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In the last decades, we have observed at a global scale a resurgence of problems related to the colonization of alien invasive species, largely due to human activities (development of international trade and intercontinental transportation). Invasive species are generally considered as having a nega

What are the proximate mechanisms – at the individual level – underlying the assembly and dynamics of ecological communities? Despite its apparent universality, this question is still puzzling scientists – and challenges their methodological limits. Global changes impact community diversity, structu

The a-proteobacteria Wolbachia infect all major terrestrial arthropod groups (up to 60% of the arthropod species are suspected to be infected). This makes Wolbachia the agent of the most important pandemic in the animal world reported to date. This wide distribution of Wolbachia largely relies on a

The Archaea represent an understudied but important fraction of microbial diversity, being present in a wide variety of environments and ecosystems, including the human body. They have key ecological roles and a unique place in the Tree of Life, notably via their intriguing evolutionary link with Eu

It is expected that 70% of the world population will be urban by 2050. Therefore, guaranteeing the quality of life of urban populations is a crucial challenge for the upcoming decades. Since their settlement, cities have drastically changed and they are one of the environments where global changes a

The sex pheromone communication system of moths stands as a relevant model to investigate mechanisms responsible for the evolution of reproductive isolation. In those nocturnal animals, mate recognition largely depends on highly specific bouquets of air-borne chemicals called pheromones. These chemi

Climate change threatens the availability of surface water in many places. Water is essential to life, and most animal species need to drink, always, during some specific periods of the year, or during extreme climatic events (e.g. heat waves). The inability for individuals to drink, even for a shor

Biology is undergoing a paradigm shift: individuals must be seen as holobionts, integrating the community of interacting microorganisms that make them up. Recent advances have shown how perturbations of the normal composition of the human gut microbiota may trigger pathological processes resulting i

Animals are living in symbiosis with tightly regulated bacterial communities that have a strong impact on host phenotype, hereafter called ‘extended phenotype’. The effect of symbionts can be positive (eg., provision of a new function that favors adaptation to a novel niche) and / or negative (e.g.,

Although apparently simple, transparency is a highly complex coloration strategy. While abundant in water, transparency is nearly absent on land, with the exception of insect wings. Research effort has been devoted to water transparency, leaving transparency on land – a specific question since optic

Global changes are affecting biodiversity on unprecedented rate and scale with some forecasts suggesting that half of all species could go extinct by 2050. Yet it remains unclear if we can reliably predict the impact of global changes on biodiversity because we lack sufficient understanding of the p

The responses of animal populations to global change are mediated by proximate behavioral processes that determine the energy budget and, ultimately, the demographic performance of individuals. Animal movement is currently considered as a key behavior for understanding, and so predicting, the respon

A major challenge for ecologists is to understand and predict the ecological consequences of climate change, land use change and disturbances. To meet this challenge, we need to account not only for environmental change effects on species performances and ranges but also for effects on species inter

It is stating the obvious that we live on a planet consisting in continuous landscapes. Yet, there exists genuine barriers to developing sound statistical models that accommodate for continuous spatial information and genetic data in a satisfactory way. In fact, dominant spatial models in popul

In frogs, acoustic communication is important in the context of sexual selection and species recognition. Understanding the binaural hearing system in frogs is a major challenge. Indeed, some of the fundamental mechanisms of hearing remain partly or totally unclear. Sound can reach the inner ear by

Bees are ecologically and economically vital pollinators whose widespread declines associated to human activities and other environmental stressors have serious consequences for our ecosystems and food security. Risks that we may be facing a pollination crisis, in which crop yields begin to fall bec