Laure CARASSOU

Researcher, Irstea & ITE Chair, COTE Cluster of Excellence

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 in 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 characterizing 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.