Senior scientist at IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement). Director of the Laboratoire des Symbioses Tropicales & Méditerranéennes (LSTM).

Main activities

In addition to an impoverishment of the plant cover, land desertification significantly affects the structure and functional diversity of soil microbial communities and more particularly some microbial components (eg mycorrhizal fungi) that have a major role in the productivity and stability of the Mediterranean and tropical terrestrial ecosystems.

My research aims to

(i) understand the role of the mycorrhizal symbiosis in the spatiotemporal evolution of tropical and Mediterranean ecosystems and agricultural systems,

(ii) describe the response of microbial communities to the process of desertification,

(iii) evaluate the impact on the productivity and stability of terrestrial plant ecosystems,

(iv) develop ecological engineering strategies to rehabilitate and promote the functions of soil microorganisms in the biological mechanisms governing the spatiotemporal evolution of ecosystems.