Fanny is a postdoctoral fellow working with Jim Barry. She earned a PhD in Marine Biology from the Pennsylvania State University, a MSc in Marine Ecology from the University of Western Brittany (France) and BS in Biology from Sorbonne University (France). Before joining MBARI Fanny was a postdoctoral researcher at Ifremer studying hydrothermal vents. In addition, she worked at the French National Museum of Natural History where she contributed to the assessment of the conservation status of marine turtle species for different environmental policies.

Research interests

I am a benthic ecologist interested in how environmental changes affect deep-sea communities through space and time. Using non-destructive image-based methods, my research has been focusing on the ecology of various vulnerable marine ecosystems including chemosynthetic and deep-sea coral ecosystems.

The goal of my postdoctoral project at MBARI is to characterize the spatial and temporal dynamics of deep-sea coral and sponge communities on Sur Ridge, a large rocky feature located within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Relying on the analysis of in situ environmental data (e.g. currents), high-resolution bathymetry and imagery data (i.e. video transects, timelapse photography, photomosaics), I aim to better understand the connection between environmental condition and species behavior (coral feeding activity), distribution and community composition. Ultimately, this study will shed light on how deep-sea coral and sponge communities may respond to future environmental change.