Congratulations to Maud Fiard (MIO-MEB) who defended her thesis on Wednesday 14 December 2022.

On the following subject: 

"Microbial indicators of the functional state of mangroves in overseas waters :
application to the water framework directive".
 

Director of these: Mr Philippe CUNY, Professor, Aix-Marseille University

Co-Director of research: Ms Cécile MILITON Aix-Marseille Université
Rapporteur Ms Cristiana CRAVO-LAUREAU Université de Pau et des pays de l'Adour
Rapporteur Mr Pierre-Alain MARON INRAE
Examiner Ms Claire GOLLéTY CUFR-MAYOTTE
Examiner Ms Valérie MICHOTEY Aix-Marseille University

Summary of the thesis

Mangroves are forest ecosystems located at the interface between land and sea. By virtue of their location, these maritime forests are subject to variations in the quality of coastal waters in relation to the pressures associated with nearby human activities. Present in the intertidal zone of ten overseas territories, mangroves and the organisms that live in them are therefore interesting components for testifying to the quality of water bodies as part of the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) in overseas France. With the aim of validating the relevance of using these forests as sentinel ecosystems, the "DCE mangroves" project investigated different biological compartments of mangroves within an anthropisation gradient in order to improve our knowledge of their biodiversity and functioning. The aim of this thesis work was to characterise the benthic bacterial and archaeal communities (molecular biomass, abundance, diversity and composition) of mangroves in order to (i) increase our knowledge of these key organisms for this ecosystem, (ii) understand the parameters that shape the structure of these communities and (iii) propose potential bioindicators of the anthropogenic pressures identified in the ultra-marine mangroves studied. The results obtained have made it possible to (i) identify suitable molecular approaches for describing benthic microbiota in mangroves, (ii) characterise anthropogenic pressures in detail in several mangrove stations in French Guiana and Martinique, (iii) complete the repository on the taxonomic biodiversity of microbiota in French mangroves and (iv) identify candidate microbial taxa as bioindicators of the degradation of the mangrove ecosystem. The results obtained on the microbial compartment of French mangroves form a basis for the construction of an indicator that can be used to determine the quality of coastal and transitional waters in the French overseas territories.
 

Share on :