Maria is doing a PhD with us on the stability of soil microbe communities under heat waves, in collaboration with François Rineau (UHasselt) and Viktoriia Radchuk (IZW, Berlin).

Understanding how species respond and adapt to changing environments is becoming increasingly important in the face of a changing climate. My PhD thesis is centered around gradual trait plasticity and its role during the impact and recovery of populations to and from environmental stress, using globally relevant phytoplankton communities.

This thesis will address the prevalent knowledge gap on gradual trait plasticity for species acclimation to environmental fluctuations. Analyzing the trait selection mechanisms in pair wise experiments will yield insights on trait shifts and evolution in the long term. Moreover, the ubiquitous distribution of the focal species ensures that our results will be transferrable to other organismal systems across geographical boundaries.

The environmental change impacts the ecosystem’s functions and its stability. My focus lies in examining species coexistence and community composition amidst environmental variability. I am primarily focusing on one particularecosystem, dryland ecosystems. Drylands regions are characterized by a scarcity of water due to low average annualprecipitation levels. One particular concern on drylands is the process of desertification phenomena and biodiversity loss due to climate extremes. Understanding how dryland ecosystems respond to climate change is crucial for scientific understanding and societal well-being. The ecosystem response to climate change is likely to impact at different levels of ecological organizations, ranging from the plant organism level to the population level to the community level andthese ecosystem levels are inherently coupled. Using a mathematical modelling approach, I am studying the complexrelationship among these ecosystem levels in response to climate change. Mainly, I am focusing on self-organizing vegetation patterns, a population-level phenomenon and investigating how spatial patterning affects species coexistence and community composition. Additionally, I aim to identify the pathways to mitigate environmental stress which are essential for assessing the ecosystem’s resilience to climate variability. Using the spatiotemporal mathematical model and empirical evidence, I am unravelling the underlying mechanisms driving different types of spatial vegetation patterns in drylands.

Environmental changes can trigger both ecological and evolutionary responses that could stabilise or destabilize the ecosystem dynamics. These responses may lead to various ecosystem characteristics, such as the abrupt transition between the coexistence of alternative stable ecosystem states, and the undesired evolutionary adaption of a species in response to environmental changes. My research focuses on the study of eco-evolutionary dynamics. Using the spatial vegetation model of dryland ecosystems, we investigate how the traits of a certain species evolved and influenced the ecosystem’s resilience under environmental stress. Understanding the pathways of ecosystem response is crucial in formulating management strategies to avoid reaching tipping points.

I focus on the relationship between organisms and their environment, with an emphasis on zooplankton. I have conducted extensive field surveys of lakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the Tibetan Plateau region of China, which are strongly influenced by human activities (changes in fish structure and trophic status) and climate change (changes in water quantity and salinity), respectively. My current project aims to study the adaptation mechanisms of organisms in different environments and their relationship with community structure, and to explore the processes by which environmental stresses affect ecosystems. We are also trying to find key indicators to assess the state of the ecosystem for lake management and conservation.

My Master Thesis investigates the dynamics of patch occupancy within a metacommunity by studying the influence of dispersal rates on persistence. It aims to test the impact of this factor on patch occupancy by comparing the results with a theoretical model. Using manipulations of phytoplankton metacommunities, the study will assess how variations in dispersal in different environments (light conditions, temperature) affect persistence, providing insights into community persistence and biodiversity conservation strategies. The research involves the design of laboratory protocols and pilot manipulations, such as assessing the regional equivalence of species in patch environments.

I am interested in the various connections between environmental change, several aspects of biodiversity, and ecosystem function. We have mostly worked with models but we have also conducted studies to understand the detailed population dynamics in stressed plankton systems. In 2018, we showed that some of these mechanisms extend beyond plankton system, to terrestrial plants in grasslands across Europe and the USA. I have contributed to meta-analyses showing that biodiversity changes caused by nutrients and stressors lead to different effects on decomposition.

Intimately linked to the previous topic is stability, which quantifies how biological systems respond to a dynamic environment. We have done work on how various stability properties relate, both using models and experiments.

I am also interested in coexistence theory as a vehicle to better understand why species coexist and the mechanisms that ultimately drive community composition. One contribution of my team to that field is a new way to quantify niche and fitness differences. This discovery allows us to ask fundamental questions on what limits species richness in complex networks, and what unifies and divides different community types (work in progress). New research directions include eco-evolutionary dynamics and how these influence biodiversity and biodiversity change in the face of environmental change.

I am an evolutionary ecologist with a special interest in ant symbioses. I mainly focus on obligate ant nest associates known as myrmecophiles. I use this peculiar group of arthropods to test general hypotheses on host-parasite dynamics, symbiont community interactions, host specificity mechanisms and community assembly of symbionts in a spatial context.

In my current project, I aim to analyze the drivers and dynamics of the meta food web of the myrmecophile community associated with mound building red wood ants. This rich metacommunity of ant symbionts consists of beetles, spiders, isopods and other arthropods. Hypotheses will be tested using a combination of empirical studies and theoretical modelling.

This thesis aims to better understand how complexity of ecosystems allows them to cope with disturbances. To do so, we need to link the wide range of complexity metrics together, and with various stability metrics. Some of these metrics are redundant while others are completely independent and linked to specific ecosystem properties. The general idea is that confusion arise from this diversity of metrics, and that understanding how these metrics are linked theoretically and in practice is needed to elucidate, and potentially reconcile, the plethora of complexity-stability found in the literature. Our current work is divided into three main work packages: (1) Inventory of the metrics used in the literature; (2) Assessment of the relationships between these metrics based on mathematical development and in-silico experiments; (3) Identification of potential metrics to prioritise.

The SAVA region, in the north-eastern side of Madagascar, is exposed to various pressures generated by human activities and climate change such as erosion, strong floods, loss of biodiversity, drought, etc. Pressures that have an impact on water resources. Therefore, the research is part of the GIRE SAVA project (Integrated Water Resources Management of the SAVA region) which has chosen the Ankavia watershed as the pilot study basin. The research aims to understand how these pressures impact river water physico-chemical and biological quality as well as the ecosystem services provided by this resource. Also, the research tries to predict the ecological state of the river in the long term and consequently will propose a management model that will reduce these impacts.