In the Arabian Sea, the South West Monsoon (SWM) is active during summer and drives the Somali-Arabian Upwelling System (SAUS). The SAUS brings cold, deep and nutrient-rich water masses to the Indian Ocean’s surface, fuelling siliceous microplankton or silicifiers. Silicifiers (mainly diatoms and radiolarians), are an important component of the soft tissue pump, a biological mechanism that lowers atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Despite the key role of this soft tissue pump in monitoring global climate and the socio-economic impacts of the SWM and SAUS in middle East and Eurasia, little is known about the monsoon, upwelling and soft tissue pump variability in strength relative to past climate and how they may evolve in the future due to global warming. To palliate this problem, MUSiC ArT proposes to use state-of-the-art technologies and methods to deconvolute the influence of climate on the SAUS and SWM intensity and associated-impacts on siliceous productivity over the last 150,000 years, covering the last interglacial period. The project aims to carry out innovative micropalaeontological and geochemical analyses on two sediment cores of the collections available at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN, Paris, France). During the outgoing phase at GNS Science (New-Zealand), Artificial Intelligence and conventional microscopy will be used to generate census radiolarian and diatom counts. During a secondment at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), isotopic ratios of 230Th and 232Th will be measured. For the return phase at the MNHN, diatom counts and high-quality imagery on microfossils will be completed and the isotope ratio of Silicon (δ30Si) and the Ge/Si ratio will be analysed on handpicked monospecific radiolarian and monogenus diatom samples. With this multidisciplinary approach, MUSiC ArT aims to couple AI, micropaleontology and geochemistry, advancing the Primary Investigator (PI)’s career by developing his unique researcher profile.

In the absence of brain tissues preserved in the fossil record, vertebrate endocasts provide the only ‘direct’ evidence of brain evolution through deep time, and the possibility to infer cognitive and sensory abilities of extinct taxa. However, the validity of paleoneurological studies critically depends on the reliability of endocasts as a proxy for brain morphology. The variable brain-endocast correspondences found between and within modern vertebrate lineages prevent any generalizations to date. A detailed understanding of brain-endocast relationships in extant vertebrates is thus extremely important in order to avoid erroneous interpretations based on endocast morphology alone. NeuroSquam aims to study the brain-endocast relationships in the clade of Squamata, including lizards and snakes. Despite previous studies reporting a wide range of brain versus endocranial cavity proportions in lizards, our understanding of squamate brain-endocast relationships remains limited. By combining 3D imaging and 3D geometric morphometrics on a wide range of species, this research will provide a detailed and updated assessment of the brain-endocast relationships in Squamata. I will explore how these relationships vary between and within species in order to understand the different eco-biological factors that may impact the correspondence between brain and endocast. In addition, the comparison of morphometric data obtained from different 3D imaging techniques will provide new insights into the impact of fixation and staining on tissue shrinkage. By identifying reliable tissue-specific correction factors to adjust for shrinkage, this project will provide a starting point for future neuroanatomical studies seeking to use data from different imaging protocols. NeuroSquam’s originality and interdisciplinary nature will generate exceptional datasets and high-profile outputs and establish the applicant as an innovative leader in functional and comparative (paleo) neuroanatomy.

