Biofilms contribute to crucial ecosystem processes in aquatic ecosystems and capture much of the biological complexity occurring in the environment. Importantly, the high microbial diversity, and sensitivities to environmental changes, suggests that the microorganisms composing biofilms are a suitable model to assess contaminant effects on complex ecological systems.
By using aquatic biofilms, we aim in our group to (i) unravel the underlying mechanisms of toxicity and biological responses to pollutants at the community level, and (ii) develop and optimize standardized risk assessment approaches accounting for the chemical and biological complexity in the environment. In particular, we are interested in understanding adaptation processes in microbial communities, following chronic exposures to pollutants, as these processes can be ultimately used to establish causalities in the environment.
