Paleoecological indicators in lake sediments based on a multidisciplinary approach of endospore-forming Firmicutes and the chemical and isotopic composition of sediments and organic matter

The research will be dedicated to a PhD thesis in biogeochemistry, focusing on the geochemistry, sedimentology and paleontology of sediments from cores taken from Chilika Lake, India. The research will be applied to broader questions on the ecological evolution of this unique lagoon as a function of changing climatic, oceanographic as well as anthropogenic influence. Part of the work will also focus on a comparison of the microbiology preserved in the sediment cores, notably that of endospores, and its paleo-ecologic interpretations with that of the more classic geochemical-sedimentologic approach. While the bulk of the work will be done within the stable isotope laboratory of the University of Lausanne, the microbiology will be done in collaboration with the section of microbiology at the University of Neuchâtel.