Population genetics methods allow researchers to infer historical events in human and non-human populations, at time scales for which historical records provide no information. Coalescent-based methods have been developed to infer these events. These methods have been successfully applied to many populations, using classical population genetics markers (e.g. microsatellites, DNA sequences). They have allowed us for instance to determine whether populations have undergone events of growth or decline, of migration between surrounding populations, and if some populations result from admixture events between two or more populations. The parameters of these demographic phenomena (e.g. growth rates, migration rates, ancestral population sizes, admixture rates) could be estimated to some extent. The amount of data available on DNA polymorphism is increasing by several orders of magnitude through the recent development of new kind of polymorphism datasets: DNA chips datasets with several hundred of thousands or even a few millions of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and full genome sequences. Some of the SNPs are in coding or regulatory regions and may thus be submitted to selection, but others are outside these regions and can thus be used for demographic processes inference. This strong increase in the amount of available data may lead to the logical conclusion that demographic events could be inferred much more precisely thanks to these new datasets. Based on the existing methods, the main problem is to develop new algorithms adapted to such data, as they differ from classical data both by the amount of available polymorphism and also by the occurrence in these datasets of many linked loci, which offers the possibility to use the level of linkage disequilibrium inside the estimation process. The aim of this study is to develop new coalescent-based approaches (ABC and MCMC) for these new data sets and to apply them to human and Drosophila melanogaster polymorphism datasets. The first step will be to develop a simulation program that will be able to generate such large datasets. In a second step, the simulation program will be then used directly to develop ABC methods, but also as a mean to test the validity of the different methods. For the MCMC method, we will focus on how to optimize these methods for large data sets and if a strategy of optimal sub-sampling can be designed to keep a reasonable computing time. In a third step, we will apply these methods to real data on human and Drosophila populations. Regarding humans, the first question will be whether we can infer different demographic history for populations that have been submitted to different lifestyles, namely agriculturalists, herders and hunter-gatherers. In particular do these differences in lifestyle influence their expansion rate? The second question will be whether we can infer the history of migration and admixture of populations in Central Asia. Are these populations the results of admixture events between the neighbouring European and Asian populations, or conversely are they one of the first areas colonised after the emergence of modern humans out of Africa, areas from which other Eurasian area were subsequently colonised? Finally, we will also investigate the possibility to infer a recombination map along the genome in the different population taking into account their demographic history. Regarding D. melanogaster, we will investigate its demographic history in Africa exploiting the data produced by the DPGP project. Two main issue will be tackled, namely the timing and mode of expansion in Africa (particularly the proposed division between East and West African populations) and the time of the out-of–Africa.

The “Neolithic way of life" developed in the Caucasus ca. 6200 BCE, which is fairly late when compared with the astonishing steps taken by Near-Eastern cultures in the neighbouring Fertile Crescent as early as the 9th mill. BC. The existence of organic links between the Neolithisation process of the Near-East and that of the Caucasus is still a matter of debate, but the Caucasus no doubt appears as a marginal, backward area in the overall dynamics that shaped part of South-western Asia in the early Holocene. During the following period, i.e. the Chalcolithic, these dynamics seemingly changed completely and South-Western Asia underwent a progressive shift in its centre of gravity: some time ca. the 5th-4th mill. BC, a change in circulation flows appeared in the obsidian procurement strategies of Iranian and north Mesopotamian communities, which started to exploit Caucasian obsidian beds as well, instead of focusing on East Anatolian deposits. This shift in obsidian sourcing networks is coeval with the development of major technical innovations such as extractive copper metallurgy and the production of wool fabrics, which led to the systematic exploitation of a new range of raw materials (salt and metal ores) and probably entailed the appropriation of new territories - the Highlands. At any rate, it appears that Transcaucasia became a major source of attraction for human groups living in Iran, North Mesopotamia and beyond from the Late Chalcolithic onwards (ca. 4500 BCE), as shown by the number of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age sites found in the Araxes and Urmiah basins. How should these profound, structural, changes be interpreted? The explanation that leaps to mind is of course that major changes in economic flows were prompted by technical innovations. We need to test this hypothesis by breaking down the intricate relationships between the development of these innovations, the quest for raw materials, and the rise of other practices, such as vertical pastoralism or long-distance nomadism. Indeed, innovations, which may be technological or zootechnological, may have involved the migrations and/or increasing mobility of human groups living in the Near and Middle East, as claimed by several studies. But the processes underlying the changes in economic flows are still poorly understood, while the reality of human migrations from the Near-East towards the Caucasus during the 4th mill. BC has been actively challenged. Altogether, it is the agency of Late Prehistoric Caucasian communities that is being debated, between a centre-vs-periphery perspective that considers the Highlands as a mere source of raw materials, exploited by the proto-urban communities of the lowlands, and an analytical stance that places the evolution of the Caucasus within the complexity of Eurasian dynamics in Late Prehistory, which integrates not only the Near and Middle East but also the Pontic universe and the northern steppes. Thus, this project lies at the core of on-going international research on: a) the neolithisation processes of the Caucasus, b) the interactions between the Caucasus and the Near and Middle-East from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. Considering the state of the art, we have three goals in mind: i) the study of the Caucasian Neolithic, as seen from the Araxes basin, with a special emphasis on its possible connections with the Neolithic communities of the Fertile Crescent; ii) the study of interregional economic networks between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, in relationship with the emergence of new economic hubs; iii) the study of the human mosaic developing in the Highlands during the 4th mill., with a view to identifying the various cultural groups involved in what appears as a "copper rush".

