Marie-Elodie Perga
Research interest
The Alpine region is subject to exacerbated climate changes. Besides, alpine inland waters have long been under intense human exploitation, leading to disturbances in nutrient loadings, global or local pollutions, fishing activities and hydrological regulation for hydropower. Lakes in and around the Alps have been evolving in a context of continuous and intensifying environmental changes over the last 150 years, to which they are responding through non-linear and somewhat unpredictable trajectories.
Our team studies how lakes in and around the Alps have been responding to environmental changes. Our focus is on both biogeochemistry and ecology, covering different space and time perspectives.
We combine paleo-ecological reconstructions from sediment archives, high- and low frequency monitoring data, laboratory experiments and modeling to mechanistically unravel alpines lakes vulnerability and responses in a context of global changes.
Biography
I graduated in Cell and Molecular Biology from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Lyon and in Numerical Ecology at the university Lyon 1 in 2001. I then did my PhD at the Alpine Centre for Research on Lake Food webs (CARRTEL, French National Institute for Agronomical Research, France), where I started to work on carbon fluxes in lake food webs using stable isotope methods. in 2004, I moved to the University of Victoria, BC (Canada) for a post-doc in A. Mazumder’s team to further my knowledge on food webs and trophic biomarkers. I got a junior research position at the UMR CARRTEL in 2006 and, from 2007, developed a large research program on Climate Change impacts on large, human-impacted lakes (
IPER-RETRO) using paleo-ecological methods combined to statistical modelling. As a senior researcher, I extended my research to high-altitude lakes, adding high-frequency automated monitoring to my paleo- and field sampling toolbox. In January 2017, I got appointed Associate Professor in the University of Lausanne to build a research group at the
Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics.
Recent Publications
Escoffier, N., Perolo, P., Many, G., Pasche, N.T.,
Perga, M.-E. (2023) Fine-scale dynamics of calcite precipitation in a large hardwater lake. Science of the Total Environment 864, 160699.
Many, G., Escoffier, N., Ferrari, M., Jacquet, P., Odermatt, D., Mariethoz, G.,
Perolo, P., Perga, M.-E. (2022) Long-Term Spatiotemporal Variability of Whitings in Lake Geneva from Multispectral Remote Sensing and Machine Learning. Remote Sensing 14, 6175.
Escoffier, N., Perolo, P., Lambert, T., Rüegg, J., Odermatt, D., Adatte, T., Vennemann, T
., Perga, M.E. (2022) Whiting events in a large peri-alpine lake: Evidence of a catchment-scale process. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences n/a, e2022JG006823.
Danger, M., Bec, A., Spitz, J.,
Perga, M.-E. (2022) Questioning the roles of resources nutritional quality in ecology. Oikos n/a, e09503.
Wuest, A., Bouffard, D., Guillard, J., Ibelings, B.W., Lavanchy, S.,
Perga, M.E., Pasche, N. (2021) LeXPLORE: A floating laboratory on Lake Geneva offering unique lake research opportunities. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews-Water 8.
Rantala, M.V., Bruel, R., Marchetto, A., Lami, A., Spangenberg, J.E.,
Perga, M.-E. (2021) Heterogeneous responses of lake CO2 to nutrients and warming in perialpine lakes imprinted in subfossil cladoceran δ13C values. Science of the Total Environment 782, 146923.
Perolo, P., Castro, B.F.,
Escoffier, N., Lambert, T., Bouffard, D.,
Perga, M.E. (2021) Accounting for surface waves improves gas flux estimation at high wind speed in a large lake. Earth System Dynamics 12, 1169-1189.
Lambert, T., Perolo, P., Escoffier, N., Perga, M.E. (2022) Enhanced bioavailability of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in human-disturbed streams in Alpine fluvial networks. Biogeosciences 19, 187-200.
Bruel, R., Girardclos, S., Marchetto, A., Kremer, K., Crouzet, C., Reyss, J.L., Sabatier, P.,
Perga, M.E. (2021) Reframing Lake Geneva ecological trajectory in a context of multiple but asynchronous pressures. Journal of Paleolimnology 65, 353-368.
Perga, M.E. , Syarki, M. Spanenberg, J.,Frossard, V.,Lyautey, E.,Kalinkina, N.,Bouffard, D. Fasting or feeding: planktonic food web under lake ice.
Freshwater Biology (in press)
Otero, I, Darbellay, F., Reynard, E.
,Perga, ME, Pracicek, G.,Cracoo, M.,Hetenyi, G.,Fontcubeta, A.,de Vaan, M.,
Ruegg, J.,Clivaz, C.,Garcia, J.,Guisan, A.,Moss, C.,Schaefli, B.,Bussard, J. Designing interdisciplinary research on mountains. What place for the unexpected?
Mountain Research and Development (in press).
Otero, I., Darbellay, F., Reynard, E., Hetenyi, G.,
Perga, M.E., Ruegg, J., Prasicek, G., Cracco, M., Fontcuberta, A., de Vaan, M., Garcia, J., Bussard, J., Clivaz, C., Moos, C., Guisan, A., Schaefli, B., Mapelli, N., de Bellefroid, B. (2020) Designing Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research on Mountains: What Place for the Unexpected? Mountain Research and Development 40, D10-D20
Wilson, H.L., Ayala, A.I., Jones, I.D., Rolston, A., Pierson, D., de Eyto, E., Grossart, H.P.,
Perga, M.E., Woolway, R.I., Jennings, E. (2020) Variability in epilimnion depth estimations in lakes. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 24, 5559-5577.
Guénand, Y.,
M.-E. Perga, V. Chanudet and D. Bouffard (2020). “Hydropower operations modulate sensitivity to meteorological forcing in a high altitude reservoir.” Aquatic Sciences
82(3): 60.
Jenny, J.-P., O. Anneville, F. Arnaud, Y. Baulaz, D. Bouffard, I. Domaizon, S. A. Bocaniov, N. Chèvre, M. Dittrich, J.-M. Dorioz, E. S. Dunlop, G. Dur, J. Guillard, T. Guinaldo, S. Jacquet, A. Jamoneau, Z. Jawed, E. Jeppesen, G. Krantzberg, J. Lenters, B. Leoni, M. Meybeck, V. Nava, T. Nõges, P. Nõges, M. Patelli, V. Pebbles,
M.-E. Perga, S. Rasconi, C. R. Ruetz, L. Rudstam, N. Salmaso, S. Sapna, D. Straile, O. Tammeorg, M. R. Twiss, D. G. Uzarski, A.-M. Ventelä, W. F. Vincent, S. W. Wilhelm, S.-Å. Wängberg and G. A. Weyhenmeyer (2020). “Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: Rapid degradation of the world’s large lakes.” Journal of Great Lakes Research.
Perga, M. E., M. Syarki, N. Kalinkina and D. Bouffard (2020). “A rotiferan version of the punishment of Sisyphus?” Ecology 101(3): e02934.
Full list here
