Establishment of two joint laboratories for MARBEC in partnership with SYPGEN and Andromède Océanologie
The Research Joint Research Unit (IRD, CNRS, Ifremer, University of Montpellier) has been collaborating since mid-2019 with the SME SPYGEN, based in Bourget-du-Lac (73), to develop expertise in environmental DNA (eDNA) for monitoring marine fauna and to establish new biodiversity indicators based on these technologies.
This collaboration is supported by I-Site Muse as part of its “Companies on Campus” program. The two organizations have recently joined forces through the joint Diag-ADNe laboratory (ANR Lab Com 2021–2024) to gain a better understanding of marine fauna and develop new biodiversity indicators based on these technologies.
The University of Montpellier, through MARBEC, has also partnered with Andromède Océanologie to develop innovative methods for studying underwater habitats through the joint InToSea laboratory (ANR Lab Com2 2016–2019).
The two companies aim to strengthen their leadership positions in the fields of species inventory and the assessment of the ecological status of marine habitats. Through these projects, the three partners complement each other by combining their expertise in the marine environment (site knowledge, field sampling, diving skills, pressure data), metabarcoding (extraction and amplification of environmental DNA), and bioinformatics (sequence analysis) and data interpretation through the development and calculation of indicators.
A major two-year pilot project has already brought these three partners together to conduct a marine species survey, which was carried out during the first lockdown. The partners have expanded their databases and accessed original, unique inventory data collected in the absence of human activity, which can provide baseline indicators for the sites under study. They have also compared different sampling methods to improve fieldwork and drafted a methodological guide.
New collaborations are expected on more ambitious projects, particularly at the international level and in tropical ecosystems.
* MARBEC specializes in the marine biodiversity of lagoon, coastal, and offshore ecosystems, primarily in the Mediterranean and tropical regions. Its research spans various levels of analysis, ranging from molecular, individual, population, and community-level aspects to human uses of this biodiversity. It focuses its efforts on four main objectives:
- describe marine biodiversity,
- understand the dynamics and functioning of marine ecosystems,
- analyze the impact of human pressures on these ecosystems
- develop strategies for addressing global change, balance resource use with conservation, and meet societal expectations (expertise, innovation, remediation).