Prénom :
Jean-Baptiste
Nom :
Juhel
E-mail :
jean-baptiste.juhel@umontpellier.fr
Organisme :
UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTPELLIER
Grade / Titre :
Chercheur associé / Post-doctorant
Disciplines :
Ecologie des populations et des communautés
Modèles biologiques :
Poissons côtiers et récifaux
Enseignement :
My research activities mainly focused on implementing innovative survey methods and statistical modeling to estimate marine biodiversity, evaluate anthropogenic impacts and optimize conservation measures.
Sharks conservation in coral reefs
My first research topic focused on the distribution of apex predators (Juhel et al. 2014, Juhel 2016), the impact of human activities and the efficiency of marine reserves (Juhel et al. 2017, 2019). I used stereo baited remote underwater video systems (S-BRUVS), a method that I helped to calibrate (Letessier et al. 2015). The results of these studies revealed a drastic impact of the proximity of human population on both abundance and behavior. They also showed that only no-entry reserves can efficiently protect shark populations and maintain their natural behavior. These studies contributed to the shark fishing ban in New Caledonia. Later, this topic was widened to a larger spatial scale (Letessier et al. 2019), a larger species community (Steinberg et al. 2021) and different survey methods (Boussarie et al. 2019).
Environmental DNA monitoring in marine environment
To further explore marine biodiversity and overcome the biases of visual and video survey methods, I implemented environmental DNA (eDNA) in the marine realm. I used eDNA in a wide range of marine environments in the circumtropical region. I explored and modeled the genetic diversity in the coral triangle and help tackle the challenges related to incomplete reference databases (Juhel et al. 2020).
I got involved in studies in Columbia (Polanco et al. 2020, 2021), in Malpelo Island (Marques et al. 2021, Juhel et al. 2021) and in the Mediterranean Sea (Boulanger et al. 2021). The later study brought light on a new conservation paradigm revealing that marine reserves host less species by recording cryptobenthic species usually missed out.
I was actively involved in studies that tackled the challenges related to the implementation marine eDNA. As the last author, I managed the creation of the free app GAPeDNA to support eDNA users by summarizing the completeness of online reference databases worldwide, providing the list of sequenced species and revealing areas that require high sequencing effort (Marques et al. 2020). I designed an in situ replication experiment to determinate the sampling effort required to accurately sample coral reefs (Stauffer et al. 2021).
Application of eDNA modelling for ecology
I developed a new framework to explore eDNA diversity adapted from plant ecology that takes into account the dark diversity (i.e. species that should be present but that are not detected in the samples). This new framework includes a dark (present in historical checklists but not detected by any methods), hidden (detected by eDNA but not detected by visual of video survey methods) and extended hidden diversity (special case – species detected by eDNA but absent from the checklist). This study evaluates the diversity that is historically missed in hyper diverse ecosystems and how eDNA can help to revisit checklists of species (Juhel et al. 2022).
Now, my research activities focus on implementing a large scale marine census using innovative methods and citizen science to bridge the gap between science and society.
Sharks conservation in coral reefs
My first research topic focused on the distribution of apex predators (Juhel et al. 2014, Juhel 2016), the impact of human activities and the efficiency of marine reserves (Juhel et al. 2017, 2019). I used stereo baited remote underwater video systems (S-BRUVS), a method that I helped to calibrate (Letessier et al. 2015). The results of these studies revealed a drastic impact of the proximity of human population on both abundance and behavior. They also showed that only no-entry reserves can efficiently protect shark populations and maintain their natural behavior. These studies contributed to the shark fishing ban in New Caledonia. Later, this topic was widened to a larger spatial scale (Letessier et al. 2019), a larger species community (Steinberg et al. 2021) and different survey methods (Boussarie et al. 2019).
Environmental DNA monitoring in marine environment
To further explore marine biodiversity and overcome the biases of visual and video survey methods, I implemented environmental DNA (eDNA) in the marine realm. I used eDNA in a wide range of marine environments in the circumtropical region. I explored and modeled the genetic diversity in the coral triangle and help tackle the challenges related to incomplete reference databases (Juhel et al. 2020).
I got involved in studies in Columbia (Polanco et al. 2020, 2021), in Malpelo Island (Marques et al. 2021, Juhel et al. 2021) and in the Mediterranean Sea (Boulanger et al. 2021). The later study brought light on a new conservation paradigm revealing that marine reserves host less species by recording cryptobenthic species usually missed out.
I was actively involved in studies that tackled the challenges related to the implementation marine eDNA. As the last author, I managed the creation of the free app GAPeDNA to support eDNA users by summarizing the completeness of online reference databases worldwide, providing the list of sequenced species and revealing areas that require high sequencing effort (Marques et al. 2020). I designed an in situ replication experiment to determinate the sampling effort required to accurately sample coral reefs (Stauffer et al. 2021).
Application of eDNA modelling for ecology
I developed a new framework to explore eDNA diversity adapted from plant ecology that takes into account the dark diversity (i.e. species that should be present but that are not detected in the samples). This new framework includes a dark (present in historical checklists but not detected by any methods), hidden (detected by eDNA but not detected by visual of video survey methods) and extended hidden diversity (special case – species detected by eDNA but absent from the checklist). This study evaluates the diversity that is historically missed in hyper diverse ecosystems and how eDNA can help to revisit checklists of species (Juhel et al. 2022).
Now, my research activities focus on implementing a large scale marine census using innovative methods and citizen science to bridge the gap between science and society.
Mon Site web :
ResearchGate :