Philippe Jarne: Ecologist, his nature

Philippe Jarne and snails go way back. Their special relationship began in 1971, when he was in third and fourth grade in Chalon-sur-Saône, thanks to two matchmakers: his teachers. "Two eco-conscious teachers who took us every week to observe a pond a few miles from the school. There were large pond snails there, and that's probably where I first came into contact with snails," recalls the researcher. "Not only did we observe nature, but we also had the chance to bring it back to school: bleak, ground beetles, newts, frogs, turtledoves, and even a grass snake! Our classroom was like a zoo." These two extraordinary years helped shape a very personal relationship between nature and the childhewas at the time, "always outside, fishing for pike, carp, and catfish."

Common thread

A connection with nature that would serve as a common thread throughout the career of someone who describes himself as "an incorrigible rural provincial." When he was in high school, Philippe Jarne was interested in biology. And among his memories of that time is a teacher, his biology teacher. "She introduced me to evolutionary biology, and I was immediately fascinated by its historical dimension."So after graduating from high school, he studied biology in Toulouse, then attendedthe Montpellier School of Agronomy, where he made friends who introduced him to political ecology and immersed him in the world of naturalism. With them, the student spent a lot of time observing birds in the Camargue, studying the plants of the garrigue, and thinking about politics. When his studies at SupAgro came to an end, Philippe Jarne had also acquired a certainty: the agronomy of the glorious thirties was not for him.

He discovered his calling later on when he enrolled in the DEA Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolution program at the University of Science and Technology of Languedoc, in Professor Louis Thaler's laboratory, with Pierre-Henri Gouyon and Jacques Blondel among his teachers. "I realized that I could make evolution my profession—it was a revelation! I immediately said to myself: this is what I want to do."Initially, Philippe Jarne planned to work on birds. But snails came back to him. "Louis Thaler suggested that I work on tropical mollusks instead, which is how I first set foot in the tropics, notably in Côte d'Ivoire and Niger." Gastropods would also be the focus of his civil service. "I didn't want to do military service, so instead I spent two years at anINRA station on the shores of Lake Geneva studying snails." Just like at the pond in third grade...

Special sexuality

In 1990, Philippe Jarne defended his thesis in biology under the supervision of Bernard Delay. His subject? "Reproductive systems and genetic structures of populations in freshwater hermaphroditic gastropods." He became a specialist in the unique sexuality of gastropods. "They are hermaphrodites, meaning they possess both sexes in the same individual. My goal was to understand the evolution of their reproduction and to find out how much they allocate to male and female functions."

After completing his thesis, Philippe Jarne left for a postdoctoral fellowship in the United States, working alongside Brian and Deborah Charlesworth in Chicago. "The Mecca of evolutionary biology! I learned a tremendous amount from the people I worked with. It was an opportunity for incredible intellectual growth, but also to build an incredible network. This experience was a real career booster, " recalls the researcher, who considers himself "extraordinarily lucky." His good fortune continued after his return to France. "In 1992, I took the CNRS exam and was lucky enough to be hired directly as a CR1 at the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences in Montpellier, at just 29 years old." Two years later, thanks to Bernard Delay, the young researcher found himself "already with a team on his hands: four excellent PhD students!"

Among them was Patrice David, a partner with whom he has worked closely ever since. " An exceptional researcher, and 28 years of working together without a single argument." The duo is joined by a third partner, researcher Jean-Pierre Pointier. This triumvirate of evolutionary biologists has based its work in Martinique and Guadeloupe, where it studies biological invasions and the dynamics of species communities in the West Indies. Their particular focus is on Physa acuta, a freshwater gastropod of the Physidae family. "It is a highly invasive species that originated in North America but is now found everywhere."

From high standards to excellence

Philippe Jarne conducts this research at Cefe, which he joined in 1999 as part of the Genetics and Evolutionary Ecology team, "a group of people interested in evolutionary ecology who are working on the same idea, namely how species are created and evolve. I am lucky to be working with brilliant and friendly people," says Philippe Jarne, who became involved in structuring ecological research, first as team leader, then department head, and finally deputy director of Cefe, before heading the laboratory from 2011 to 2014 and finally the Cemeb labex from 2013 to 2019. "Helping people in their careers has been and remains a huge pleasure," emphasizes the ecologist , who prefers high standards to excellence. Everyone contributes to a project to the best of their ability. The idea is to work with kindness, bringing out the best in everyone. It is from these high standards that excellence is born."

This excellence is now recognized worldwide, as evidenced by Montpellier's second place ranking in ecology in the 2017 Shanghai ranking. "I realize how lucky I am to be a researcher in evolutionary biology and ecology in Montpellier, a wonderful center for these fields and a very collaborative approach to research, which I appreciate."

A shower of prizes

Each year, the French Society of Ecology and Evolution awards a grand prize, a research prize, and two young researcher prizes. In 2020, three of these prizes were awarded to Cefe staff:

• The 2020 SFE² Grand Prize was awarded to Philippe Jarne for his research in evolutionary and population biology, invasion biology, and ecology.
• The 2020 SFE² Young Researcher Awards were presented to two former PhD students from the laboratory, Julie Louvrier, who wrote her thesis on "Statistical modeling of the distribution of large carnivores in Europe" under the supervision of O Gimenez, and Maxime Dubart, who wrote his thesis on "Shellfish and crustaceans: spatio-temporal dynamics of freshwater metacommunities" under the supervision of P. David and P. Jarne.

The winners will present their work at the SFE2 AGM in January 2021.