I am a Re­search scientist wor­king at the Fo­rest Zoo­lo­gy Research Unit (URZF), IN­RAE Or­léans, France.

My research interests lie in the relationship between the durable success of invasive or range expanding species and the way they fit to the novel selection regimes encountered as they expand and/or disturb colonized habitats, as well as the facilitating effects of climate change. Such adjustments result from plastic and evolutionary changes, which I investigate using both field and experimental approaches (mainly tools in ecophysiology, metabolomics and morphometrics). I aim to address questions such as:

  • how can range expansion lead to evolutionary changes and syndromes?
  • what are the roles of plasticity (physiological, trophic, etc.) and microenvironments in the colonization of new environments?
  • do invaders and native range expanders have scope to persist over the long term despite the ecological perturbations induced by their own residence?

I have always had a special enthusiasm for cold places with bad weather. This might be the result or the cause of my interest in how invasive and endemic insects deal with the challenging but rapidly changing conditions in the sub-Antarctic islands. Being now a forest entomologist, these islands deprived of any trees do not answer all my research questions. I started working on the northward range expansions of native insects such as the fascinating winter-active but also urticating pine processionary moth (Thaumetopoea pityocampa) across Europe, and the winter moth (Operophtera brumata) in northern Fennoscandia, where the weather did not disappoint. I am also interested in any invaders succeeding in their new habitats despite different ecological challenges, such as the Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) and the box tree moth (Cydalima perspectalis).

Keywords
Bio­lo­gi­cal in­va­sions, bio­di­ver­si­ty, cli­mate change, data analysis, dis­per­sal, eco­phy­sio­lo­gy, evo­lu­tion, fo­rests, in­sects, is­lands, IoT, me­ta­bo­lo­mics, mor­pho­me­trics, phe­no­ty­pic plas­ti­ci­ty.