group leader
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Thomas L.P. Couvreur (HDR, Directeur de Recherche 2)
Besides activities described on the homepage, I am active in taxonomical research in two wonderful plant families characteristic of tropical rain forests: Palms and Annonaceae. I undertake monographs and revisions of several little known genera in both families. I also write floras for both families for different countries. I work in herbaria and undertake field work for collecting plants in South America, Africa and South East Asia (see here). This last part is the basis of my research. Without taxonomy the above research projects would be hampered. Finally, I use the internet and special tools available to disseminate and make this information available to everyone (open access journals, scratchpad websites like World Annonaceae and Palms of Africa). I am also Chair of the Species Survival Commission - Palm Specialist Group of the IUCN. |
post doctoral researchers
phd students
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Suzanne Kamga Mogue (co supervised by Prof. Bonaventure Sonké)
Université de Yaoundé I 2015-2018 (defense 2021) Suzanne is doing her PhD on the socio-economic importance and taxonomy of the palm genus Raphia within the RAPHIA project. Mogue Kamga, S., Brokamp, G., Cosiaux, A., Awono, A., Fürniss, S., Barfod, A.S., Muafor, F.J., Le Gall, P., Sonké, B., Couvreur, T.L.P., 2020. Use and Cultural Significance of Raphia Palms. Econ Bot. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-020-09487-z Mogue Kamga, S., Sonké, B., Couvreur, T.L.P., 2019. Raphia vinifera (Arecaceae; Calamoideae): Misidentified for far too long. Biodiversity Data Journal 7, e37757. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.7.e37757q [open access] |
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Amoussou Biowa Eldys Narcisse (co supervised by Romain Glèlè)
Université de Abomey-Calavi & Université de Montpellier. 2017-2021 Eldys works on the impact of climate change on several important non timber forest products (NFTP) across Africa. He uses species distribution modeling and future climate change scenarios infer to impact for global change on species distributions and the economical impact these changes will have. |
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Leo-Paul Dagallier
Universty of Montpellier 2018-2021 Leo Paul's PhD focuses on exploring the phylogenetic patterns of tropical African biodiversity, based on the RAINBIO database, and using a large phylogeny of African plants. He will in particular try to identify areas of paleo- and neo- endemics at the continental level. Leo-Paul's work will contribute towards the ERC GLOBAL project. Dagallier, L.-P.M.J., Janssens, S.B., Dauby, G., Blach‐Overgaard, A., Mackinder, B.A., Droissart, V., Svenning, J.-C., Sosef, M.S.M., Stévart, T., Harris, D.J., Sonké, B., Wieringa, J.J., Hardy, O.J., Couvreur, T.L.P., 2020. Cradles and museums of generic plant diversity across tropical Africa. New Phytologist 225, 2196–2213. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.16293 [open access] Dagallier, L.-P. M. J.; Mbago, F. M.; Luke, W. R. Q.; Couvreur, T. L. P. Three New Species of Uvariodendron (Annonaceae) from Coastal East Africa in Kenya and Tanzania. PhytoKeys 2021, 174, 107–126. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.174.61630. |
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Mariano Kpatenon Joly (co directed with Adeoti Adeola Zouri-Kifouli, Université de d'Abomey-Calavi, Bénin) and Estelle Jaligot (CIRAD, Montpellier).
Université de Abomey-Calavi & Université de Montpellier. 2018-2021 Mariano focuses on the evolution and genetic diversity of the important savanna palm Borassus aethiopum. He uses micrasatelite markers and nulcear palm arkers to study the genetic structure the phylogeohraphy of the genus across Africa. He will also focus on the palm Raphia vinifera in Western Cameroon.
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Paola Santacruz (co supervised with Prof. Rommel Montufar, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador (PUCE), Quito Ecuador.
Universty of Montpellier 2021 - 2023 Paola is part of the ERC GLOBAL project. She is based in Ecuador at the PUCE. Her project focuses on studying the interactions between Neotropical Annonaceae and their herbivores. She will also undertake metabolic and spectroscopy analyses of leaves to infer the chemical defense of Annonaceae and how they evolved within the family. She undertakes her research mainly at the Yasuni Forest Dynamics Plot. |
Engineers & contracts
Sonia Hamdi
Project manager (based in Montpellier)
Sonia is the project manager of the ERC GLOBAL project. She helps with the management of the project at both the administration and financial levels.
Project manager (based in Montpellier)
Sonia is the project manager of the ERC GLOBAL project. She helps with the management of the project at both the administration and financial levels.
