Bishop’s University
Postdoctoral fellow candidate
Supervisor: Valérie Fournier
Patrick Bergeron
Reale, Denis, UQAM
Start: 2021-04-08
End: 2023-04-07
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Project

Applied conservation physiology to promote bumblebee health and performance in collaboration with the agricultural community
Agricultural biodiversity is declining worldwide, leading to a reduction in ecosystem services and threatening food security and human health. Namely, many pollinators are threatened in North America. This matters because in Canada, more than $1 billion worth of fruits and vegetables depend on wild bees for pollination. Their role in pollinating wild plants, and thus maintaining the integrity and functionality of many ecosystems, is also major. Because they are active at low temperatures, bumblebees are key pollinators in our latitudes. Yet, seven species are already threatened with extinction in Canada. The main threats are habitat loss, parasitic infections, malnutrition and pesticide exposure, associated with intensive agriculture. To efficiently act on these threats, we must: 1. Reestablish a two-way dialogue with farmers and integrate their considerations when initiating conservation research and projects; 2. Improve our knowledge of the nutrition and ecophysiology of key wild pollinators; 3. Transfer, quickly and efficiently, the scientific knowledge acquired to the development of pollinator-friendly practices. This project seeks to identify concrete solutions to improve the resistance and resilience of bumblebees to external threats to enhance their conservation status in Canada. We will target plants and plant associations with high agro-economic value for farmers and high nutritional and medicinal values for bumblebees. This project will be built in close collaboration between the different stakeholders in order to integrate and consider both the ecological (nutritional needs and ecophysiology of bumblebees) and societal (economic and social reality of farmers) aspects.

Keywords

Nutrients / Nutriments, Conservation, Life history strategies / stratégies d'histoire de vie, reproduction, Behavior / Comportement

Publications

1- Weeds as a predominant food source: a review of the diet of common hamsters Cricetus cricetus in farmlands and urban habitats
Tissier, Mathilde L., Stéphane Marchandeau, Caroline Habold, Yves Handrich, Julien Eidenschenck, Charlotte Kourkgy
2019 Mammal Review

2- Captive-reared European hamsters follow an offensive strategy during risk-assessment
Mathilde L. Tissier, Christophe A. H. Bousquet, Julie Fleitz, Caroline Habold, Odile Petit, Yves Handrich
2019 PLOS ONE

3- An anti-predation device to facilitate and secure the crossing of small mammals in motorway wildlife underpasses. (II) Validation with the European hamster under semi-natural conditions
Tissier, Mathilde L., Christophe A.H. Bousquet, Julie Fleitz, Nicolas Chatelain, Caroline Habold, Yves Handrich
2018 Ecological Engineering

4- A focus on the European hamster to illustrate how to monitor endangered species
KLETTY, Florian, Mathilde TISSIER, Charlotte KOURKGY, Fabrice CAPBER, Alexandre ZAHARIEV, Nicolas CHATELAIN, Julien COURTECUISSE, Yvon LE MAHO, Caroline HABOLD
2019 Integrative Zoology

5- Dietary proteins improve hibernation and subsequent reproduction in the European hamster, Cricetus cricetus
Weitten, Mathieu, Mathilde Louise Tissier, Jean-Patrice Robin, Caroline Habold
2018 American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology

6- Monocultural sowing in mesocosms decreases the species richness of weeds and invertebrates and critically reduces the fitness of the endangered European hamster
Tissier, Mathilde L., Florian Kletty, Yves Handrich, Caroline Habold
2017 Oecologia

7- Adaptations métaboliques et digestives des espèces hibernantes
Tissier, Mathilde Louise, Caroline Habold
2017 Cahiers de Nutrition et de Diététique

8- Diets derived from maize monoculture cause maternal infanticides in the endangered European hamster due to a vitamin B3 deficiency
Tissier, Mathilde L., Yves Handrich, Odeline Dallongeville, Jean-Patrice Robin, Caroline Habold
2017 Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

9- An anti-predation device to facilitate and secure the crossing of small mammals in motorway wildlife underpasses. (I) Lab tests of basic design features
Tissier, Mathilde L., Jonathan Jumeau, Caroline Croguennec, Odile Petit, Caroline Habold, Yves Handrich
2016 Ecological Engineering

10- How maize monoculture and increasing winter rainfall have brought the hibernating European hamster to the verge of extinction
Tissier, Mathilde L., Yves Handrich, Jean-Patrice Robin, Mathieu Weitten, Paul Pevet, Charlotte Kourkgy, Caroline Habold
2016 Scientific Reports

11- Starting with a handicap: effects of asynchronous hatching on growth rate, oxidative stress and telomere dynamics in free-living great tits
Stier, Antoine, Sylvie Massemin, Sandrine Zahn, Mathilde L. Tissier, François Criscuolo
2015 Oecologia

12- Maternal Effects Underlie Ageing Costs of Growth in the Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata)
Mathilde L. Tissier, Tony D. Williams, François Criscuolo
2014 PLoS ONE