Zan’Fauna – The impacts of desealing on soil fauna using different treatments

Zan’Fauna – The impacts of desealing on soil fauna using different treatments

Context
The European Union sets a zero net land take objective for 2050. The transcription of this objective in the French regulation must be implemented by city planners through a reduction of sealed areas. While sealing effects on soil are well-known, desealing effects are less characterized. The « Zanette » project studies soils desealed at different dates (space for time approach, Renella 2020) and with different management practices (Veillard 2024). The aim is to characterise the soil ecological functionality depending on time.
Zanette experimental design is composed of ten sites in France (Parisian region and Grand-Est). These sites were desealed between the beginning of 2023 and the end of 2026. At each site, a sealed area was maintained as a negative a control, and two areas were desealed: once without any other intervention, the other one with organic amendment. Several analyses will be conducted from March to May: physico-chemical analyses as well as floristic, microbial and fauna community analysis.

The intern Fauna’Zan will work on this last part about understanding the functional response of fauna (nematodes, earthworms, springtails) (Joimel et al. 2017) after desealing. The aim is to assess the consequences of desealing on taxonomic and functional diversity of these organisms, especially on the growth, reproductive and survival functions. This study will improve our understanding of soil fauna restoration after a desealing. As soil desealing is increasing, this knowledge will allow us to advices stakeholders about desealing relevance.

Intern mission
The intern will participate in the filedwork in spring 2027: soil sampling, plant inventories, water infiltration, soil respiration. On the samples, the intern will sort and identify the soil fauna and then use traits databases to characterise the community of each taxa.
The intern Zan’Fauna will work with the intern Zan’Micro, which topic is about soil microbial community after desealing. The intern may participate to other fieldworks.

Calendar: Bibliography: January 2027. || Fauna identification formation: January/February 2027. ||soil sampling, fieldwork: March 2027 || Laboratory analysis: middle of March 2027 to middle of April 2027. || Analyses, data exploitation:  middle of April to middle of May 2027. || Intern report writing: middle of May to the end of June.

Delivrable : internship report || Oral presentation.

Requested qualifications
This internship requires a highly rigorous candidate, comfortable with field and lab work but also in statisical analysis with R. Master students in ecology (second year) or equivalent are welcomed. Knowledge in community ecology, pedology and Technosols, and/or naturalist competences are appreciated.

Where, when, duration
The internship will take place in UMR ECOSYS INRAe of AgroParisTech. They will work under the supervision of Lisa Le Moller (contractual researcher in charge of the Zanette Project) and Sophie Joimel (Assistant professor in AgroParisTech). The internship will last 4 to 6 months and starts in January 2027 (February possible). The salary will be based on the national regulation for interns.

To apply
Send CV and cover letter to Lisa Le Moller (lisa.lemoller@sagroparistech.fr) before the 15th of October 2026. Applications will be reviewed as they are received.

References
Adobati F., Garda E., Soil releasing as key to rethink water spaces in urban planning, City, Terrritory and Architecture (7), 2020.
Campbell C.D. et al., A rapid microtiter plate method to measure carbon dioxide evolved from carbon substrate amendments so as to determine the physiological profiles of soil microbial communities by using whole soil, Applied and Environnemental microbiology (69, 3593-3599), 2003.
Lerch T.Z., Sensitivity of soil microbial catabolic profiles to a gradient of carbon inputs : do the soil organic matter matter ?, Soil Biology & Biochemistry (57, 911-915), 2013.
Maienza A., Ungaro F., Baronti S., Colzi I., Giagnoni L., Gonelli C., Renella G., Ugolini F., Calzolari C., Biological Restoration of Urban soils after De-Sealing Interventions, Agriculture (11), 2021.
Renella G., Evolution of Physico-Chemical Properties, Microbial Biomass and Microbial Activity of an Urban Soil after De-sealing, Agriculture (10 :12, 596), 2020.
Ugolini, F. et al. Assessing the influence of topsoil and technosol characteristics on plant growth for the green regeneration of urban built sites. J. Environ. Manage. 273, 111168 (2020).
Vieillard C. Désimperméabilisation des sols urbains: états des lieux des pratiques et mises en oeuvre de génie pédologique pour restaurer des services écosystémiques. Institut Agro Rennes Angers, 2024.