research

Paleoceanography My research interests encompass paleoclimatological reconstructions of the intertropical zone, on late Cenozoic sediment records. I focus on paleoceanographic reconstructions, with an overarching interest to understand the subsurface structure of the water column, critical to constrain heat content and biogeochemical gradients over a range of timescales.

Ecology and biodiversity of plankton We work on the ecology of planktonic foraminifera mainly, from around the FORCIS project funded by the Fondation pour la Recherche sur la Biodiversité - Centre de synthèse et d’analyse sur la biodiversité.

Historical changes in planktonic foraminiferal assemblages have not yet been synthesized globally, despite numerous individual collection efforts. The FORCIS project is filling this gap with a global synthesis compiling diversity and abundance of planktonic foraminifera with modern digital tools of data management and analysis. The ultimate FORCIS goal is to understand the importance of main stressors such as temperature and OA that govern species distribution and calcification processes, with focus on present and near-future ocean impacts.

Micropal robotics & software

We develop some novel unique tools to ease the work of micropaleontologists, and to produce large curated data-sets of microfossils.

• MiSo : Microfossil Sorter. This large scale fully automated sorting machine, developed with ATG Technology, with a patented separation process, allows the z-stacked imaging of particles from coarse fractions (150µm-2mm), and single-particle separation into single microtubes based on imaging neural networks techniques. Have a look here at how it works (credit goes to Ross Marchant and Martin Tetard for screenplay, actor, shooting and mixing) MiSo movie see the patent in the publications tab.
• 3D printer+camera : this low cost system allows the z-stacked image acquisition of single particles.

Our in house software include :

• MiSo controlling software : this software fully controls the MiSo automaton. This software is licensed to ATG Technology.
• Particle-Trieur : this software allows the image annotation from any source of imaging device, managing the associated metadata, CNN constructions, morphological tools, etc.
• Sashimi controlling software for the control of the Leica MZ16A/Isopro/Basler setup.

Oceanographic cruises I have joined more than 15 oceanographic cruises, and I am involved in two main projects including a transpacific cruise to recover sediment record along an Est-West transect to reconstruct past ENSO dynamics.

Admin duties Among various admin, and scientific councils, I have been involved in admin duties within CEREGE : co-head of the “Climatic Variability and Impact on Ecosystems” Theme from 2012 to 2017 ; and Head of the Climate group from jan. 2018 to dec. 2023, member of the collegium from 2018 to 2021. At the french national level, I am the chair of the Ocean and Atmosphere Scientific Comittee since january 2021.