Laure CARASSOU

Her research interest is focused on the response of aquatic communities (mainly fishes) to environmental factors at various spatial and temporal scales. She has addressed this topic in various aquatic ecosystems, including oligotrophic coral-reef marine systems in the South Pacific, productive estuarine environments in the northern Gulf of Mexico, river-ocean continuums in South Africa, and coastal marine systems influenced by seasonal upwelling production in the Sea of Oman. She now develops research on the trophic dynamics of key species and its role in terms of ecosystem functioning in the Gironde estuary. She combines multiple field, laboratory and data analysis approaches in the framework of diverse research projects with the objective of explaining spatial and temporal variability characterising aquatic communities at various observational scales. Among these approaches, she has a particular interest into multivariate statistical methods allowing the exploration of the structure and dynamics of complex data bases, and the identification and ranking of factors driving the composition of biological assemblages. Besides her research activities in aquatic ecology, she also co-leads the research program of the ITE Chair, in particular through collaborative projects lying at the frontiers among quantitative geography, ecology and social sciences, and designed so as to improve knowledge on ecosystem dynamics in terrestrial landscapes and wetlands, including urban areas.