Project Details

We are thrilled to present four innovative projects for your consideration. During the registration process, kindly indicate your first and second preferences among these projects.

Once you have chosen your preferred project during the registration, you will be actively engaged in that specific project throughout the week of the summer school. However, you will not miss out on the other exciting projects. You will have the opportunity to follow lectures and updates from each group, maximising your learning experience and gaining insights into diverse aspects of the scientific work undertaken by your peers.

Here below a brief description of each project.

Who is involved : Prof. Lionel Denis, Dr. François Gevaert, Dr. Fabienne Goulard, G. Duong

Brief description of the topic

Microphytobenthos (MPB) is a key primary producer in soft coastal sediments, where it supports a large part of primary production. In many coastal estuaries and embayments, research studies have demonstrated a strong influence of microphytobenthic organisms throughout the trophic networks, either being directly consumed in the surficial biofilm by surface deposit feeders, or being resuspended in the water column and thereby serving as food for filter feeders.

MPB is generally located in the surface biofilm of soft muddy sediments, where it can migrate upwards to benefit from sunlight during emersion, but also downwards to avoid resuspension at high tide. However, recent studies have shown that the behavior of MPB also depends on several parameters, that are hardly hierarchized in estuarine systems.

 The aim of this project is to estimate the migratory behavior and production budgets of MPB originating from intertidal estuarine mudflats when subjected to various light constrains in laboratory-controlled experiments. The behavior of microphytobenthos in terms of protective strategy when facing strong light radiations will also be described. This project will involve field sampling, as well as the specific use of small-scale measurements, such as oxygen microprofiling or PAM fluorometer, and larger scale measurements by using clear/dark benthic chambers.

Who is involved : Prof. Sebastien Lefebvre

Brief description of the topic

The use of statistics in ecology is essential for extracting meaningful information from data, making informed decisions, and advancing our understanding of complex ecological systems. It enhances the rigor and reliability of ecological research and contributes to effective conservation and management strategies. Ecological data sets often contain complex patterns and relationships. Statistics help ecologists identify and understand these patterns, such as spatial distributions, temporal trends, and population dynamics. They also enable ecologists to make inferences about entire populations based on samples of data. This is particularly important in ecology where it may be impractical to collect data on every individual or every location within a study area. Ecological systems are complex, and statistical models help ecologists represent and understand these systems. Models can be used to simulate ecological processes, predict future trends, and assess the impact of environmental changes.

Finally, statistics play a key role in monitoring ecosystems over time. By analysing trends and changes in ecological data, researchers and managers can adapt their strategies to address emerging issues or unexpected shifts in the ecosystem.

Numerous methods and packages exist to support statistics. However, this highlights the importance of a deeper understanding of when and how to use them effectively. The aim of this project is to introduce the main methods in linear, non-linear regressions and multi-variate analyses and to present their opportunities and caveats for ecological datasets. Applicants are invited to specify their level in statistics, and to provide any datasets they may want to analyse with our help. Alternatively, many examples would be provided by the team. The idea is to tailor the project to the participants' needs and capabilities as much as possible.

Who is involved : Prof. Nicolas Spilmont, Dr. Laurent Seuront, Dr. Gerardo Zardi, Dr. Katy Nicastro

Brief description of the topic

Intertidal rocky shores are dynamic ecosystems situated at the intersection of land and sea, characterised by the ebb and flow of tides. These habitats harbor a rich diversity of marine life. Because of the huge daily environmental fluctuations, intertidal animals experience a large variability in abiotic factors and live close to their physiological tolerance limit.

Heat waves and plastic pollution emerge as pressing, additional stressors in the delicate balance of rocky intertidal ecosystems. Elevated temperatures associated with heat waves have been challenging the resilience of intertidal organisms, impacting their reproduction, and overall survival. Simultaneously, plastic pollution has been shown to pose a direct threat of intertidal animals’ physiological functioning.

The impact that environmental changes have on an organism is often mediated by behavioral responses, particularly at the early stage of environmental change before evolutionary changes have occurred at the species level. Focusing research efforts on the behavioral reactions to global change can yield crucial insights into how environmental disruptions impact intertidal species and the fundamental mechanisms involved.

The aim of the project is to investigate intertidal animal behavior in the context of heat stress and plastic pollution and shed the light on the intricate interplay between natural and anthropogenic stressors. We will do so using common garden laboratory set-ups. By assessing changes in intertidal animals’ behaviour, we will measure the response to these stressors alone and combined and try to unravel the complexity of intertidal systems in a changing planet.

Who is involved : Dr. Vincent Bouchet, Dr. Julien Richirt, Manon Doutrelant

Brief description of the topic

Bioturbation, which is the biological transport of particles and associated dis-solved elements, constitutes a major process driving the benthic ecosystem functioning of intertidal soft-sediment, contributing to carbon and nutrient cycling and organic matter mineralization. Conversely to macrofaunal taxa, the contribution of meiofauna to fluxes (i.e. sediment particles and dissolved elements) at the sediment–water interface has been far less studied.

Benthic foraminifera is one of the most abundant group within meiobenthic communities. Foraminiferal species display distinct biological activities (e.g. crawling, burrowing, construction and maintenance of burrows, cyst building) suggesting a significant contribution to sediment reworking processes. Horizontal and vertical movements of benthic foraminifera may (i) have major impacts on the stability and erodibility of the surficial sediment layer, (ii) produce a substantial downward transport of particles and (iii) enhance fluxes of dissolved oxygen and solutes at the sediment–water interface.

The aim of this project is to estimate how motion-behavior of benthic foraminifera is involved in sediment-mixing. This will serve to further quantify their role in particulate fluxes at the sediment-water interface. We will do so using well established experimental set-ups and considering different key foraminiferal species from intertidal mudflats. By exploring the fairly untapped question of meiofaunal bioturbation, we will shed the light on these minute size organisms, likely involved in the benthic ecosystem functioning.