Background and activities
Understanding the determinants of adaptation in natural populations is central to predict how organisms respond to global crises such as habitat loss and fragmentation, pollution, invasive species, overexploitation, and climate change. It is also key for biodiversity management since it informs us on the distribution of functional diversity and on the adaptive potential of natural populations.
The overarching goal of my research is to understand how various conditions, including ecological heterogeneity, genomic architecture, population connectivity and life history, influence ecological versatility in natural, human-disturbed and exploited populations. To do so, I study the evolutionary ecology and population genetics of various organisms across large and ecologically diverse landscapes. The results help us to determine how organisms persist, adapt to different environments, and diversify.
My current study systems include the water flea Daphnia magna, Darwin’s finches from the Galápagos Islands, three-spined and nine-spined stickleback from Belgium and the Netherlands, passerine birds from the Eastern Arc Mountains in Kenia, and pelagic clupeid fishes from Lake Tanganyika.
Scientific, academic and artistic work
Displaying a selection of activities. See all publications in the database
2016
- (2016) Oil extraction imperils Africa’s Great Lakes. Science. vol. 354.
- (2016) Genomic variation at the tips of the adaptive radiation of Darwin's finches. Molecular Ecology. vol. 25 (21).
- (2016) Weak link between dispersal and parasite community differentiation or immunogenetic divergence in two sympatric cichlid fishes. Molecular Ecology. vol. 25 (21).
- (2016) Cichlids: a host of opportunities for evolutionary parasitology. Trends in Parasitology. vol. 32 (10).
2015
- (2015) A link between host dispersal and parasite diversity in two sympatric cichlids of Lake Tanganyika. Freshwater Biology. vol. 60.
- (2015) Signatures of selection in the three-spined stickleback along a small scale brackish water - freshwater transition zone. Ecology and Evolution. vol. 5.
- (2015) Recurrent adaptation in a low dispersal trait. Molecular Ecology.
- (2015) Hidden biodiversity in an ancient lake: phylogenetic congruence between Lake Tanganyika tropheine cichlids and their monogenean flatworms. Scientific Reports. vol. 5.
2014
- (2014) Computational identification of microRNAs, targets and their function in three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Molecular Ecology Resources. vol. 14.
- (2014) Intermediate number of MHC class IIB length variants relates to enlarged perivisceral fat deposits in blunt-head cichlids Tropheus moorii. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. vol. 27.
- (2014) Seasonal changes in the pelagic catch of two clupeid zooplanktivores in relation to the abundance of copepod zooplankton in the northern end of Lake Tanganyika. Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management. vol. 17.
- (2014) Reproductive activities of two zooplanktivorous clupeid fish in relation to the seasonal abundance of copepod prey in the northern end of Lake Tanganyika. Belgian Journal of Zoology. vol. 144.
- (2014) A gene with major phenotypic effects as a target for selection versus homogenizing gene flow. Molecular Ecology. vol. 23.
- (2014) Inbreeding within human Schistosoma mansoni: do host-specific factors shape the genetic composition of parasite populations?. Heredity. vol. 113.
- (2014) Regional environmental pressure influences population differentiation in turbot (Scophthalmus maximus). Molecular Ecology. vol. 23 (3).
2013
- (2013) Damped long-term host-parasite Red Queen coevolutionary dynamics: a reflection of dilution effects?. Ecology Letters. vol. 16.
- (2013) Adding parasites to the guppy-predation story: insights from field surveys. Oecologia. vol. 172.
- (2013) Differential modes of MHC class IIB gene evolution in cichlid fishes. Immunogenetics. vol. 65.
- (2013) Testing for local adaptation in the Gasterosteus–Gyrodactylus host-parasite system. Evolutionary Ecology Research. vol. 15.
- (2013) Gene transcription reflects poor health status of resident European eel chronically exposed to environmental pollutants. Aquatic Toxicology. vol. 126.
- (2013) Contrasting parasite communities among allopatric colour morphs of the Lake Tanganyika cichlid Tropheus. BMC Evolutionary Biology.
2012
- (2012) Temporal differentiation across a West-European Y-chromosomal cline – genealogy as a tool in human population genetics. European Journal of Human Genetics. vol. 20.
- (2012) Quantifying population structure on short timescales. Molecular Ecology. vol. 21.
2011
- (2011) Low genetic and morphometric intraspecific divergence in peripheral Copadichromis populations (Perciformes: Cichlidae) in the Lake Malawi basin. International Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
- (2011) Quantitative genetic inheritance of morphological divergence in a lake-stream stickleback ecotype pair: implications for reproductive isolation. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. vol. 24.
- (2011) Modeling contemporary evolution in stickleback. Molecular Ecology. vol. 20.
- (2011) Infection dynamics of the monogenean parasite Gyrodactylus gasterostei on sympatric and allopatric populations of the three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus. Folia Parasitologica. vol. 58.
- (2011) A recent inventory of the fishes of the north-western and central western coast of Lake Tanganyika (Democratic Republic Congo). Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria. vol. 41.
2010
- (2010) Microchemical variation in juvenile Solea solea otoliths as a powerful tool for studying connectivity in the North Sea. Marine Ecology Progress Series. vol. 401.
- (2010) Exploring possible human influences on the evolution of Darwin’s finches. Evolution. vol. 65.
- (2010) Mito-nuclear discordance in the degree of population differentiation in a marine goby. Heredity. vol. 105.
- (2010) Differential modes of selection on the rhodopsin gene in coastal Baltic and North Sea populations of the sand goby, Pomatoschistus minutus. Molecular Ecology. vol. 19.
- (2010) Testing for mating isolation between ecotypes: laboratory experiments with lake, stream and hybrid stickleback. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. vol. 23.
2009
- (2009) Systematic palynology in Ebenaceae with focus on Ebenoideae: morphological diversity and character evolution. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. vol. 153.
- (2009) To see in different seas: spatial variation in the rhodopsin gene of the sand goby (Pomatoschistus minutus). Molecular Ecology. vol. 18.
- (2009) Genetically based differences in nest characteristics between lake, inlet, and hybrid threespine stickleback from the Misty system, British Columbia, Canada. Evolutionary Ecology Research. vol. 11.
- (2009) Guidelines for restoring connectivity around water mills: a population genetic approach to the management of riverine fish. Journal of Applied Ecology. vol. 46.
- (2009) Evolutionary history shapes the association between developmental instability and population-level genetic variation in three-spined sticklebacks. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. vol. 22.
2008
- (2008) Community structure, population structure and topographical specialisation of Gyrodactylus (Monogenea) ectoparasites living on sympatric stickleback species. Folia Parasitologica. vol. 55.
- (2008) Modeling genetic connectivity in sticklebacks as a guideline for river restoration. Evolutionary Applications. vol. 1.
2007
- (2007) Host–parasite 'Red Queen' dynamics archived in pond sediment. Nature. vol. 450.
- (2007) Divergent selection as revealed by PST and QTL-based FST in three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) populations along a coastal-inland gradient. Molecular Ecology. vol. 16.
2006
- (2006) Microsatellite conservation and Bayesian individual assignment in four Anguilla species. Marine Ecology Progress Series. vol. 319.
2005
- (2005) The catadromous European eel Anguilla anguilla (L.) as a model for freshwater evolutionary ecotoxicology: Relationship between heavy metal bioaccumulation, condition and genetic variability. Aquatic Toxicology. vol. 73.
- (2005) Detecting Holocene divergence in the anadromous-freshwater three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) system. Molecular Ecology. vol. 14.