Dr Florence PradillonDr. Florence Pradillon, Ifremer, France Florence Pradillon is a marine biologist working at the Deep-Sea Laboratory at Ifremer, in Brest, France. Her main research focuses is on the life cycle ofdeep-sea organismsendemic to chemosynthesis-based ecosystems, and aimsat deciphering their dispersal and colonization patterns. She is particularly interested in the ecology and biology of larval stages, their tolerance to changes in environmental conditions, their relationships with microorganisms, and their potential role in the resilience of deep-sea animal communities facing anthropic impacts. She developed specific tools to collect deep-sea larvae, and she uses both morphology and molecular data (barcodes) to assess biodiversity of the larval pool, its variations in space and time and in response to natural or anthropic environmental changes. Recently, she became involved in the Ifremer ABYSS project, which will assess and use different metagenetic approaches to evaluate biodiversity at the sediment water interface in the deep-sea. |