Aurèle Toussaint
Chargé de recherche (CR) /
Researcher
Centre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et
l’Environnement
UMR5300 - UPS-CNRS-IRD-INP
Université
Paul-Sabatier - Toulouse 3
Bat. 4R1
118 Route de Narbonne
31062, Toulouse
France
Website
Metrics
Full CV available here
ResearchGate
here
Google
scholar
here
ORCID
0000-0002-5738-4637
Contact
We are looking for a PhD student !
More info here
Research
I work on ecological and evolutionary processes involved in the distribution of functional traits mainly on plants and vertebrates.
Previous grants
2020-2023 : Research Fellow supported by the Estonian Research Council (PSG-505) here
2017-2019 : Post-doctoral Fellow supported by the Estonian Research Council (MOBJD-276) here
2016 : Erasmus MUNDUS with the Kyung Hee University, Seoul (Korea)
Publications
The below publications represent my work to date. A full list of publications is available in Google Scholar and Research Gate.
Data repository is available here
2024
26/ Coulon N., Pilet S., Lizé A., Lacoue-Labarthe T., Sturbois A., Toussaint, A., Feunteun E., Carpentier A. Shark critical life stage vulnerability to monthly temperature variations under climate change. Marine Environmental Research, 198, 106531. PDF
25/ Tordoni, E., Carmona, C. P., Toussaint, A., Tamme, R., & Pärtel, M. Global patterns and determinants of multiple facets of plant diversity. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 00, e13823. PDF
24/ Toussaint A., Pärtel M., Carmona C.P., Contrasting impacts of non-native and threatened species on morphological, life-history, and phylogenetic diversity in bird assemblages, Ecology Letters, 27, e14373 PDF
2023
23/ Toussaint A., Pärtel M., Carmona C.P., Contrasting impacts of non-native and threatened species on morphological, life-history, and phylogenetic diversity in birds’ assemblages, Authorea PDF
22/ Coulon, N., Lindegren, M., Goberville, E., Toussaint, A., Receveur, A., & Auber, A., Threatened fish species in the Northeast Atlantic are functionally rare. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 00, 1-19. PDF
21/ Bueno, C.G., Toussaint, A., Träger, S. et al. Reply to: The importance of trait selection in ecology. Nature 618, E31-E34. PDF
20/ Toussaint A.,Pärtel M.,Carmona C.P., Non-native bird species will not compensate for the loss of phylogenetic and functional diversity after the extinction of threatened species, Authorea PDF
19/ de Tombeur, F., Raven, J. A., Toussaint A., Lambers, H., Cooke, J., Hartley, S. E., Johnson, S. N., Coq, S., Katz, O., Schaller, J. and Violle, C., Why do plants silicify? Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 38(3), 275-288 PDF
2022
18/ Auber A., Waldock C., Maire A., Goberville E., Albouy C., Algar A.C., McLean M., Brind’Amour A., Green A.L., Tupper M., Vigliola L., Kaschner K., Kesner-Reyes K., Beger M., Tjiputra J, Toussaint A., Violle C., Mouquet N., Thuiller W., Mouillot D., A functional vulnerability framework for biodiversity conservation, Nature Communications, 13, 4774 PDF
17/ Paganeli B., Toussaint A., Bueno C. G., Fujinuma J., Reier Ü., Pärtel M., Dark diversity at home describes the success of cross-continent tree invasions. Diversity and Distributions, 28 (6), 1202-1213 PDF
16/ Su G.,Tedesco P.A., Toussaint A., Villeger S., Brosse S., Contemporary environment and historical legacy explain functional diversity of freshwater fishes in the world rivers, Global Ecology and Biogeography, 31, 700-713 PDF
2021
15/ Brosse S., Charpin N., Su G., Toussaint A., Herrera-R. G.A., Tedesco P.A., Villeger S., FISHMORPH: A global database on morphological traits of freshwater fishes, Global Ecology and Biogeography, 30 (12), 2330-2336 PDF
14/ Carmona C.P., Bueno C.G., Toussaint A., Träger S., Diaz S., Moora M., Munson D.A., Pärtel M., Zobel M., Tamme R., Fine-root traits in the global spectrum of plant form and function, Nature, 597 (7878), 683-687 PDF
13/ Toussaint A., Brosse S., Bueno C.G., Pärtel M., Tamme S., Carmona C.P., Extinction of threatened vertebrates will lead to idiosyncratic changes in functional diversity across the world, Nature Communication, 12 (1), 1-12 PDF
12/ Tordoni E., Toussaint A., Pärtel M., Nogues-Bravo D., Carmona C.P., Combining taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional diversity reveals new global priority areas for tetrapod conservation, bioRxiv, doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.01.450689
11/ Carmona C.P., Tamme R., Pärtel M., de Bello F., Brosse S., Capdevila P., Gonzalez-M R., Gonzalez-Suarez M., Salguero-Gomez R., Vasquez-Valderrama M., Toussaint A., Erosion of global functional diversity across the tree of life, Science Advances, 7(13), eabf2675 PDF, press release CNRS, EurekAlert!
