Sandrine Pavoine
From Sep. 2017 to dec. 2023, I have taken the responsability of a research group, named CoMaC, working on community ecology, macroecology and conservation biology.
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Our group was part of the Center of Ecology and Conservation Sciences (CESCO, UMR7204 MNHN-CNRS-Sorbonne Université), one of the research units of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.
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From 2017 to 2023, we have studied the ways in which land use and species movements linked to human activities impact species assemblages and their diversity, by acting on the presence or abundance of species directly, for example through harvesting, exploitation or by modifying the environment. The human activities we have studied are essentially linked to fishing in marine and freshwater environments, and in terrestrial environments, agriculture, urbanization, the construction of roads and wildlife crossings, and the installation of night-time artificial light sources and wind turbines. In terms of the environment, we were mainly interested in climate change and the modification of landscape structure and composition, with physical and chemical aspects. We have also taken into account historical factors, such as those that have led to the degradation of ecosystems, as well as those linked to the evolutionary history of species. Most of our studies have assessed the importance of considering species' biological traits in analyzing the diversity dynamics of species assemblages, and we have also studied the behavior of individual species. We have also looked at the degree of specialization of species in terms of their habitat and thermal niche, as well as the degree of distinctiveness linked in particular to the rarity of a species' biological traits.
We therefore focused on different dimensions or aspects of the diversity of species' so-called functional traits, in particular those related to ecosystem functioning. We were also interested in changes in interactions between species, taking particular account of herbivory, predation and pollination. We have also considered diffuse competition and facilitation, taking account of indirect interactions, revealing their signatures in biodiversity patterns.
Our research has involved field observation and experimentation, with data acquisition and analysis. Our studies have been multi-scale, from the local to the planetary, in terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments, for many taxa from microorganisms to vertebrates, and have been either punctual or temporal over several decades.
To implement this project, we had expertise in ecology, evolutionary biology, biogeography and mathematics, skills that we put at the service of conservation biology.
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From the begining of the Covid19 pandemic, we wrote a newsletter animated by Clément Vallé, PhD student, and I. Théophile Olivier, PhD student, was responsible for our Twitter account in 2017-2020, François Duchenne in 2020, and Karine Princé from 2020 to 2023. Our account is now closed. Thanks Théo, François, Clément and Karine!
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Look here for the list of CoMaC members.
Look here for a list of our publications.
Look here for our past newsletters.