Philippe Jarne is research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), based at the Center for Evolutionary and Functional Ecology (CEFE) in Montpellier, France. He is leading the project Eco-Evolution: An Overarching Framework to Make Sense of Biodiversity Dynamics.
Born in France, Philippe Jarne is an evolutionary biologist and ecologist. After studying agronomy, he obtained a PhD in evolutionary biology in 1990 from the University of Montpellier, France. Following a postdoctoral fellowship with Brian Charlesworth at the University of Chicago, US, he was appointed research fellow at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences (ISEM) in Montpellier in 1992. Jarne was promoted to research director (full professor) in 1997 and joined the Center for Evolutionary and Functional Ecology (CEFE) in Montpellier in 1999, incorporating ecological approaches into his evolutionary biology work. He has held numerous leadership positions, including CEFE director from 2005 to 2014.
Research Focus
Jarne’s research investigates the ecological and evolutionary forces and processes that drive biodiversity dynamics. His work combines field, laboratory, theoretical and conceptual approaches to understand how processes such as natural selection within species or competition between species interact over time.
A central component of this work is long-term monitoring of freshwater ecosystems in the French West Indies. By tracking mollusk communities across hundreds of sites, Jarne and his collaborators examine how biotic interactions (e.g., competition or predation by crayfish) and environmental drivers influence their community dynamics. These field studies are complemented by laboratory experiments on traits, such as reproduction, as well as genomic analyses. In addition, Jarne and his team are using models to analyze eco-evo interactions. Their epistemological approaches aim to better understand these forces and processes — for example, in a predictive framework. This research is both particularly timely and relevant in light of the current biodiversity crisis resulting from human activities.
Awards and Recognition
Jarne received the Grand Prize from the French Society of Ecology and Evolution in 2020.
Feature image: Philippe Jarne portrait by Thierry Raulet. The freshwater snail Tarebia granifera, an invader in the French Antilles and the focus of the long-term study (shell size: ca. 2 cm). (Photo: Jean-Pierre Pointier)