ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <!-- saved from url=(0064)http://ecobio.univ-rennes1.fr/Fiches%20perso/cgerard/cgerard.htm --> <HTML xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" xmlns:v = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><HEAD><TITLE>Claudia Gerard</TITLE> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0" name=GENERATOR> <STYLE>TABLE.MsoNormalTable { FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman"; mso-style-parent: "" } SPAN.libelle1 { COLOR: #333333; FONT-FAMILY: Arial } </STYLE> <meta name="Microsoft Theme" content="olivier 110"> </HEAD> <BODY bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#336699" vlink="#00659C" alink="#CC3300"><!--mstheme--><font face="Verdana"> <!--mstheme--></font><TABLE style="BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=600 border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD width=486><!--mstheme--><font face="Verdana"><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,sans-serif">Claudia GERARD</SPAN></STRONG><SPAN style="COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,sans-serif">, </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,sans-serif">Maître de Conférences, HDR</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: windowtext; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman',serif"> </SPAN> <DL> <DT style="MARGIN-RIGHT: -14.2pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"> <DT style="MARGIN-RIGHT: -14.2pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">UMR Ecobio 6553, «&nbsp;Ecosystèmes, Biodiversité, Evolution&nbsp;», </SPAN> <DT style="MARGIN-RIGHT: -14.2pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Université de Rennes I, Campus de Beaulieu (Bât. 14, 2<SUP>ème</SUP> étage)</SPAN> <DT style="MARGIN-RIGHT: -14.2pt; TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">Avenue du Général Leclerc 35042 Rennes cedex </SPAN> <DT><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,sans-serif">Tél. 02 23 23 50 37&nbsp;; Email. <A style="COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; text-underline: single" href="mailto:claudia.gerard@univ-rennes1.fr">claudia.gerard@univ-rennes1.fr</A></SPAN> </DT></DL><!--mstheme--></font></TD> <TD align=middle width=111><!--mstheme--><font face="Verdana"><A href="http://ecobio.univ-rennes1.fr/Fiches%20perso/cgerard/cgerard.htm"> <IMG style="BORDER-RIGHT: #000000 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: #000000 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 1px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: #000000 1px solid" src="../../images/custom/CGerard2.jpg" border=0></A><!--mstheme--></font></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!--mstheme--><font face="Verdana"> <!--mstheme--></font><TABLE id=AutoNumber1 style="BORDER-COLLAPSE: collapse" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=600 border=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD align=justify width=600 colSpan=2><!--mstheme--><font face="Verdana"> <DIV align=justify> <DT> </DT></DIV> <br><br><DIV align=justify> <DT><STRONG><U><SPAN style="COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,sans-serif">Scientific synthesis</SPAN></U></STRONG> </DT></DIV> <br><DIV align=center> <DT><STRONG><SPAN style="COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,sans-serif">Responses of freshwater gastropods to environmental stresses</SPAN></U></STRONG> </DT></DIV> <br><DT style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,sans-serif">Key-words :</SPAN></B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,sans-serif"> </SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial','sans-serif'">gastropods, trematodes, host-parasite interactions, environmental constraints, pollution, cyanobacteria, communities, populations, life traits.</SPAN> <DIV align=justify></DIV> <DT style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal">&nbsp; <DIV></DIV> <DIV align=justify><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial,sans-serif"><FONT size=2>My work focuses on ecology, and more particularly on aquatic ecotoxicology and parasite ecology. These disciplines are increasingly developing from the last twenty years, due respectively to the degradation of freshwaters which are among the most threatened and the less protected ecosystems (Abromovitz, 1996; Fleeger et al., 2003; Moilanen et al., 2008), and to the consideration by ecologists of the potential role of parasites in the regulation processes of host populations (Combes, 1995).