PhD project
2021-2024
The cognition of mosquito larvae as a biological indicator of the quality of aquatic ecosystems
Keywords learning, memory, activity, ecotoxicology, insects, sensorial ecology
From February 2021 to March 2024, I was part of the Insect Biology Research Institute in Tours, France, where I conducted research under the supervision of Claudio Lazzari and Fernando Guerrieri.
Resume of our project
Human activities affect organisms living in freshwater ecosystems. Sublethal doses of pollutants alter the perception, integration and storage of information in aquatic invertebrates. However, it remains difficult to quantify these effects using chemical analysis of water or biodiversity monitoring. Instead, the development of novel biological indicators involves the analysis of cognitive abilities as a sensitive and integrative endpoint. In this work, we assess the cognitive abilities of mosquito larvae in relation to their environment and investigate whether they can be used as biological indicators of the quality of freshwater ecosystems. Taken together, our results show that mosquito larvae are capable of learning and remembering information that are modulated by environmental conditions and the presence of pollutants. Thanks to a controlled experimental framework, this work provides a first proof of concept for the use of the cognition of mosquito larvae as a bioindicator of freshwater ecosystem quality.
You can read my manuscript (it would be nice as I spent some time writing it)
Find some official informations from my thesis
