamics, quantitative ecology, conservation and life history evolution. I mostly focus on empirical work, on wild animal populations, but I also do some methodological development and a bit of theoretical work.

Directeur de Recherche CNRS

CEFE
Campus du CNRS
1919, route de Mende
34293 Montpellier 5
Tél : +33/0 4 67 61 32 91
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@Th_Lenormand

My principal area of research is Evolutionary genetics and evolutionary ecology. I have a broad expertise in evolutionary biology, genetics and ecology.

I have been working on adaptation and mutation, local adaptation, evolution of genetic systems (sex, recombination, sex chromosomes), evolution of gene duplicates, speciation, genetic conflicts, dispersal, biotic interactions (parasites, microbiota), statistics and fitness measures. I have been working with many empirical systems (vertebrates, insects, crustaceans, fungi, plants, helminths, bacteria), in the lab and in the field.

Currently, my scientific activity rests on three axes: first I do theoretical work (theoretical population genetics, statistics, and bioinformatics development). I am particularly interested currently on the evolution of gene expression (on sex chromosomes or in asexuals). Second, I work on small crustaceans Artemia and Daphnia. I’m particularly interested currently on sex-asex transitions, biotic interactions and adaptation to temperature. Third, I do experimental evolution on E. coli. I'm particularly interested on testing fitness landscape models, adaptation to different doses of antibiotics, and coevolution of species coexisting by frequency dependence.

Research interests by keywords
adaptation, local adaptation, migration, speciation, (sex) chromosomes, clines, sex, parthenogenesis, meiosis, recombination, epistasis, dominance, mutations, resistance, duplications, modifiers, mating systems, sexual conflicts, parasites, microbiota.