Polychaetes are a convenient biological model to best understand the mechanisms of bioconstruction (Animal Architecture in the meaning of M. Hansell) and the relationship mineral vs. organisms. (i) I am involved in several projects related with the biogeomorphology and the ecology of tubedwelling worms and worm reefs in several areas of the World. The main models are Lanice conchilega, Sabellaria alveolataand Phragmatopoma caudata. I am interested to study also Idanthyrsus spp, Gunnarea capensis and other Sabellariidae, Terebellidae and Serpulidae around the World. The aim of the research is to understand the interactions between these polychaetes vs. sediment in an evolutionary context (at all scales: genes to reef) and the global ecology of reef-building tubeworms. (ii) With my research team, I study the relationship between the plasticity of the phenotype (in the context of the Extended Phenotype of R. Dawkins) of Sabellariidae and other reef organisms, and environmental gradients and/or stress (e.g. hydrodynamic, anthropogenic…). The aim of this research is to best understand the morphology and the growth dynamic through the analysis of the spatial pattern, the complexity of the network and the physical resistance of the reefs. (iii) Another part of my research, more applied, is to develop methods for coastal and marine mapping with acoustic and/or optic images in several submarine environments (tropical, temperate, arctic and antarctic waters). (iv) I am gradually going to develop a new long-term project : Multi-proxy approach of macrobenthic thanatocenoses. Effects of the environmental changes on their composition and their structuring.
I earned a Research doctorate (Ph.D.) in Marine Biogeography at the University of Rennes. I obtained a Post-doc position of one year at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes of Paris. I took a tenure position as Research scientist 1st class at the CNRS in 2001. I began my carrier in the laboratory of Coastal Geomorphology of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes until 2006. Then I joined the laboratory of Biology of Marine Organisms of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle of Paris where I conduct several research projects till date. I earned a Professorial thesis (HDR i.e. acreditation to supervise research) at the University of Brest in 2013. I (co)-supervised 23 Master's Degrees, 6 PhD and 6 Post-docs. I taught in the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle and the universities of Rennes. I produced approximately 400 publications among which about 121 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
I realized all of my career in marine research stations. I am scientific chief diver at the CNRS and diving instructor. I am also bander instructor for the CRBPO of the MNHN (laboratory of Biology of the Populations of Birds). I took part in several tens of scientific expeditions worldwide, in the tropical/subtropical (Brazil, French Caribbean Islands, French Polynesia, Indonesia, La Réunion, Madeira, Mayotte) and polar zones (Antarctic (Terre Adélie), Canada, Iceland, Norway, Svalbard) but also in Argentina and Mongolia. I carried out several tens of oceanographic campaigns and dives in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the Greenland Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea, the Channel and the Ross's Sea.
