Dr Amael Paillex
My research concerns studying the biological diversity in freshwater ecosystems, modelling the biodiversity according to environmental factors, testing the effect of assembly rules on the distribution of aquatic communities, quantifying the Functional Diversity at different levels (alpha, beta and gamma), evaluating the effect of environmental changes on biodiversity, and quantifying the impact of restoration strategies.
My aim is to understand the main factors that explain the distribution of biodiversity in freshwater ecosystems, to provide predictive models to explain the impact of changing abiotic factors on biodiversity, and to test my predictive models against field data from restoration programmes.
Currently, I am a post-doctoral fellow researcher at the Zoology Department of the University of Cambridge (April 2011 - December 2012), where I am examining the effect of the water temperature on the distribution of macroinvertebrate biodiversity in a floodplain ecosystem. I will shortly be beginning a research project in which I will seek to construct models based on a larger dataset including fishes, aquatic vegetation as well as macroinvertebrates in a large river floodplain. In collaboration with the University of Lyon (CNRS, UMR 5023) and the University of Geneva (Forel Institute), we will study the effect of hydrological connectivity on the different biological communities.
Collaborations
I am open to building new collaborations. I currently work with collaborators on a database containing biotic data on the effect of restoration on floodplain biodiversity. This is the most comprehensive such dataset globally. I am open to collaborate and test new ideas with this database. Currently, we have data from 36 sampling sites in a large river floodplain two years before it restoration and every two years after its restoration. The database encompasses sampling sites that were restored and unrestored. PhD students, postdocs and senior scientists are welcome to collaborate.
Selected publications and funded projects
2012 Fellowship of the Swiss National Science Foundation, Testing the effect of vertical connectivity and temperature on macroinvertebrate species. Department of zoology, University of Cambridge U.K.
2011 Fellowship of the Swiss National Science Foundation, The impact of a large river floodplain restoration on alien species. Department of zoology, University of Cambridge U.K.
2010 Paillex A. Aquatic macroinvertebrate diversity along the lateral dimension of a large river floodplain. Application to the Rhône River floodplain. Terre et Environnement, ISBN 2-940153-99-X, vol. 100, 172p.
2010 Besacier-Monbertrand A.L., Paillex A. & Castella E. Alien aquatic macroinvertebrates along the lateral dimension of a large floodplain. Biological Invasions, 12, 2219-2231. DOI: 10.1007/s10530-009-9632-z
2009 Paillex A., Dolédec S., Castella E. & Mérigoux S. Large river floodplain restoration: predicting species richness and trait responses to the restoration of hydrological connectivity. Journal of Applied Ecology, 46, 250-258. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2008.01593.x
2007 Paillex A., Castella E. & Carron G. Aquatic macroinvertebrate response along a connectivity gradient in a large river floodplain a comparison of metrics. Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 26, 779-796. DOI: 10.1899/06-12.1
2007 Collaboration in the funding application for the monitoring research project on the Rhône River in France (2007-2009) with Dr. Emmanuel Castella. 220'000 euros. Funded by Agence de l’eau et Compagnie Nationale du Rhône (France).
