PhD: Eco-evolutionary dynamics of biodiversity: Understanding and predicting the impact of environmental fluctuations at multiple spatio-temporal scales - Elizabeth Barthelemy

Abstract:

The physical environment conditions which species are observed in natural habitats, by eliminating ill-adapted species, constraining the size of populations over time or limiting their movements in space. Understanding how biodiversity responds to environmental shifts is an important scientific issue, especially in light of the global changes of the Anthropocene. In this dissertation, we propose a new modeling approach that allows us to simulate the consequences of such changes on species diversity. The originality of the approach comes from the use of so-called "coalescent" methods that establish a genealogy between individuals, whose shape depends on past changes. This genealogy is then used by the model to determine the evolutionary relationships between species. By simulating changing environments, it is possible to find out what types of past changes explain the biodiversity that we observe today.

Committee: 

• Hélène MORLON, DR Ecole Normale Supérieure (reviewer)
• François MASSOL, DR Université de Lille (reviewer)
• François MUNOZ, PU Université Grenoble Alpes (PhD advisor)
• Philippe CHOLER, DR Université Grenoble Alpes ; Université Savoie Mont Blanc (examiner)
• Nicolas MOUQUET, DR Université de Montpellier (examiner)
• Olivier FRANCOIS, PU Grenoble INP (examiner)