International Research Project (IRP) Phenomic Responses of Invertebrates to Changing Environment & multi-Stress (PRICES)
Context
All organisms possess physiological optima which determine their ecological niches. Physiological responses, and their level of flexibility are increasingly recognized as key elements of adaptation of organisms to environmental changes. We need to understand the link between the causes (i.e. human activity, climate extremes) and their effects on biological functions, from individuals to ecosystems. The physiology of individuals provides the functional link between causes and effects. Physiological capacities and responses act as a filter between environmental variations (human-induced or natural) and ecological performance of individuals, populations and species. Understanding physiological responses of organisms to changing environments can therefore help to explain ecological patterns. For this reason, ecophysiological research constitutes a knowledge base necessary to understand the patterns of population distribution.
Despite the diversity and abundance of studies describing phenotypic responses of organisms to environmental changes (stressful and non-stressful), many gaps remain in our knowledge of the ecophysiological mechanisms that underlie these responses. The scientific goals of this IRP PRICES (2019-2023) is to fill this gap. First, we will describe the diversity of phenotypes expressed by several invertebrate models exposed to complex environmental variations of natural and/or anthropogenic origins (“phenomic” approach). Second, we will also study the physiological mechanisms underlying the observed phenotypic responses using integrative ecophysiology approach. Integrative ecophysiology, by definition, requires the contribution of different scientific expertises (eg ecology, biochemistry, omics, functional genetics, etc.) and incorporates all information from different levels of biological organization, from genes to molecules to cellular or tissue responses to obtain a functional vision of phenomic responses.
IRP PRICES (2019-2023) is supported by CNRS.
Partners
Université de Rennes1, UMR CNRS 6553 ECOBIO
Aarhus University, Department of Bioscience
David Renault (co-PI)
Matin Holmstrup (co-PI)
Hervé Colinet (co-PI)
Johannes Overgaard
Claudia Wiegand
Torsten Kristensen
Julie Bjørge
Jesper Givskov Sørensen
Sandra Rigaud
Elin Jørgensen
Kromand Kirsten
