GRET Past and Current Environments

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GRET's research aims to understand the natural variability of climate and environments and to identify the mechanisms of anthropogenic contamination and their impacts on living organisms. Our research is divided into 3 research areas targeting different time scales along an environmental continuum from watersheds to the ocean environment. Approaches based on the analysis of marine and continental sedimentary sequences and the monitoring of anthropogenic contamination in different compartments of ecosystems are developed to document climate change and past environments as well as to specify and quantify the impact of human activities on the health and ecological status of current environments.

Coordinator: Laurence Mathieu

Main areas of research

Paleoclimates

We study the natural climate variability of the last few million years from tropical to polar regions with the identification of the biosphere-atmosphere-cryosphere-ocean interactions at the origin of climate change and their impact on human evolution. This research is carried out on the basis of the analysis of marine and lake sedimentary sequences by microscopy (pollen) and chromatography (organic compounds).
Maria F. Sanchez-Goni, Stéphanie Desprat, Johan Etourneau

Paleoecology

We study ecosystem dynamics and modelling, their ecological functioning, biodiversity and disturbance regimes in response to climate and anthropogenic change. To do this, we compare climate simulations and analyses of fossil bioindicators (pollen, phytoliths, environmental DNA, coals) in continental sedimentary sequences.
Christelle Hély, Laurent Bremond

Current Environments

Our research focuses on the dynamics of transfer, accumulation and transformation of current organic and biological contaminants in different environmental matrices under anthropogenic constraints in order to characterize their impact on ecosystems and the associated risks. The tools of analytical chemistry, ecotoxicology and biology are developed to respond to this.
Hélène Blanchoud, Aurélie Goutte, Elodie Guigon, Laurence Mathieu, Thomas Thiebault

List of ECs/research units and associated websites

Maria F. Sanchez-Goni, S. Desprat, J. Etourneau
UMR 5805 (UB-CNRS-INP-EPHE), Oceanic and Continental Environments and Paleoenvironments (EPOC)
Allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire - CS 50023 - 33615 Pessac cedex
https://www.epoc.u-bordeaux.fr

C. Hély, L. Bremond
UMR 5554 (University of Montpellier-CNRS-IRD-EPHE), Montpellier Institute of Evolutionary Sciences (ISEM), Paleoenvironments Department, Ecosystem Dynamics and Global Change Team, University of Montpellier
2, place Eugène Bataillon - CC065 - 34095 Montpellier cedex 5
https://isem-evolution.fr/equipe/equipe-dynamique-des-ecosystemes-ecologie-des-perturbations-paleoclimats/

H. Blanchoud, A. Goutte, E. Guigon, T. Thiebault
UMR 7619 METIS (SU – CNRS - EPHE-PSL), Department of Biogeochemistry
4, place Jussieu - 75252 Paris cedex 05
https://www.metis.upmc.fr/fr/

L. Mathieu
UMR 7564 (CNRS- University of Lorraine), Laboratory of Physical Chemistry and Microbiology for Materials and the Environment (LCPME), Environmental Microbiology Team
Campus Brabois Santé, Bâtiment AB, 54500 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy
https://www.lcpme.ul.cnrs.fr/