Profile: Biology and Ecology

The objective of this EU is to provide an overview of the diversity of angiosperms, examined through the lens of the most recent phylogenies proposed bythe Angiosperm Phylogeny Group ( APG). This phylogenetic framework will be supported throughout the course by the practical observation of vegetative and floral characters in a selection of taxa spanning the entire phylogeny, in order to identify the synapomorphies of the major clades, any homoplasies, as well as adaptations (floral biology, pollination, trophic interactions, etc.).

Students also explore the diversity of angiosperms from a floristic perspective by creating a herbarium of species that are generally Mediterranean in origin. In the process, they become familiar with the use of a flora and digital identification tools (such as Pl@ntNet and Tela Botanica’s e-Flore).

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Through five major themes, we will explore the fundamental connections between the principles of evolution and evolutionary ecology—as covered in previous course units—and their current societal applications.

These five major themes are: human evolution, biodiversity conservation, the domestication of animal and plant species, evolutionary medicine, and major global crises and disruptions

Two sessions on understanding and summarizing scientific articles are held in conjunction with the course unit "Evolutionary Ecology and Its Applications."

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By the end of this course, students will have acquired the essential basic knowledge needed to properly prepare and carry out a science communication initiative tailored to a specific target audience, both orally and in writing. They will also be able to design educational materials and outreach workshops for the general public.

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Universities are often perceived as inaccessible to a large segment of society. As part of the UniverlaCité initiative, which aims to bring the university experience to priority neighborhoods, students will develop science workshops designed for students in REP schools. 

The EU will offer students the opportunity to:

1- share their own experiences and apply the knowledge they have acquired at the university in order to best meet the needs of society.

2- Identify and develop skills in science communication through the design and production of educational materials tailored to the target audience.

The course will consist of tutorials and project monitoring (SPS) on predefined topics. The sociocultural situation in vulnerable urban areas will be addressed during the first tutorial. This first tutorial will also serve to lay the groundwork for the course, provide a detailed overview of the UniverlaCité program, and offer a broad introduction to science communication.

The following tutorials will serve as sessions during which students, divided into groups, will be asked to propose activities to be implemented. The constraints provided by the teaching team will be: the target audience, the theme (which will be defined by the teaching team and updated each year), and the requirement to propose “off-campus” activities.

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Major human and animal health challenges related to global changes, namely:

• the degradation of natural environments, leading to a decline in the quality of natural resources (various forms of pollution) and a loss of biodiversity
• climate change
• the urbanization of living environments
• new treatment approaches
• the globalization of trade
• the standardization of lifestyles

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Through five major themes, we will explore the fundamental connections between the principles of evolution and evolutionary ecology—as covered in previous course units—and their current societal applications.

These five major themes are: human evolution, biodiversity conservation, the domestication of animal and plant species, evolutionary medicine, and major global crises and disruptions.

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This course provides an introduction to the ecology of continental freshwater ecosystems and marine ecosystems, as well as to the transitional environments between these two compartments—namely, mangroves, estuaries, and deltas.  These ecosystems will be examined from both structural and functional perspectives, with an emphasis on their similarities and differences, as well as on the abiotic and biotic factors that govern the organization of the communities of organisms that inhabit them.

They should provide an overview of these ecosystems or hydrosystems and how they function at various scales.

The first part of the course is devoted entirely to theoretical instruction; the second part consists of introductory sessions for field trips, the field trips themselves, and laboratory sessions in which the data collected in the field are analyzed and discussed as a group.

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Molecular tools are an integral part of studies aimed at describing and characterizing biodiversity. The course will aim to introduce various molecular approaches (barcoding, metabarcoding, and environmental DNA, etc.) that enable (1) the description, characterization, and quantification of this diversity at the intra- or interspecific levels, as well as at the population and ecosystem levels, and (2) the presentation of their areas of application across different temporal and spatial scales. The course will incorporate practical components designed to introduce students to these techniques, help them implement them, analyze the resulting data, and report on their findings. Emphasis will be placed on group work in collaboration with researchers and faculty members.

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ORPAL is an ecology course offered as an APP (1/3 fieldwork and 2/3 laboratory practicals). Drawing on concepts and methods from ecology, this course aims to introduce students to historical ecology (the study of interactions between humans and their environment over varying time periods) and its main applications in paleoecology, from defining the research question, field sampling, and data collection, all the way through to interpretation and the writing of a scientific paper (see https://biologie-ecologie.com/exemples-travaux/). This course serves as an interesting theoretical and experimental prerequisite for the ACCES, CEPAGE, PALEONTOLOGY, ECOSYSTEMS, or BIOGET tracks.

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Adaptations to a “parasitic” lifestyle are studied across all parasitic organisms (viruses, bacteria, eukaryotes), encompassing various scales of analysis “from molecules to populations.”

Thus, the coevolution between hosts and parasites will be examined from the perspective of host–parasite molecular and cellular interactions (immunity, evasion, exploitation of host resources, etc.), as well as the morpho-anatomical structures involved in adaptation to the sub-host site or in survival in the external environment, and finally from the perspective of behavioral adaptations for encountering the host (facilitation).

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One of the goals of this course unit is to synthesize concepts and knowledge acquired in animal biology (anatomy, systematics) and ecology to describe and understand the morphology and evolutionary changes in vertebrate morphology. In addition to covering extant groups, this course unit will focus heavily on extinct fossil groups, particularly their contribution to our understanding of the various eco-morphological adaptations (e.g., the acquisition or return to an aquatic lifestyle, the acquisition of flight) that have shaped the evolutionary history of clades.

This course unit also aims to provide theoretical and practical foundations in phylogenetics (cladistics) for tracing the evolution of a clade (using distance, parsimony, and likelihood methods), based on both molecular and phenotypic characters (both modern and fossil).

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Introduce students to an integrated approach to plant biology through the study of the morpho-anatomical characteristics of stems and roots. Help them discover the coordinated spatio-temporal development of root and stem architectures through the adaptations of Mediterranean and tropical species. Reproductive structures and the diversity of biological types will also be addressed. This course unit serves as preparation for the BioGET track of the BE Master’s program and draws on the natural environment as well as local and regional facilities (Amazonian Greenhouse, Villa Thuret, Château La Pérouse Garden).

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