2020
10/ Carmona C.P., Tamme R., Partel M., de Bello F., Brosse S., Capdevila P., Gonzalez-M R., Gonzalez-Suarez M., Salguero-Gomez R., Vasquez-Valderrama M., Toussaint A., Mapping extinction risk in the global functional spectra across the tree of life, bioRxiv, doi:https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.29.179143 PDF
9/ Derezal, O., Mondy P.C., Dembski S., Kreutzenberger K., Reyjol Y., Chanderis A., Valette L., Brosse S., Toussaint A., Beillard J., Merg M.L., Usseglio-Polatera P., A diagnostic-based approach to assess specific risks of river degradation in a multiple pressure context: Insights from fish communities. Science of The Total Environment, 734, 139467 PDF
8/ Toussaint A., Bueno C.G., Davison J., Moora M., Tedersoo L., Zobel M., Opik M. & Partel M., Asymmetric patterns of global diversity among plants and mycorrhizal fungi Journal of Vegetation Science, 31(2), 355-366 PDF
2018
7/ Toussaint A., Charpin N., Beauchard O., Grenouillet G., Oberdorff T., Tedesco P.A., Villéger S. & Brosse S. Non-native species led to marked shifts in functional diversity of the world freshwater fish faunas. Ecology Letters, 21(11), 1649-1659. PDF, press release CNRS, press release IRD in french and blog post in English. Supplementary
6/ Kuczynski L., Côte J., Toussaint A., Brosse S., Buisson L., Grenouillet G. Spatial mismatch in morphological, ecological and phylogenetic diversity, in historical and contemporary European freshwater fish faunas. Ecography, 41, 1665-1674. PDF
5/ Tedersoo L., Laanisto L., Rahimlou S., Toussaint A., Hallikma T., Pärtel M. Global database of plants with root‐symbiotic nitrogen fixation: Nod DB. Journal of Vegetation Science, 29(3), 560-568 PDF
2016
4/ Toussaint A., Charpin N., Brosse S. & Villéger S. Global functional diversity of freshwater fish is concentrated in the Neotropics. Scientific Report, 6, 22125. PDF, press release in french and Radio show (La tête au carré, France Inter, 11/04/2016) Supplementary
3/ Toussaint A., Beauchard O., Oberdorff T., Brosse S. & Villeger S. Worldwide freshwater fish homogenization is driven by a few widespread non-native species. Biological Invasions, 18, 1295-1304. PDF
2015
2/ Allard L., Toussaint A., Vigouroux R. & Brosse S. Length-weight relationship of 58 fish species in streams of French Guiana. Journal of Applied Ichthyology, 31, 567-570. PDF
2014
1/ Toussaint A., Beauchard O., Oberdorff T., Brosse S., Villéger S. Historical assemblage distinctiveness and the introduction of widespread non-native species explain worldwide changes in freshwater fish taxonomic dissimilarity. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 23, 574-584. PDF and CNRS press release, Supplementary1; Supplementary2
Awards
2024
Estonian Research award for research on the functional diversity of plants and vertebrates at global scale. This project was develop around several scientific papers published in top-level journals. Among the high diversity of papers published, I recommend to read the papers published in Sciences Advances and Nature Communications. In those papers we investigated the diversity of functional traits for each group of vertebrates and plants at global and regional scales.
