Benoit Goussen

The assessment of toxic effects at a relevant scale is an important challenge for the ecosystem protection and management. Indeed, pollutants may impact populations over long-term and represent a new evolutionary force which can be adding itself to the natural selection forces. Thereby, it is necessary to acquire knowledge on the phenotypics and genetics changes that may appear in populations submitted to stress over several generations. Usually statistical analyses are performed to analyse such multigenerational studies. The use of a mechanistic mathematical model may provide a way to fully understand the impact of pollutants on the populations’ dynamics. Such kind of model allows the integration of ecological, evolutionary, and toxic processes into the analysis of ecotoxicological data and the assessment of interactions between these processes.

Benoit's research focuses on the adaptation and on the population dynamics of populations exposed to anthropogenic stressors.

His approach involves experiments and modelling (essentially using a bioenergetic approach).

His work contributes to increase the knowledge on the ecological and evolutionary effects of pollutants, and its aim is to demonstrate how mechanistical modelling can be used to improve environmental risk assessment.