Seagrass meadows and associated food webs

2015-01-01

I started my scientific career with seagrass ecology. From 2006 to 2011, I was a F.R.S-FNRS research fellow at the Laboratory of Systematics and Animal Diversity, University of Liège. My PhD thesis, supervised by Patrick Dauby and Gilles Lepoint, focused the community structure, trophic diversity and functional role of amphipod mesograzers in Mediterranean Posidonia oceanica meadows.

More recently, I participated in initiatives looking to understand how this seagrass’ massive phytodetritus accumulations are used as habitat and/or food by meio- and macrofauna. I also took part in research focusing on polyspecific seagrass meadows from the Western Indian Ocean (Madagascar). Finally, through a collaboration with Polish colleagues, I also helped develop trophic markers-based approaches to advance knowledge of Zostera marina meadows from the Baltic Sea.

Posidonia oceanica and associated fauna

Publications

Remy F.*, Michel L. N.*, Mascart T., De Troch M., Lepoint G (2021). Trophic ecology of macrofauna inhabiting seagrass litter accumulations is related to the pulses of dead leaves. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 252: 107300. *Shared first authorship.

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Jankowska E., Michel L. N., Lepoint G., Włodarska-Kowalczuk M (2019). Stabilizing effects of seagrass meadows on coastal water benthic food webs. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 510: 54-63.

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Remy F., Mascart T., De Troch M., Michel L. N., Lepoint G (2018). Seagrass organic matter transfer in Posidonia oceanica macrophytodetritus accumulations. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 212: 73-79.

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Mascart T., De Troch M., Remy F., Michel L. N., Lepoint G (2018). Seasonal dependence on seagrass detritus and trophic niche partitioning in four copepod eco-morphotypes. Food Webs, 16: e00086.

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Jankowska E., De Troch M., Michel L. N., Lepoint G., Włodarska-Kowalczuk M (2018). Modification of benthic food web structure by recovering seagrass meadows, as revealed by trophic markers and mixing models. Ecological Indicators, 90: 28-37.

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Jankowska E., Michel L. N., Zaborska A., Włodarska-Kowalczuk M (2016). Sediment carbon sink in low-density temperate eelgrass meadows (Baltic Sea). Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 121 (12): 2918-2934.

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Michel L. N.*, Sturaro N.*, Heughebaert A., Lepoint G (2016). AxIOM: Amphipod crustaceans from insular Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows. Biodiversity Data Journal, 4: e10109. *Shared first authorship.

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Lepoint G., Heughebaert A., Michel L. N (2016). Epiphytic bryozoans on Neptune grass – a sample-based data set. ZooKeys, 606: 1-10.

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Lepoint G., Michel L. N, Parmentier E., Frédérich B (2016). Trophic ecology of the seagrass-inhabiting footballer demoiselle Chrysiptera annulata (Peters, 1855); comparison with three other reef-associated damselfishes. Belgian Journal of Zoology, 146 (1): 21-32.

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Michel L. N., Dauby P., Gobert S., Graeve M., Nyssen F., Thelen N., Lepoint G (2015). Dominant amphipods of Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows display considerable trophic diversity. Marine Ecology, 36 (4): 969-981.

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Giakoumi S., Halpern B. S., Michel L. N., Gobert S., Sini M., Boudouresque C.-F., Gambi M.-C., Katsanevakis S., Lejeune P., Montefalcone M., Pergent G., Pergent-Martini C., Sanchez-Jerez P., Velimirov B., Vizzini S., Abadie A., Coll M., Guidetti P., Micheli F., Possingham H. P (2015). Towards a framework for assessment and management of cumulative human impacts on marine food webs. Conservation Biology 29 (4): 1228-1234.

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Michel L. N., Dauby P., Dupont A., Gobert S., Lepoint G (2015). Selective top-down control of epiphytic biomass by amphipods from Posidonia oceanica meadows : implications for ecosystem functioning. Belgian Journal of Zoology, 145 (2): 83-93.

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Michel L., Lepoint G., Dauby P., Sturaro N (2010). Sampling methods for amphipods of Posidonia oceanica meadows: a comparative study. Crustaceana, 83 (1): 39-47.

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