Digital publication of the opening lecture by Pr Tatiana Giraud

Tatiana Giraud

Dynamics and evolution of biodiversity and ecosystems

" To preserve biodiversity and the many services it provides, we need to understand how it was formed and what factors influence its dynamics. The theory of evolution by natural selection offers a powerful paradigm to explain why the living world is the way it is, how biodiversity is formed, what its dynamics are, and finally how populations manage to adapt or not to a changing environment.

Faced with the threat of climate change and the rapid decline in biodiversity it entails, the sciences of ecology and evolution are essential for measuring the scale of the current crisis and its consequences for human societies. "

Giraud T., Dynamique et évolution de la biodiversité et des écosystèmes, Paris, Collège de France, coll. " Leçons inaugurales ",^no 309, 2022.

Tatiana Giraud is Director of Research at CNRS (Ecology, Systematics and Evolution Unit, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, AgroParisTech) and a member of the French Academy of Sciences. She is visiting professor at the Collège de France on the annual Biodiversity and Ecosystems Chair, created with the support of the Jean-François and Marie-Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre Foundation, for the academic year 2021-2022.