Postdoctorant en écoévolution et bioinformatique

DescriptionThis postdoc title is: 'Tracking the evolution and ageing of ‘evosystems’ through network-modelling of the dynamics of ecosystems shaped by selection on differential persistence'.In collaboration with Fabrice Not, the postdoctoral fellow, skilled in bioinformatics and with an interest in evolution, ecology, networks, and possibly philosophy of sciences, will construct and analyse multilayer networks that approximate the dynamics of interactions within ecosystems, based on -omics time-series, to quantify what we would call an 'ecosystemic fitness' using original network metrics.One of the key ideas of the project is to track whether networks gain or lose in 'persistence fitness', e.g., robustness or resilience over time, and under what conditions parts of ecosystems might be considered 'units of selection' sensitive to various changes in selective pressures, thereby evolving and aging.With environmental changes, better modelling and predicting natural ecosystems dynamics is critical from both ecological and societal viewpoints. Ecosystems are defined as interconnected, diverse biological communities embedded in an abiotic compartment, connected to other ecosystems by spatial flows of energy, materials, and information. This project introduces an original network-based approach to import evolutionary thinking into ecosystem studies, potentially leading to new paradigms about ecosystem dynamics.The overarching goal of this project is to support our proposed unifying concept of ‘evosystems’ by providing evidence for natural ecosystems evolution and assessing ecosystem fitness. Evosystems correspond to ‘ecosystem phenotypes’ that behave as if they evolved by selection and could further evolve due to evolutionary constraints. Typically, evosystems could become maladapted when selective pressures acting at the ecosystem level change, or evosystems could age when selective pressures supporting an ecosystem's robustness/resilience weaken over time.To achieve its goal, this project will leverage recent progress in environmental -omics approaches that offer a holistic perspective on critical, underappreciated sources of “ecosystem homeostatic properties”: microbial interactions, and multilayer network studies, as homeostasis-like properties emerge from interaction networks whose degree and patterns of connectivity critically shape ecosystem dynamics.The position is open from September 2023 to late August 2025, with the possibility of further funding after that period.CandidatureContactsEric [email protected] #J-18808-Ljbffr