Senior Researcher (Directrice de recherche 1) CNRS

I am interested in understanding how biodiversity is distributed in space and in time, on the effects of human activities on those spatial and temporal patterns, and on the implications for biodiversity conservation.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
orcid.org/0000-0003-4775-0127 

Associate Professor in spatial ecology at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle                                                                                                                                                        

My research focuses on movement ecology: I study the factors influencing animal movements (especially dispersal) and gene flow, with a particular emphasis on landscape composition and structure. I also study how human-triggered landscape modifications like fragmentation affect animal movements; and the consequences on population functioning and structure. My research is hence tightly linked to the management/conservation of populations, and to landscape management (e.g. connectivity restoration, french Trame Verte et Bleue policy).

Senior Lecturer / Directeur d'Etudes de l'EPHE

HDR depuis le 04/09/2013mémoire à télécharger ici

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

Tél. :     +33 (0)4 67 61 32 94
Fax      :+33 (0)4 67 41 21 38

 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

Keywords:Biostatistics; Conservation biology; Amphibians; Birds, Reptiles, Quantitative ecology; Population Dynamics and Demography, Sampling designs.

Maitre de Conférences (EPHE)

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

 tél : 33 (0)4 67 61 33 04
 fax: 33 (0)4 67 41 21 38

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 THEMES DE RECHERCHE

Mes thèmes de recherche concernent la phylogénie, la phylogéographie et l'évolution moléculaire à partir de l'analyse des séquences de gènes mitochondriaux et nucléaires. L’objectif est de répondre, à l’aide de l’outil moléculaire, à des questions de biodiversité et systématique évolutive à l’échelle des vertébrés (mammifères, amphibiens et reptiles). Je m’intéresse aussi à l’échelle temporelle (datations moléculaires) des différents niveaux de diversifications ce qui permet de confronter les inférences moléculaires avec les données morphologiques, paléontologiques et biogéographiques.

Doctorant EPHE-PSL

Etage 1, aile C, bureau 114

ResearchGate

Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Directeur de thèse : Claude Miaud (CEFE, EPHE - PSL)

Projet de thèse: Etude de la mobilité de la mégafaune marine grâce au développement d’un capteur passif à ADN environnemental

Mots clés : ADN environnemental, capteur passif, mégafaune marine, parc éolien en mer.

Cette thèse vise à améliorer les connaissances sur la mobilité de la mégafaune marine rare et parfois discrète (mammifères marins, tortues marines, grands poissons…) grâce au développement d’un capteur passif à ADN environnemental (ADNe). L’ADNe correspond à l’ADN naturellement relâché dans l’environnement par les organismes vivants. L’objectif est de capter cet ADN dans le temps afin de détecter les passages de la mégafaune marine et de mieux comprendre ses déplacements.

Cette nouvelle méthode peut permettre de répondre à certains obstacles méthodologiques des inventaires de biodiversité marine (difficultés et coûts d’accès, saisonnalité de la fréquentation, discrétion des taxons…). 

Enfin, ces capteurs serviront également à l’étude des interactions de cette faune avec les activités anthropiques. La fréquentation des parcs éoliens en mer par la mégafaune marine sera ainsi évaluée.

Les objectifs de cette thèse sont donc :

• De développer et de tester en laboratoire et sur le terrain un capteur passif à ADNe répondant aux contraintes physico-chimiques du milieu marin (salinité, variations de température, courants…)
• Mettre en place ces capteurs dans le milieu naturel pour obtenir une meilleure compréhension des déplacements de la mégafaune marine dans des contextes variés (aire marine protégée, parc éolien en mer…).

---- English ----

Thesis project: Study of marine megafauna mobility thanks to the development of an environmental eDNA passive sampler.

Key words: environmental DNA, passive sampler, marine megafauna, offshore wind farm.

This thesis aims to improve knowledge on rare marine megafauna (marine mammals, sea turtles, large fishes…) thanks to the development of a passive environmental DNA (eDNA) sampler. eDNA is the DNA naturally released in the environment by living organisms. The objective is to capture the DNA over time to detect marine megafauna and to better understand its movements.

This new method can address methodological obstacles of  marine biodiversity inventories (difficulties and costs of access, seasonality, taxa discretion…).

Finally, these sensors will be used to study anthropogenic impacts on megafauna. The frequentation of offshore windfarms by marine megafauna will be evaluated. 

The objectives are:

• To develop and test in the laboratory and in the field an eDNA passive sampler according to the physio-chemical properties of marine environment (salinity, temperature, streams…).
• Implement these samplers in the natural environment to better understand the marine megafauna movements in diverse contexts (marine protected area, offshore windfarm…). 

