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 :
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
- 2020 CEBC - Chizé, France
- 2022 Cornell University (Leadership Program) - Ithaca, NY, USA
- 2023 Helsinki Institute of Life Sciences - Helsinki, Finland
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 :
HAL CEFE