Profile Biology Ecology

The EU aims to provide an overview of the diversity of angiosperms, approached both through the prism of the most recent phylogenies proposed bythe Angiosperm Phylogeny Group ( APG). This phylogenetic framework will be supported throughout the EU by concrete observation of the vegetative and floral characteristics of a selection of taxa distributed across the entire phylogeny, in order to identify the synapomorphies of the main clades, any homoplasies, and adaptations (floral biology, pollination, trophic interactions, etc.).

Students also learn about the diversity of angiosperms from a floristic perspective by creating a herbarium of species generally found in the Mediterranean region. This gives them an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the use of a flora and digital identification tools (Pl@ntNet, e-Flore by Tela Botanica, etc.).

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Through five major themes, we will make the connection between the principles of evolution and evolutionary ecology seen in previous teaching units in a fundamental way and 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 oral presentation of scientific articles are held in conjunction with the course "Evolutionary Ecology and its Applications."

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At the end of this course, students will have acquired the basic knowledge necessary to prepare and carry out scientific communication activities tailored to a target audience, both orally and in writing. They will also be able to design educational materials and awareness-raising workshops for the general public.

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Universities are often perceived as inaccessible places for a large part of society. As part of the UniverlaCité program, which aims to bring the university to priority neighborhoods, students will develop science workshops for schoolchildren in priority education areas. 

The EU will offer students the opportunity to:

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

2- Reveal and develop scientific communication skills through the development and implementation of educational materials tailored to the target audience.

The EU will take the form of tutorials and project monitoring (SPS) on predefined topics. The socio-cultural situation of sensitive urban areas will be addressed during the first tutorial. This first tutorial will also serve to lay the foundations for the EU, present the UniverlaCité program in detail, and give a broad overview of scientific mediation.

The following tutorials will serve as sessions during which students, divided into groups, will be asked to propose activities to be implemented. The constraints imposed on them by the teaching team will be: the target audience, the theme (which will be defined by the teaching team and renewed each year), and the need to propose activities outside the school grounds.

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The major human and animal health challenges linked 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 artificialization of living environments
• new therapeutic approaches
• globalization of trade
• the standardization of lifestyles

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Through five major themes, we will make the connection between the principles of evolution and evolutionary ecology seen in previous teaching units in a fundamental way and 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 interface environments between these two compartments, namely mangroves, estuaries, and deltas.  They will be approached from the perspective of both their structure and their functioning, emphasizing their similarities and differences, as well as 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 teaching, while the second part consists of introductory sessions to field trips, the field trips themselves, and practical sessions in which the data collected in the field is analyzed and shared.

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Molecular tools are an integral part of studies aimed at describing and characterizing biodiversity. The EU will aim to present various molecular approaches (barcoding, metabarcoding, environmental DNA, etc.) that enable (1) the description, characterization, and quantification of this diversity at intra- or interspecific, population, or ecosystem levels, and (2) the presentation of their areas of application at different timescales and spatial scales. The EU will incorporate practical aspects aimed at learning about and implementing these techniques, analyzing the resulting data, and reporting on them. Group work in interaction with researchers and teacher-researchers will be prioritized.

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ORPAL is an ecology course in APP (1/3 fieldwork and 2/3 lab work). Based on ecological concepts and methods, this course aims to explore historical ecology (the study of interactions between humans and their environment over varying time periods) and its main applications in paleoecology, from defining the issue field sampling, data acquisition, to interpretation and writing a scientific article (see https://biologie-ecologie.com/exemples-travaux/). This course is an interesting theoretical and experimental prerequisite for the ACCES, CEPAGE, PALEONTOLOGY, ECOSYSTEMS, or BIOGET programs.

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Adaptations to the "parasitic" lifestyle are studied across all parasitic organisms (viruses, bacteria, eukaryotes), including different scales of analysis "from molecules to populations."

Thus, the co-evolution between hosts and parasites will be considered from the perspective of molecular and cellular host-parasite interactions (immunity, escape, exploitation of host resources, etc.), but also from the perspective of the morpho-anatomical structures involved in adaptation to the intra-host site or in survival in the external environment, and finally from the perspective of behavioral adaptations for encountering the host (promotion).

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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 in order to describe and understand the morphology and evolution of vertebrate morphologies. In addition to covering current groups, this course will focus heavily on extinct fossil groups, particularly their contribution to understanding the various eco-morphological adaptations (e.g., acquisition or return to aquatic life, acquisition of flight) that have marked the evolutionary history of clades.

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

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Introduce students to an integrated approach to plants by studying the morphological and anatomical characteristics of stems and roots. Help them discover the coordinated spatial and temporal construction of root and stem architectures through adaptations of Mediterranean and tropical species. Reproductive structures and the diversity of biological types will also be taken into account. This course unit is designed to prepare students for the BioGET Master's program and draws on the natural environment and local and regional infrastructure (Amazonian Greenhouse, Villa Thuret, Château La Pérouse Garden).

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