CEFE/CNRS

Campus du CNRS
1919, route de Mende
34293 Montpellier cedex 5

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

My Postdoctoral project (@ Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil) combines Macroecology and Conservation by focusing on the spatial (and temporal) patterns of abundance of vertebrates, especially of Neotropical amphibians and reptiles.


My other parallel research interests include (but are not limited to):

• understanding which traits make species more susceptible to extinction;
• understanding the drivers of misdirected amplexus of amphibians;
• testing the phylogenetic components of species ecology on their current and past distributions;
• documenting natural history of reptiles and amphibians
  

  ---

Keywords: Abundance - Biogeography - Conservation - Macroecology - Population trends - Vertebrates 

CEFE- RDC, Aile B, bureau 3

33(0)467633265

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

RESEARCH

My research is framed around a comparative exploration of the role of multiple environmental drivers in shaping species distributions and diversity at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Most of my research is structured on the combined use of ecoinformatics methods (statistical analysis of large data sets) and naturalist expertise to understand empirical patterns of community composition in space and time. My main active axes of research include :  

- functional biogeography of seabirds in the Southern ocean. I try to explain and predict the composition of seabird assemblages with spatial models calibrated with environmental factors, trophic interactions and species traits. The project relies on a large-scale bird counts protocol from ships and statistical model of multiple data types. See the C-BIRDS project and thesis.

-  understanding spatial patterns of vertebrates distributions and assemblage compositions. Relying on various opportunistic or protocoled data sources at multiple spatial scales, I investigate the determinants of spatial patterns in vertebrate distributions and assemblage composition through spatial models based on proxies of historical and contemporary processes. See for instance he MALPOLONdatabase.

- Ecoacoustics and community ecology. Several active projects focus on the relationship between bird community composition and the characteristics of soundscapes at multiple spatial and temporal scales, in order to explore the acoustic environment in which species interact and its changes with current land-use and climatic dynamics. See the ACOUCENEproject (2022 - 2025, FRB/CESAB)

COLLABORATIVE WORK 

Most of my interactions with biodiversity stakeholders are focused on data analysis to answer questions relative to the monitoring of human impacts on biodiversity at a regional or landscape scale.

- Ecological data analysis. I am involved in initiatives to foster interactions between scientific and non scientific stakeholders with respect to data-based ecological monitoring and expertise. See the website of the CISSTATnetwork. 

- Analysis of land use influences on common bird assemblages in southern France. I investigate the impact of land use and habitats on the temporal dynamics of local bird assemblages with opportunistic and protocoled data (collaborations with the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux - PACA). 

- Wildlife road casualties. I work with the Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux and the CEREMA to explain and predict spatial patterns in road casualites. We exploit jointly multiple sources of protocoled, non-protocoled and citizen science data to identify mortality hotspots and explanatory factors, with the final aim to inform public policies on the mitigation of traffic impact on vertebrates. See the final report of the COCPITT project (2020-2023).

 - Interacting imprints of climate change and land use on biodiversity. Using multiple taxa and scales, I investigate how species' responses to historical and present land use change interact with their responses to climate change. See the LANDBIO project (2022 - 2023, OFB - french ministry of ecology)

TEACHING

Most of my teaching activity is embedded within the program of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes.

- Data analysis for ecologist : a three-weeks course dedicated to biodiversity stakeholders, framed on the practical use of statistical methods and the R software in ecological monitoring. 

- Environmental law and policy : I drive a one-week course to introduce environmental public policies to scientific ecologists, involving speakers from various authorities and decision levels and practical training to improve students' written and verbal interactions with non-scientific stakeholders.

- Methods for ecological monitoring : a two-weeks course with Aurélien Besnard, mainly dedicated to master students and biodiversity stakeholders, to improve their skills and critical thinking in advanced numerical methods for ecology, including species distribution modeling, population dynamics, sampling design and analysis of diversity indices.

- Environmental changes and ecological science :I contribute to several courses on global changes and environmental monitoring. My teaching is focused on the interactions between science and society through several lenses including epistemology and governance / spatial planning.

Maitre de conférence (EPHE)

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

tél : +33 4 67 61 32 61
fax: +33 4 67 41 21 38

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Mots clés : Conservation, Biogéographie, région méditerranéenne, Reptiles, Ecologie des populations, Phylogéographie.

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

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Soumaya-Belghali-3

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.

Ingénieur d’Etude (EPHE - PSL)

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

 tél :33 (0)4 67 61 32 54

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 

Référente données (UMR5175)

Expertise en biologie moléculaire 

• phylogénie,  phylogéographie, dynamique des populations, épidémiologie
• détection ADN rares
• mise au point de marqueurs moléculaires (gènes et locus microsatellites) 
• outils bio-informatiques