Dominique LAMY

My research activities aim at understanding the role and the functional diversity of the coastal and open-ocean planktonic prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea). These microorganisms are key players in organic matter fluxes within the aquatic trophic networks. I thus use different methods to assess their biomass, their organic matter production and degradation activities, coupled to measurements of their genetic and functional community structure.

I carried out my PhD thesis at the Maison de la Recherche en Environnements Naturels (MREN) in Wimereux (France) on the bacterioplankton dynamics in the eastern English Channel and its relation with recurrent phytoplanktonic blooms. I then joined the Laboratoire d’Océanographie Microbienne (LOMIC) in Banyuls-sur-mer (France) to study the spatial and temporal dynamics of a bacterial functional group, the aerobic anoxygenic phototropic bacteria (AAP), in contrasted oligotrophic zones. I then worked at the NIOZ (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, The Netherlands) and at the University of Vienna (Austria) where my research activities focused on the phylogenetic affiliation of North Atlantic deep-water bacterial communities, and the identification and the quantification of the most rare phylotypes. I also aimed at describing the particle-associated bacterial and archaeal groups and at assessing their potential role in the transformation and fate of these particles.

Keywords : Trophic network; Planktonic prokaryotes (Bacteria and Archaea); Biomass; organic matter production and degradation; Functional diversity