Fanny Houlbreque, PhD
Coral Physiologist / Researcher
Bio
Fanny Houlbreque is a coral physiologist, and was recruited at the IRD in 2011. During her PhD, her experimental work dealt with one of the most poorly studies areas in coral ecology: the heterotrophic nutrition of corals. Her thesis ranged from fieldwork (on the reef of Mayotte island in Indian Ocean) to laboratory work. Thereafter, she got a post-doctoral grant from Stanford University (USA) to expand her knowledge on coral calcification in the laboratory of Pr Rob Dunbar (Department of Environmental Earth Systems Science). There she had the chance to use many state-of the art techniques (U/Th and 14C dating, precise trace elements mapping in coral skeletons). Then, she got a position as research scientist at the IAEA in the Radioecology laboratory where, for 3 years, she developed experiments on the pollutant bioaccumulation in marine organisms and, in parallel, performed several studies on the effects of ocean acidification on tropical and Mediterranean corals. In 2011, she integrated the CoRéUs 2 unit (U227) where she started to use her expertise on climate change by developing studies interested in the impacts of ocean acidification on the main builder organisms of the New Caledonia reefs.
