Administrative information
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• University École Pratique des Hautes Études, PSL University, Paris
• Host Laboratory
Institut de Systématique, Biodivesité, Évolution (ISYEB UMR 7205),
Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle,
45 rue Buffon, 75005 Paris
• PhD supervisor Pierre de Villemereuil (ISYEB, Paris)
• Co-supervisor Jean-François Le Galliard (iEES, Paris)
PhD project
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– Scientific context
The impact of climate change can translate into various biological, ecological and evolutionary responses in organisms. At the population level, environmental changes due to global warming are expected to impact many key phenotypic traits through both phenotypic plasticity or genetic evolution. In doing so, global warming can affect the whole life-history of organisms, resulting in a demographic impact at the level of the whole population. Because their metabolism, physiology and much of their behaviour are linked with ambient temperature, ectothermic species are particularly susceptible to such climate-induced modifications of their phenotype and life-history. Especially, warmer environments should lead to an acceleration of growth and reproduction, at the cost of a lesser investment in long-term somatic maintenance, with a potentially increased rate of senescence and decreased lifespan. The net result of such a pace-of-life acceleration could be deleterious for the population dynamics under some circumstances.
In the European common lizard (Zootoca vivipara), recently published results demonstrate that population in warmer environments tend to be declining, and are associated with such a faster pace-of-life with faster growth, earlier age at maturity, but lower adult survival. Such pace-of-life syndrome also correlates with juvenile and adult telomere lengths (a biomarker of biological aging) across populations, highlighting the possibly key role of senescence in this dynamics.
In order to demonstrate further the key role of the pace-of-life acceleration and study its mechanisms in depth, our newly funded ANR project TIPEX aims at studying the link between environmental warming, life-history and senescence in squamates, using the common lizard as a model species. The project is based on various in situ and experimental approaches, focusing on different ecological and physiological levels of the phenomenon.
– PhD project
In this PhD, the candidate will focus on a long-term (since 1986) individual-based survey of a closed population located in the Parc National des Cévennes to study the link between the individual’s life-history, the senescence of their performance abilities and their thermic environment. The project will focus around four datasets: (i) the long-term survey itself, which will be continued during the time of the project; (ii) a spatial characterisation of the thermal environment of the population, along with temperature sensors measures for selected years; (iii) measures of individual performance (sprint and endurance, which are integrative indicators of an individual’s physical condition) of all individuals in the survey, at each stage of their life and (iv) longitudinal data on telomere length, a biomarker of whole-organism aging.
In the course of the PhD, the candidate will:
• characterise the link between thermal environment and key performance traits (survival, reproduction, growth and locomotor performance) using the full length of the survey and the thermal environment map,
• infer the dynamics of senescence for performance traits and telomere length (and their relation/trade-offs), throughout the life of individuals, and evaluate the impact of the thermal environment on such dynamics,
• participate to the field work of the survey, being in charge of the additional measures of locomotor performance and telomere lengths needed for the PhD project,
• predict the impact of changes in the thermal environment on the population dynamics, accounting especially for the impact of (expected) acceleration of senescence and pace-of-life with increased temperature.
Additional data will be available to the PhD student including longitudinal life history data from semi-captive populations at two study areas and longitudinal data of blood-based health and stress markers. The candidate will be free to propose, and have autonomy to conduct, new lines of enquiries related to the subject.
– Work environment
The candidate will work at ISYEB (Paris), under the supervision of Pierre de Villemereuil (expert in evolutionary ecology, evolutionary genetics and long-term survey analysis), and in collaboration with a team of experts on the evolutionary ecology of the common lizard, within the TIPEX project (Jean-François Le Galliard, Sandrine Meylan, Julien Cote, Olivier Lourdais, Jean Clobert). ISYEB is a leading institute in evolution and ecology, located within the beautiful Jardin des Plantes at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. The costs of the PhD project will be funded by the TIPEX project, with funding from the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) and the SEE-Life program of the CNRS regarding the survey itself.
Candidate profile
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We are looking for a candidate with a strong background in animal ecology, with a motivation for field work, experimental work and data analysis in this domain. Especially, the candidate must demonstrate training in both field/experimental work and statistical analysis. The candidate must be able to perform creative and independent scientific work, and to work within a team.
Application
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Please send a CV and motivation letter describing your training and past experience, and how they relate to the project, as well as your personal motivation for the project to Pierre de Villemereuil (pierre.devillemereuil@ephe.psl.eu) before May 16th.
Useful references
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• Bestion, E., Teyssier, A., Richard, M., Clobert, J., & Cote, J. (2015). Live fast, die young: Experimental evidence of population extinction risk due to climate change. PLOS Biology, 13(10), e1002281. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002281
• Dupoué, A., Blaimont, P., Angelier, F., Ribout, C., Rozen-Rechels, D., Richard, M., Miles, D., de Villemereuil, P., Rutschmann, A., Badiane, A., Aubret, F., Lourdais, O., Meylan, S., Cote, J., Clobert, J., & Le Galliard, J.-F. (2022). Lizards from warm and declining populations are born with extremely short telomeres. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(33), e2201371119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201371119
• Dupoué, A., Rutschmann, A., Le Galliard, J.-F., Clobert, J., Angelier, F., Marciau, C., Ruault, S., Miles, D., & Meylan, S. (2017). Shorter telomeres precede population extinction in wild lizards. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 16976. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-17323-z
• Rutschmann, A., Miles, D. B., Clobert, J., & Richard, M. (2016). Warmer temperatures attenuate the classic offspring number and reproductive investment trade-off in the common lizard, Zootoca vivipara. Biology Letters, 12(6), 20160101. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2016.0101
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