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Carlos Rodrigues-Vaz
Botanical engineer (based in Paris, MNHN) Carlos works within the ERC GLOBAL project, 2020-2023 Carlos is in charge of herbarium leaf sampling for DNA extractions, Near InfraRed Scanning (NIRs) of herbarium specimens, field collecting in tropical areas of the globe, morphological data entries in eFLOWER using PROTEUS, and coordinator of citizen science projects on "Les Herbonautes" (http://lesherbonautes.mnhn.fr). His background is in tropical botany and ecology. He obtained his Ph.D. from The New York Botanical Garden working on a subgroup of the genus Schefflera (Araliaceae) from The Andes mountain range. He did taxonomic, systematic, and phylogenetic works along with ecological niche modeling applied to IUCN Red List assessments. |
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Vincent Soulé
Molecular Biology engineer (Based in Montpellier) Vincent works within the ERC GLOBAL project, 2020-2022 Vincent is in charge of extracting, sequencing and undertaking bioinformatics data analyses of Annonaceae species. |
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Nicolas Zapata
Botanist (Based in Quito, Ecuador). Nicolas is recruited by the IRD as a local staff (2021). Nicolas works a the projects botanist in Ecuador, helps with field work and specimen curation within the ERC GLOBAL project. |
past members
- Sebastían Pablo Escobar Vasquez (Co supervised by Henrik Balslev, Rommel Montufar) Aarhus University, 2017-2020
- Escobar, S., Pintaud, J.-C., Balslev, H., Bernal, R., Ramírez, M.M., Millán, B., & Montúfar, R. Genetic structuring in a Neotropical palm analyzed through an Andean orogenesis-scenario. Ecology and Evolution, https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4216
- Escobar, S.; Helmstetter, A. J.; Jarvie, S.; Montúfar, R.; Balslev, H.; Couvreur, T. L. P. Pleistocene Climatic Fluctuations Promoted Alternative Evolutionary Histories in Phytelephas Aequatorialis, an Endemic Palm from Western Ecuador. Journal of Biogeography 2021. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14055
- Helmstetter, A. J.; Béthune, K.; Kamdem, N. G.; Sonké, B.; Couvreur, T. L. P. Individualistic Evolutionary Responses of Central African Rain Forest Plants to Pleistocene Climatic Fluctuations. PNAS 2020. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001018117.
- Helmstetter, A. J.; Amoussou, B. E. N.; Bethune, K.; Kamdem, N. G.; Kakaï, R. G.; Sonké, B.; Couvreur, T. L. P. Phylogenomic Approaches Reveal How Climate Shapes Patterns of Genetic Diversity in an African Rain Forest Tree Species. Molecular Ecology 2020, 29 (18), 3560–3573. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15572.
- Ghogue J.P., Sonké, B., Couvreur, T.L.P. 2017. Revision of the African genera Brieya and Piptostigma. Plant Ecology and Evolution. 217: 173-216
- Marie Claire Veranso: PhD student (2014-2017).
University of Buea, Cameroon
Institute für Spezielle Botanik, University of Mainz, Germany
(I was one of the co supervisors together with Dr. Gudrun Kadereit, Douglas Stone and Dr. Fongod).
University of Buea, Cameroon
Institute für Spezielle Botanik, University of Mainz, Germany
(I was one of the co supervisors together with Dr. Gudrun Kadereit, Douglas Stone and Dr. Fongod).
- Veranso–Libalah, M.-C., Douglas, R.S., Fongod, A.G.N., Couvreur, T.L.P., Kadereit, G. 2017. Phylogeny and systematics of African Melastomateae (Melastomataceae). Taxon 6: 584-614
- Alix Pugeaut: Master II student (2017). (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris)
- Amira Azizan: Master I student (2016) (Université de Montpellier 2, Agro Paris Tech)
- Gilles Dauby: Post doctoral fellow of RAINBIO project (2014-2016)
- Dauby G, et al. (2016) RAINBIO: a mega-database of tropical African vascular plants distributions. PhytoKeys 74: 1-18. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.74.9723
- Sosef M.S.M.*, Dauby G.*, et al. 2017. Exploring the floristic diversity of tropical Africa. BMC Biology, 15, 1-15.
- Adama Faye: Master II and then PhD student (2011-2015)
Université de Montpellier, IRD grant.
Université de Montpellier, IRD grant.
- Faye, A., Pintaud, J.–C., Baker, W.J., Vigouroux, Y., Sonké, B. & Couvreur, T.L.P. 2016. Phylogenetics and diversification history of African rattans (Calamoideae, Ancistrophyllinae). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 182, 256–271
- Faye, A., Pintaud, J.–C., Baker, W.J., Sonké, B. & Couvreur, T.L.P. 2014. A plastid phylogeny of the African rattans (Ancistrophyllinae, Arecaceae). Systematic Botany 39: 1099–1107.
- Faye, A., Deblauwe, V., Mariac, C., Richard, D., Sonké, B., Vigouroux, Y. & Couvreur, T.L.P. 2016. Phylogeography of the genus Podococcus (Palmae/Arecaceae) in Central African rain forests: climate stability predicts unique genetic diversity. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 105, 126–138
- Scarcelli, N., Mariac, C., Couvreur, T.L.P., Faye, A., Richard, D., Sabot, F., Berthouly‐Salazar, C. & Vigouroux, Y. 2016. Intra‐individual polymorphism in chloroplasts from NGS data: where does it come from and how to handle it? Molecular Ecology Resources 16: 434-445.
- Vincent Deblauwe Post doctoral fellow (2014-2015)
IRD, Université de Yaoundé I
IRD, Université de Yaoundé I
- Deblauwe, V., Droissart, V., Bose, R., Sonké, B., Blach-Overgaard, A., Svenning, J.C., Wieringa, J.J., Ramesh, B.R., Stévart, T. & Couvreur, T.L.P. 2016. Remotely sensed temperature and precipitation data improve species distribution modelling in the tropics. Global Ecology and Biogeography 25: 443-454.