Current affiliations

Ecology of Interactions and Global Change lab, Research Institute for Bioscience, University of Mons (Belgium)

Research

My research focuses on the ecology of organisms in the context of global change and anthropogenic forcing. I am interested in revealing how responses at the individual or species levels can translate into changes in species interactions, food webs, community structure and ecosystem functioning. I specifically focus on the effect of climate change and land use change in agricultural landscapes, through an integrative approach at various ecological and spatio-temporal scales. 

During several research projects, I had the opportunity to address different types of species interactions (host-parasites, prey-predators, hosts-symbionts, plants-viruses) and to study the different types of environmental pressures that are involved in the regulation of these interactions (temperature, photoperiod, food resources, landscape, etc.). I have mainly used arthropods and their interaction network in above-ground food webs as models, combining laboratory approaches with field experiments. 

My research models allow highlighting potential applications in the fields of biodiversity conservation and maintenance of ecosystem services such as biological pest control or pollination. Indeed, the erosion of biodiversity associated with global change is endangering ecosystem functions and associated services, making the study of major ecological patterns and underlying mechanisms more necessary than ever.