Bonjour!
My name is Laura Soissons. I was born and raised in the South of France, close to Montpellier by the Mediterranean sea, and decided to become a marine biologist. I am currently working as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow at CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) in Montpellier and Sète. You can learn all about this ongoing EU-funded project here.
I am passionate about seagrass ecology and the conservation of key marine ecosystem engineers. Most of them are nowadays under serious threat, affecting their resilience, their survival and, ultimately, the ecosystem services they provide (e.g. coastal protection, carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and many more…). In order to help preserve key marine ecosystems such as seagrass meadows, my research focuses on providing a good understanding of their dynamics and resilience to human-induced threats with respect to their distribution, their seasonality, their species-specific growth strategies and ecosystem engineering capacity.
You can find me and follow my research on ResearchGate, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Curriculum Vitae
Current position
2018 – 2020: Postdoctoral researcher and MSCA fellow at CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) in the Research units UMR Marbec (MARine Biodiversity Exploitation and Conservation) and UMR Isem (Institute of Science of Evolution) based in Montpellier and Sète, France. Project: more details here.
Previous experiences
2016 – 2017: Postdoctoral researcher at NIOZ (Royal Netherlands Insitute for Sea Research) in the EDS group (Estuarine and Delta systems) in Yerseke, The Netherlands. Project: The importance of bio-physical interactions to optimise the restoration of ecologically valuable tidal flats in the Schelde estuary.
2011 – 2016: PhD candidate at NIOZ (Royal Netherlands Insitute for Sea Research) in the Spatial Ecology group in Yerseke, The Netherlands. Project: Understanding the resilience of temperate seagrass meadows in a changing environment.
2011: Msc intern (6 months) at Parc Zoologique de Montpellier in Montpellier, France. Project: Study on the motives and educational interests of Montpellier zoo’s visitors.
2010: Msc intern (6 months) at University of Bordeaux I and Ifremer, Station de l’Houmeau, France. Project: Impact of Zostera noltei canopies on sediment dynamics of a lagoon substrate : A flume study.
2009: Msc intern (3 months) at University of Bordeaux I, France. Project: Hydro-sedimentary characterization of eelgrass beds : an example from Arcachon Bay’s intertidal flats.
Education
2011 – 2016: PhD in Marine Biology at University of Nijmegen and NIOZ-Yerseke, The Netherlands. Defended on March 30, 2017.
2010 – 2011: Msc in Science communication at University of the West of England, Bristol, UK.
2008 – 2010: Msc in Ocean Sciences at University of Bordeaux I, France and University of Southampton, UK (benefited from the erasmus program for one semester).
2005 – 2008: Bachelor in Earth and Environmental Sciences at University of Montpellier II, France.
2005: Baccalauréat with a major in Sciences (French High school diploma).
Laura Soissons 