Human-caused biodiversity loss, including the extinction of a broad range of species, has dramatically increased over the years, with enormous repercussions on ecosystems worldwide. However, present-day species extinctions are only the latest stage in a considerably longer-term sequence stretching far back into the Holocene, when several extirpation events occurred in the prehistorical and historical eras. A remarkable case is the extinction of the last endemic small mammals of Corsica and Sardinia: while the large vertebrate fauna extinction occurred soon after the first human arrival (ca. 12,000 years ago), the small endemic mammals vanished much later, between the late prehistoric and Roman periods (8th c. BC–5th c. AD), precisely at the moment when colonial agents as Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans expanded and intensified trade networks. Although the disappearance of these species has been linked to anthropogenic causes, it remains uncertain whether this event occurred in both islands simultaneously as the result of a single, rapid cause or as a result of several interrelated causes. This project attempts to redress this imbalance and establish a new empirical framework by integrating cutting-edge analyses (GMM, DMTA, and direct 14C dating) with the abundant but underutilized archaeozoological record of the Tyrrhenian islands. This project will focus on three of these islands’ most emblematic species—the pika Prolagus sardus and the rodents Microtus (Tyrrhenicola) henseli and Rhagamys orthodon—as proxies to investigate the mechanisms and effects of past human-induced environmental changes and how this is interconnected with the colonial and cultural exchange evidenced in the historical and archaeological records. Integrating archaeozoological data with other source materials is not only crucial to develop richer and more nuanced view of past cultural practices but also can help to elucidate innovative solutions of the ongoing extinctions.

In the face of global biodiversity loss ExploDES “Exploration of the Diversity of European Solenogastres" emerges as vital endeavor. The accurate association of scientific names with species is paramount for reliable reference in biology, impacting phylogenetic studies, conservation efforts, and ecological research. ExploDES tackles key challenges in modern taxonomy with focus on Solenogastres (Mollusca). These challenges include providing empirical rigor to species hypotheses and accelerating species description. Solenogastres are unique marine molluscs with significant evolutionary and ecological importance. However, they remain poorly understood. ExploDES aims to bridge this knowledge gap and seeks to revolutionize their study through an integrative approach. With particular emphasis on species with a putative broad distribution (including the Mediterranean Sea and the Northern European Atlantic) the project's research questions dig on comparing traditional morphology-based species hypotheses with modern integrative taxonomy-based ones, evaluating distribution patterns, and understanding diversity drivers. Objectives include, enhance existing data by analyzing museum specimens and sampling new ones, analyze genetic differences between lineages, and investigate morphological evolution. As a pioneering effort in Solenogaster research, ExploDES stands as a model for modern taxonomy. The impacts extend far beyond the project's duration, offering lasting benefits as is poised to make a transformative contribution to the field of molluscan studies and to enhance the research aim to understanding of early molluscan evolution. The project will also advance our insight of Euorpean marine biodiversity. Beyond its scientific contributions, ExploDES findings will inform marine conservation policies and may serve as an indicator of the impacts of climate change. Moreover, ExploDES has the potential to foster public awareness and appreciation of marine ecosystems.

Sleep is ubiquitous in the animal kingdom and serves essential biological functions, yet, sleep incurs substantial costs in terms of increased vulnerability to predators and reduced time for acquiring resources. How sleep is regulated by ecological factors (e.g., predation) and expressed in the natural world is highly understudied, more so in non-model taxa of reptiles and amphibians. Further, sleep can be comparatively and mechanistically understood through the lens of environmental change processes such as biological invasion and urbanization. In this study, we propose to examine the degree of lability in sleep trait expression of reptiles and amphibians under environmental change and how adaptive these responses are. We will employ a comprehensive suite of electrophysiological and behavioural measures of sleep and quantify responses to, i) increased exploration during rapid population expansion of early stage biological invasion, ii) reduced predation-risk during biological invasion, iii) novel stressor of night light due to urbanization. The project will break new grounds in terms of quantification of sleep in non-model taxa using state-of-the-art technology alongside behavioural measures, application of an eco-evolutionary framework to sleep research, and understanding the role of global change processes in shaping sleep in the animal kingdom, thereby generating insights into the regulation and expression of sleep in the natural world. Through the project, the researcher will learn neurophysiological techniques of sleep quantification from the host and use novel technology developed by the collaborator. The host's distinguished academic record, domain expertise in sleep electrophysiology of reptiles and amphibians, and large research network make him uniquely qualified to transfer expertise to the researcher and help him build an interdisciplinary skillset and become an innovative academic in the field of sleep ecophysiology research.