Communication
2020 Annual meeting for macroecology of the ecological society of Germany Austria and Switzerland, Konstanz, Germany: Mapping extinction risk in the global functional spectra across the tree of life
2018 Annual meeting for macroecology of the ecological society of Germany Austria and Switzerland, Birmendorf, Switzerland: Global mismatch between the species richness of vascular plants and symbiosis fungi
2017 60th IAVS Annual Symposium, Palermo, Italy: Global mismatch between the species richness of vascular plants and symbiosis fungi across biogeographic realms
2016 7th EAFES International Congress, Daegu, South-Korea: Functional diversity and vulnerability of freshwater fish at the global scale
2015 9th Symposium for European freshwater sciences, Geneva, Switzerland: Introductions of non-natives freshwater fish affected differently the taxonomic and functional biodiversity facets
2015 7th Biennal conference of the International Biogeography Society, Bayreuth, Germany : Functional diversity of the freshwater fish fauna (poster)
2013 8th Symposium for European freshwater sciences, Munster, Germany: Historical assemblage distinctiveness and the introduction of widespread non-native species explain worldwide changes in freshwater fish taxonomic dissimilarity
PhD Thesis
During my PhD, I investigated functional diversity of freshwater fishes at the world scale under the advisement of Pr. Sébastien Brosse and Dr. Sébastien Villéger
Toussaint A. 2016. Diversité fonctionnelle des poissons d’eau douce à l’échelle mondiale: patrons, déterminants et impacts des activité humaines. Université de Toulouse. 223p. PDF (in french only)
Detailed thesis abstract in English
Biodiversity is often characterized only through its taxonomic facet, i.e. the number and list of species present in assemblages. However, recent studies show that biodiversity can not be summarized only by this facet because it does not reflect the ecological characteristics of the species. Several facets can describe biodiversity as functional diversity that allows considering the ecological traits of species and thus their role in ecosystem functioning. However, few studies have described this facet of biodiversity at large scale, its links with the taxonomic diversity and its responses to global change. The objectives of this thesis is to 1) describe and understand the distribution of the functional diversity of freshwater fish assemblages at the global scale and 2) quantify the consequences of human activities on both taxonomic and functional biodiversity facets. Towards these aims we have built a morphological traits database for more than 9,000 species of freshwater fish occurring in more than 1,000 river basins across the world. We have demonstrated that functional diversity is unequally distributed across the world and weakly related to the taxonomic diversity at global scale. For example, species-rich Neotropical rivers host more than 75% of the global functional diversity whereas the African or Asian rivers, also rich in species, host less than a quarter of the world functional diversity. Such a situation is explained by the functional uniqueness supported by some species of Neotropical fish orders that contribute to increase the functional diversity of this region. The functional diversity of the different biogeographic realms is also unequally vulnerable to extinction of endangered species, as Europe or North America could lose between 35% and 45% of their functional diversity, while the Neotropical realm appears less sensitive with only 10% of its functional diversity supported by vulnerable species. We also showed that the introduction of non-native species in many river basins across the world have contributed to profoundly changing the historical patterns of biodiversity. Indeed, species introductions have promoted a taxonomic homogenization of fish faunas across the world accompanied by a decrease in the number of unique species in the poorest assemblages. This change is largely due to the overriding effects of few non-native species largely introduced worldwide. In addition, non-native species have contributed to significantly increase the functional diversity of assemblages by 150% on average, up to 7 times greater than that reported for taxonomic diversity (20% on average). This demonstrates the high sensitivity of the functional diversity of fish assemblages face to changes in species composition and the need to consider the functional diversity for understanding the impact of current and future human activities. These results contribute to the knowledge on the biodiversity of the richest vertebrate clade and therefore have implications in terms of biodiversity conservation and management of freshwater ecosystems.