BRIDGES x DATA TERRA Schools 2025

Aline is a senior researcher at IRD. She works on the functioning and resilience of coral reefs. She leads interdisciplinary projects in the WIO region to better understand the impacts of climate change and local anthropogenic activities on reef carbonate budget, corals, and dynamics of microbial communities. With her research team, she tests innovative approaches to improve the conservation and restoration of reef ecosystems, drawing on natural concepts combined with the humanities and education. As part of the BRIDGES x DATA TERRA School in Réunion, she will present, with Lionel Bigot, the disturbances affecting local coral reefs and the observation systems put in place to monitor and understand changes in the ecosystem.

Aline is part of BRIDGES OBSERVATION and BRIDGES RESILIENCE targeted projects.

LOCEAN-IPSL Research Unit – Saint-Denis, Reunion Island, France

Lionel is a research engineer at the Universitry of Reunion. For the past decade, Lionel has focused on studying and monitoring tropical marine and island ecosystems in the Southwestern Indian Ocean. His work combines field expertise, long-term coral reef surveys, environmental monitoring, and in situ experimentation to support research. He designs underwater sampling protocols and contributes to understanding ecosystem disturbances and the observation systems tracking their evolution.

He supports regional coral reef monitoring networks, develops long-term bio-indicators, and coordinates national and regional databases for GCRMN and the EU Water Framework Directive.

Lionel is part of BRIDGES OBSERVATION and BRIDGES RESILIENCE targeted projects.

ENTROPIE Research Unit – Saint-Denis, Reunion Island, France

Mathias is a research engineer at CNRS and project manager in information systems engineering and scientific computing. Specializing in the implementation of collaborative information systems dedicated to cataloging, sharing, and promoting research data, Mathias also contributes to scientific research through the development of agent-based models, artificial intelligence, and geomatics. His dual expertise in ecology and computer science enabled him to join the CNRS in 2002. In 2024, he moved geographically and thematically to the ENTROPIE tropical marine ecology Research Unit on the Reunion Island site, then joined the SantEco EMR on January 1, 2025.

Mathias is part of BRIDGES OBSERVATION, AVATAR and RESILIENCE targeted projects.

ENTROPIE Research Unit – Saint-Denis, Reunion Island, France

Julie is a research engineer at CNRS. She works for the BRIDGES INFORMATION project on data management, while supporting IR Data Terra’s activities in the Indian Ocean. Her first assignments focused on coastal dynamics and risks in France. Various projects then enabled her to understand the complexity of the maritime environment, focusing on the concepts of Maritime Spatial Planning, Marine Protected Areas, fishing issues, Marine Renewable Energy, and ocean conservation. To facilitate understanding of complex socio-ecosystems, Julie uses a wide variety of tools, including cartography and GIS, surveys, statistics, and scientific outreach tools.

DATA TERRA Research Infrastructure – Le Port, Reunion Island, France

Erwann is a research engineer at Ifremer. With a dual background in geography and GIS, Erwann specializes in the fields of the environment, research data management, and technologies for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating geographic data. At the national level, he coordinated the ANR Flash COPiLOtE project (“CertificatiOn PoLe OcEan,” toward the certification of ODATIS Ocean Data and Service Centers). At the European level, he contributes his expertise in marine data management to numerous projects in which he is responsible for tasks or work packages: EMODnet chemistry (2017-2023), ENVRI FAIR (2019-2022), Mission Atlantic (2020-2024), Geo-INQUIRE (2022-2026).

Erwann co-leads BRIDGES INFORMATION and is the head of the ODATIS Ocean cluster of the Data Terra Research Infrastructure.

DATA TERRA Research Infrastructure – Brest, France

Christelle is a research engineer at CNRS. She holds a PhD in computer science and specializes in research data management, with a focus on FAIR data, semantic interoperability, and research infrastructures in Earth and environmental sciences. She coordinates national and European services for the discovery, access, and analysis of Earth system data, based on interoperable semantic frameworks. She is the project manager for two services provided by Data Terra: EaSy Data, the long-tail Data Repository for the Earth System and the Environment, and EarthPortal, the catalog of semantic artifacts for the Earth System. She participates in national and European projects: technical coordination of the EOSC FAIR-EASE project and contributed to the EOSC FAIR-IMPACT and EOSC-Pillar projects.

She is currently participating in the EOSC LUMEN and BRIDGES INFORMATION projects.

DATA TERRA Research Infrastructure – Montpellier, France

Emmanuel is a research engineer at the University of Reunion. As a physical oceanographer, he is interested in the protective role played by coral reefs along coastlines, and in the interactions between the open ocean and the coastal areas of island systems. He approaches this topic through numerical modeling of physical processes and the coral environment, and through in-situ observation and measurement of these processes. It is this latter expertise that he will share during the BRIDGESxDATA TERRA School in Réunion.

