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LabEx TULIP: What led you to Ecology?
Jérôme Chave: I got a PhD in physics and found interest in Ecology at the end of my thesis. I had the opportunity to go to rainforests with my thesis Director. We naively thought we could model this system solely with physicist’s tools but that ambition thinned out ... On the other hand, I got the “ecology virus”!  Since the side of physics on which I was interested in, Ecology consists in the study of complex systems, i.e., systems or units which are highly correlated. To understand how a single unit operates, like a cell within an organism or a gene within a genome, isn’t enough to understand their overall functioning. So, after a post-doc in the United States, I submitted to the CNRS a project on the biodiversity in tropical rain forests.  It therefore gave me the opportunity to bring a mathematical approach, which was innovative in this field.

LT: As for TULIP, do you consider the opening up of scientific fields a major denominator of CEBA?
J.C.: We gain a lot in breaking down barriers but we also should strengthen each discipline. In the TULIP project, which address the theory of interactions, even if theories may only be verbal, the mathematization of a theory is still an important step. The mathematical language is universal and allows to go further than the verbal stage. It’s a logical reasoning which leads to conclusions... And a great strength for France, because our country is a leader in the mathematical field.

LT: Why a local presence of the CEBA in French Guiana?
J.C.: Guyana is easily reachable from the city and has excellent infrastructures. Therefore, it it can be considered an open air laboratory dedicated to the study of tropical rain forests.  Beyond this forest, which is seen as a green and uniform canopy, actually lies a whole range of forests... Historically, one of the Guiana asset, apart from the engineering field with the Guiana Space Centre, is tropical medicine. When we developed the CEBA project, we considered this point. Finally, the CNRS is installed here since 2007 and I am the Scientific Director of the Research Station in Ecology of Nouragues, managed by the CNRS-Guyana Division.

LT: Is this station a major tool of the CEBA LabEx?
J.C.: This is only one of CEBA tools. Nouragues is a great facility like the Experimental Station of ecology in Moulis. Last year we hosted 4,000 people and resulting publications were numerous. We have reoriented the scientific aims of this station: researchers who had never thought going to tropical forest had the opportunity to develop their project. We have financed research projects to favor the welcome of researchers at Nouragues rather than elsewhere. The management of this station was an important element in the maturation of the CEBA project.

LT: You speak a lot about interdisciplinarity but how do you involve people coming from other disciplines?
J.C.:  The CEBA involves ecologists, population geneticists, epidemiologists, natural substances chemists, ethnologists and Political scientists. All these research fields share a common interest in the study of biodiversity and contribute to CEBA in following this guiding line. I regret the absence of economists who are an emerging part of this sector. More generally, French Guiana and its biodiversity is an incomparable source of inspiration, and is exactly what is needed when we are making science. An example: one of the projects that we financed at Nouragues was sent by one of the world experts of C. Elegans, also well-known in the biology field as Drosophila.  That scientist came to discover its sister species in the wild. In January 2013, her team has published an article showing that Nouragues is the site with the highest global diversity in this nematodes genus! I wish that the CEBA LabEx opens itself to the outside, which is a reason why our calls for projects are fully accessible. I also hope that researchers from the LabEx TULIP or other LabEx will answer this call. If people have the idea of developing links on the Amazonian biodiversity theme, the CEBA LabEx is here to help them. Furthermore, this LabEx, with its organized and operational network of interactions allows a precise identification of the science of Biodiversity in Guyana.

Jérôme Chave is coordinator of the CEBA LabEx (CEnter for the study of Biodiversity in Amazonia) & Research Director at the CNRS