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Thirty years ago I finished my doctoral thesis (ISEM) of population genetics of Leporinus, Amazonian fish. Recruited at ORSTOM in the LRGAPT, spent 7 years in sub-Saharan Africa in Niger (1990-1998), I conducted research on the domestication of a Sahelian plant essential to the survival of the inhabitants of this region: the Mil, Pennisetum glaucum. Beyond the scientific interest for the evolution of plants and their domestication; in contact with Sahelian farmers, thanks to a much more manageable material than the animal, I measured how the scientific experiment - conducted empirically for 5000 years by the peasants of the Sahel - allowed at the same time to better understand and better manage genetic resources. I also understood the need for research in evolutionary biology to integrate the effects on biodiversity of the often too disastrous behaviours of our species.

My research activities have always had the main theme of evolution and in particular the processes that lead to the speciation of plants or animals. For almost twenty years (1999) I develop at the IRD a program of population genetics and phylogeography in Amazonia, with as models species or complexes of species in fish, in partnership for 15 years with the Institute of Research in Peruvian Amazon (IIAP - Peru).

In the UMR DIADE since the end of 2019 I reactive researches on the evolution of the species complex Astrocaryum spp. Indeed, according to the works of Jean-Christophe Pintaud (IRD), Francis Khan (IRD), then their successors, this genus whose geographical origin would be the shield of the Guianas is remarkable for its relatively recent species radiation positioned in the western Amazon following the withdrawal of the Pébas Lake. Eleven identified species of these palms share a parapatric distribution in Peru, with only two of them having light areas of recovery. The limits to the dispersal of these species would be physical barriers (rivers and mountains) and ecological (mostly pedological variation) barriers, in relation to allopatric speciation processes. The goal of my research, carried out in team with partners of the north and the south in particular of the IIAP (Instituto de Investigaciones of the Amazonia Peruana), is to better apprehend the evolution of this complex of species by detecting of putative hybrid zones, then trying to understand the mechanisms that explain their origin and their maintenance.

My research activities on the evolution of the Amazonian biodiversity underway in the framework of the LMI EDIA (International Mixed Laboratory - Evolution and Domestication of the Amazon Ichthyofauna), of which I am the director IRD since 2011, will be developed beyond the LMI EDIA, which ends in 2020. The objective of this research initiated with the UMR DIADE and IIAP (Iquitos-Peru) in 2016 is to better understand the flora and fauna biodiversity in the Amazon through metabarcoding approaches, including analyses of environmental DNA (eDNA). At the end of 2 years we should have a description of the biodiversity of reference Amazonian sites selected according to the variation of their level of anthropization, with responses concerning questions relating to the spatial and temporal organization of biodiversity and with the development of indices of disturbances resulting from global changes.