0000000000661009
AUTHOR
Franck Cézilly
Host manipulation in the face of environmental changes: Ecological consequences
Several parasite species, particularly those having complex life-cycles, are known to induce phenotypic alterations in their hosts. Most often, such alterations appear to increase the fitness of the parasites at the expense of that of their hosts, a phenomenon known as “host manipulation”. Host manipulation can have important consequences, ranging from host population dynamics to ecosystem engineering. So far, the importance of environmental changes for host manipulation has received little attention. However, because manipulative parasites are embedded in complex systems, with many interacting components, changes in the environment are likely to affect those systems in various ways. Here, …
Developing contextualized educational tools and resources for the study of biodiversity in middle and high schools of the French West Indies
International audience; The insular Caribbean is one of the most important hotspots of biodiversity in the world. The preservation of this invaluable natural heritage relies largely on the attitudes of local people towards biodiversity, especially among the younger generations. In this respect, scientific education in middle and high schools is particularly important. In the French West Indies, like elsewhere, the teaching of biodiversity would be even more effective if framed in a local context. However, most textbooks in life sciences written in French mainly rely on examples taken from animals and plants living in the French continental area, and are therefore poorly relevant for the tea…