He is the head of the IR ILICO Overseas Transversal Instrumented Site. He also leads the Réunion study site for the FUTURISKs project, which is part of the Ocean and Climate PPR.

OSU-Réunion, University of Réunion – Saint-Denis, Reunion Island, France

Isabel is a marine ecology scientist with a strong foundation in applied research for the management and conservation of coral reefs and associated coastal social-ecological systems. Her work integrates ecological processes, Research and Development in aquaculture, coral restoration, and monitoring. She focuses on: (i) evaluating the effectiveness of methods and indicators used in coral reef monitoring programs and tropical seaweed sector; (ii) developing optimal tools and programs to improve the management of these ecosystems while supporting local stakeholders, managers, and planners in implementing strategies of avoidance, reduction, and compensation for coastal environmental conservation.

Isabel contributes to BRIDGES, through the OBSERVATION targeted project.

ENTROPIE Research Unit – Saint-Denis, Reunion Island, France

Christelle is a research engineer at CNRS. She holds a PhD in computer science and specializes in research data management, with a focus on FAIR data, semantic interoperability, and research infrastructures in Earth and environmental sciences. She coordinates national and European services for the discovery, access, and analysis of Earth system data, based on interoperable semantic frameworks. She is the project manager for two services provided by Data Terra: EaSy Data, the long-tail Data Repository for the Earth System and the Environment, and EarthPortal, the catalog of semantic artifacts for the Earth System. She participates in national and European projects: technical coordination of the EOSC FAIR-EASE project and contributed to the EOSC FAIR-IMPACT and EOSC-Pillar projects.

She is currently participating in the EOSC LUMEN and BRIDGES INFORMATION projects.

DATA TERRA Research Infrastructure – Montpellier, France

Julie is a research engineer at CNRS. She works for the BRIDGES INFORMATION project on data management, while supporting IR Data Terra’s activities in the Indian Ocean. Her first assignments focused on coastal dynamics and risks in France. Various projects then enabled her to understand the complexity of the maritime environment, focusing on the concepts of Maritime Spatial Planning, Marine Protected Areas, fishing issues, Marine Renewable Energy, and ocean conservation. To facilitate understanding of complex socio-ecosystems, Julie uses a wide variety of tools, including cartography and GIS, surveys, statistics, and scientific outreach tools.

DATA TERRA Research Infrastructure – Le Port, Reunion Island, France

Nadjim is a lecturer at the University of Comoros. He graduated (MSc thesis) in Sustainable Biodiversity Management and Conservation from the University of Comoros. Between 2014 and 2017, he has been doing his doctoral research on Population genetics of bivalves (Tridacna family) at Ocean University of China. His PhD thesis entitled “Genetic variability of Tridacna maxima, T. crocea and T. squamosa (Bivalvia: Mollusk): molecular approach”. In 2017, Nadjim joined the Faculty of Sciences and Technology (University of Comoros) and working with his team on benthic communities and their ecosystems, critical habitats such as coral reefs and seagrasses. The topics cover the study of the biology, ecology and management of the marine resources.

Nadjim is part of the BRIDGES OBSERVATION targeted project.

Laboratoire des Sciences Marines et Littorales – Moroni, Comoros

Sylvie is a research engineer at IRD. Her main activity consists of designing and managing information systems for the management of in-situ observation data in the fields of marine biodiversity and physical oceanography in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. For the BRIDGES x DATA school in Comores, she will oversee the implementation of data management from field collection to international promotion.

She coordinates the ReefTEMPS National Observation Service, IR ILICO Observatory, and leads the Data Science component of the MIKAROKA International Joint Laboratory (Madagascar). She is also France overseas territories and international project manager for the ODATIS division of Data Terra.

Sylvie is part of the BRIDGES OBSERVATION targeted project.

ENTROPIE Research Unit – New Caledonia/Reunion Island, France

Thomas is an associate professor at the University of Reunion. He works on reef ecosystems functionning and the consequences of anthropogenic impacts, such as fishing. More specifically, he uses his knowledge of biomechanics, ecology, and evolution in fish to give each species a functional place in the ecosystem. He also uses innovative techniques to characterize fish assemblages in relation to their habitat and thus highlight any changes due to environmental forces. He teaches ecology, biostatistics, evolution, and takes part in field schools in the Bachelor’s degree program in Life Sciences and the Master’s degree program in Biodiversity and Ecology at the University of La Réunion

Thomas is part of the BRIDGES OBSERVATION and BRIDGES RESILIENCE targeted projects.

ENTROPIE Research Unit – Saint-Denis, Reunion Island, France