<br> Freshwaters are naturally isolated into terrestrial landscapes, and their discontinuous nature in space and time as well as the instability of their physico-chemical conditions reinforce the constraints and the perturbations imposed to the freshwater biota. Among them, gastropods (prosobranchs and pulmonates basommatophorans) are among the most directly exposed to the water degradation. They can represent up to 90% of the biomass of freshwater macroinvertebrates (Hawkins & Furnish, 1987) and play a key-role in structuring aquatic communities (Kerans et al., 2005). Considered as bioindicators of some pollutions (e.g., Elder & Collins, 1991 ; Lefcort et al., 2002), researchers are also increasingly interested by their parasitic trematodes to detect environmental changes in freshwaters (Morley et al., 2006 ; Hudson et al., 2006 ; Hechinger et al., 2007).<br> In my research, parasitism is considered as one of the environmental perturbations to which organisms are confronted during their life and which effects are various. Indeed, parasites can shape the dynamics of host populations, influence interspecific competition and predation, modify energy transfer in ecosystems, and even act on biodiversity (for reviews: Hatcher et al., 2006; Hudson et al., 2006).<br> My aim is to determine the impact of environmental perturbations, in particular parasitism (trematodes) and diverse contaminants (pollutants, toxic cyanobacteria), on the equilibrium and the functioning of ecosystems through the study of « freshwater gastropods / trematode parasites / environment » interactions, with an approach both experimental and ecosystemic. In this context and according to the hierarchic structure of evolutionary processes, these interactions are studied from the organism, as an individual, to the community.</FONT> </SPAN></DIV> <DT style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">&nbsp;<DT style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><B><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt; COLOR: navy; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,sans-serif">REFERENCES</SPAN></B> <DT style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,sans-serif">Abromovitz J. N., 1996. Imperiled Waters, Impoverished Future: The Decline of Freshwater Ecosystems. Worldwatch paper 128. Worldwatch Institute, Washington, DC.<br> Combes C., 1995. Interactions durables. Ecologie et évolution du parasitisme. Editions Masson, Paris.<br> Elder J. F. & Collins J. J., 1991. Freshwater molluscs as indicators of bioavaibility and toxicity of metals in surface-water systems. Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 122: 37-79.<br> Fleeger J. W., Carman K. R. & Nisbet R. M., 2003. Indirect effects of contaminants in aquatic ecosystems. The Science of the Total Environment, 317: 207-233.<br> Hatcher M. J., Dick J. T. A. & Dunn A. M. 2006. How parasites affect interactions between competitors and predators. Ecology Letters, 9: 1253-1271.<br> Hawkins C. P. & Furnish J. K., 1987. Are snails important competitors in stream ecosystems? Oikos, 49: 209-220<br> Hechinger R. F., Lafferty K. D., Huspeni T. C., Brooks A. J. & Kuris A. M., 2007. Can parasites be indicators of free-living diversity? Relationships between species richness and the abundance of larval trematodes and of local benthos and fishes. Oecologia, 151: 82-92.<br> Hudson P. J., Dobson A. P & Lafferty K. D., 2006. Is a healthy ecosystem one that is rich in parasite species? TREE, 21(7): 381-385.<br> Kerans B. l., Dybdahl M. F., Gangloff M. M. & Jannot J. E., 2005. Potamopyrgus antipodarum: distribution, density, and effects on native macroinvertebrate assemblages in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 24(1): 123-138.<br> Lefcort H., Aguon M. Q., Bond K. A., Chaquette R., Kornachuk P., Lang B. Z. & Martin J. C., 2002. Indirect effects of heavy metals on parasites may cause shifts in snail species composition. Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology, 43: 34-41.<br> Moilanen A., Leathwick J. & Elith J., 2008. A method for spatial freshwater conservation prioritization. Freshwater Biology, 53: 577-592.<br> Morley N. J., Lewis J. W. & Hoole D., 2006. Pollutant-induced effects on immunological and physiological interactions in aquatic host-trematode systems: implications for parasite transmission. Journal of Helminthology, 80: 137-149. </SPAN> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> </BODY></HTML>