Houadria, Mickal

Curriculum Vitae

Working Experience/ Internships

Since January 2012: PhD Student on tropical ants in the group of Evolutionary Biology at the Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz

February-July 2009 : Biodiversity assessment CSIRO on Tiwi islands, Australia : sampling formicides ; quantification and statistical analysis using ants as bioindicators.

October-November 2008: Institut de Recherche & Développement (IRD), New Caledonia: 3 weeks sampling and identifying ants.

February-June 2008 : Research assistant, CSIRO Eden Australia : sampling formicides; quantification and statistical analysis, measuring the impact of fire and logging.

November 2007-January 2008; Wildcliffe Natural Reserve, Heidelberg, South Africa: assessment of endemic diversity in biotopes. Inventorying coleopteras, odonatas and hemipteras.

April-June 2007: Internship (1st year Master’s programme) Marseille: Inventorying coleopteras, odonatas for biodiversity management in a humid zone in the Mediterranean context.

Schooling

2008-2009: Master 2nd year in Biodiversity, Ecology, Environment, University Joseph Fourier, Grenoble 1 (France)

2007-2008 : Entomology Internships in collaboration with the University Aix Marseille (see below)

2006-2007 : Master 1st year in Biodiversity, continental ecology, University St Jerome, Marseille (France) Ä 2003-2006 : Bachelor Biology, University Joseph Fourier, Grenoble 1

2001-2003 : International Baccalaureate (OIB) Scientific Option, Ecole internationale de Grenoble

Related Jobs

2009-2011:Education Assistant for increasing awareness of children to the world of insects, Grenoble (France).

September-October 2006: Worked in an insectarium in Besancon, France.

2005-2006: Language laboratory assistant, University Joseph Fourier, Grenoble 1

Forschungsinteressen

PhD objectives
First objective:

• To what extent can we define ecosystems functions provided by ant baiting preferences?

Second objective:

• Concerning ant community ecology: assessing the local ant species mechanisms coexistence. Taking in consideration, functional efficiency (retrieval rates, recruiting behavior and life traits), narrow niche food specialization, and competition avoidance (ecological domination).

Third objective comparative studies

• Concerning conservation ecology, we will focus on loss or alteration of ecosystem functions in tropical secondary forest in contrast to primary forest by comparing ant population dynamics on baits.
• Concerning biogeography ecology, this part of the study will focus on finding similarities between the Old World and the New World concerning different ecosystem functions (defined by bait). But also look out for similarities (between New world and Old world) among taxonomic groups , ecosystem functions and dominance.

Publikationen

Houadria M, Blüthgen N, Salas-Lopez A, Schmitt MI, Arndt J, Schneider E, Orivel J, Menzel F (2016): The relation between circadian asynchrony, functional redundancy and trophic performance in tropical ant communities. Ecology 97: 225-235

Houadria M, Salas-Lopez A, Orivel J, Blüthgen N, Menzel F (2015): Dietary and temporal niche differentiation in species-rich assemblages - can they explain local tropical ant coexistence? Biotropica 47: 208-217

Andersen, A.N., Houadria, M., Berman, M., van der Geest, M. 2012 Rainforest ants of the Tiwi Islands: a remarkable centre of endemism in Australia's monsoonal tropics. Insect Sociaux., Vol: 59 Issue: 3 (2012), pp. 433-441

Andersen, A.N., Penman, T.D., Debas, N., Houadria, N. 2009 Ant community responses to experimental fire and logging in a eucalypt forest of south-eastern Australia. For. Ecol. Manage., 258 (2009), pp. 188–197