Emmanuelle Casanova and Elsa Abs, researchers at LSCE (CEA/CNRS/UVSQ), received an ERC Starting Grant for their respective projects on the emergence of agropastoralism on the Indo-Iranian borderlands (Agrochrono) and on the evolution and adaptation of soil microbes to climate change (GAMEchange).
Emmanuelle Casanova, a researcher at the French Commission for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies (CEA), is one of the prizewinners for her research into agropastoralism in southwest Asia.
Emmanuelle Casanova’s work focuses on the development of agropastoralism from the 7th to the 4th millennium BC on the borders of the Indo-Iranian Borderlands (IIBL), located on the eastern route of diffusion of agropastoralism from the Fertile Crescent. For this project, Emmanuelle is focusing on the development of agropastoralism in this region, which appears to be contradicting a classic linear mode of diffusion with the emergence of new, independent trajectories.
This study meets several objectives:
- Determine the chronology of archaeological sites;
- Study how the domestication of plants and animals changed populations food procurement;
- Establish the paleoenvironmental and climatic framework in which populations evolved.
- Determine the cultural, economic and chronological links between the settlements in the region.
The challenge of her research is to better understand the arrival and spread of agropastoralism in this region. For this study, Emmanuelle relies on new analytical methods combining techniques from classical archaeology, bioarchaeology, paleoclimatology with cutting-edge techniques in molecular and isotopic geochemistry and chronometric methods such as carbon 14 dating. The plurality of techniques used gives this project a unique scientific approach.
(Source: CEA Communication)
Elsa Abs is an early-career researcher at the Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences (LSCE, CEA/CNRS/UVSQ) and is also affiliated with the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine, USA. They specialize in microbial eco-evolution and its impact on carbon dynamics. Their work combines mathematical modeling of evolution with Earth system models to understand how microbes adapt to climate change and influence soil organic matter decomposition as well as carbon storage.
Elsa Abs has taught courses at the École Normale Supérieure d’Ulm and the University of Arizona on modeling applied to ecology and evolutionary biology. At LSCE, they are committed to promoting inclusivity in science and to engaging scientists in climate change mitigation.
Their ERC project, GAMEchange, hosted by UVSQ, focuses on the impact of soil microbial evolution on future terrestrial carbon stocks. Relying on advanced mathematical models and twenty years of genetic data on soil microbes, the project’s goal is to understand how these microbes adapt to climate change and influence soil carbon decomposition and emissions. The project aims to determine whether microbial adaptations amplify soil carbon loss, exceeding current predictions. It will unfold in three stages: studying microbial evolution in response to climate change in different regions of the world, integrating these evolutionary processes into land surface models, and assessing the impact of these adaptations on projections of terrestrial carbon stocks.
(Source: UVSQ Communication)