Human societies are interacting with a growing number of nonhuman animal species, including exotic species during visits to zoological parks. And yet, the existence of zoos remains polemical, despite their increasing contribution to biodiversity conservation, because of ethical issues of maintaining wild animals in captivity. Few studies however assessed whether the behaviour and attitude of visitors influence zoo animals, especially nonhuman primates that are so closely related to humans. Besides, humans often lack ability to correctly perceive the emotional state of nonhuman animals, our representations of specific animal species being biologically and culturally driven. This is thus crucial for zoos to understand how captive nonhuman primates and human visitors perceive each other and to identify and promote pedagogic tools that could improve public perceptions. The PRIMAZOO project proposes to develop an integrative approach to study intersecting perceptions and representations underpinning human-animal interactions in zoos. We will mobilize theoretical and methodological concepts from both biological sciences and social sciences and humanities, to understand (i) how nonhuman primates and humans perceive each other according to a variety of individual and environmental factors and (ii) how human visitors represent nonhuman primates and their captivity, depending on their participation in interactive zoo mediation displaying citizen science. The principal investigator, Audrey Maille, and her pluri-disciplinary team composed of 18 collaborators (including 5 persons hired for the project), will carry out five research tasks and one coordination task to achieve the aims of the PRIMAZOO project. TASK 1 will consist of adapting existing infrastructures at Haute-Touche Zoological Reserve (MNHN, Indre), in order to accommodate studies on macaques (Macaca tonkeana) and visitors in the first zoo-based Primate Study Centre to be established in a public zoo being part of a national research institution. TASK 2 will assess whether macaques and humans are able to attribute emotions to members of the other species by processing multimodal cues, such as facial expressions, body postures or vocalizations. TASK 3 will evaluate how the behaviour of one species affects the behaviour of the other species when interacting during zoo visits. TASK 4 will investigate whether participation in zoo mediation displaying citizen science influences those intersecting perceptions and the visitors’ representations of nonhuman primates. Finally, the transversal TASK 5, will study how behaviours and attitudes of human participants toward macaques are affected by knowledge and representations about zoo primates. The PRIMAZOO project, will contribute to improve scientific knowledge about the human-environment interactions as it aims to better characterize the relationships between human and nonhuman primates in a zoo setting through an innovative and holistic approach of animal captivity. This project has the potential to provide new insights on the putative effects of captivity on behaviour of primates, increasing our understanding of primate welfare in zoological parks. This project should also provide scientific tools from life and social sciences for evaluating the influence of environmental education developed in zoo settings on public engagement with zoos as actors of biodiversity conservation, and more generally with environmental issues. The PRIMAZOO project will thus have both scientific and societal implications, in helping to guide the decision-making process in the zoo community.

Anthropogenic noise is still not considered a serious contaminant with an impact on human health. However, the prediction of the number of people who will be affected by hearing and non-hearing diseases in 2050 has been revised upwards by WHO: it has tripled in 3 years, from 700 million to 2.5 billion. While hearing loss, tinnitus and auditory fatigue are identified phenotypes, others such as hyperacusis (associated with attention deficit) or global early hearing loss in certain populations are underestimated and could have important social impact. It becomes urgent for public institutions, both national and local, to recognise that anthropogenic noise is a key source of disturbance for peoples’ health. The Earscape project explores, for the first time, whether the hearing sensitivity (HS) of normohearing individuals is shaped by acoustic environmental factors, and more specifically by the anthropophony component. We will use an innovative approach combining the expertise from ecoacoustics, hearing physiology, anthropology, population genomics and explainable artificial intelligence to unravel the complex interactions between acoustic environmental and individual factors. To reach our objectives, we will sample 9 human populations from 3 different geo-cultural areas (GCAs) and genetic backgrounds: Ecuador-Amazonia/Quechua, Gabon/Fang and France/French. For these 3 GCAs, we will develop a similar sampling scheme by selecting 3 soundscapes (Low-rural, Medium-rural, and High-urban) from inhabiting areas displaying variable levels of anthropization (i.e. sampling strategy is based on population density, lands take and the presumably associated level of anthropophony). This sample scheme will help to compare the different soundscapes within each GCA, but also to test for potential convergent process between rural and urban soundscapes. The soundscape of each population will be characterized using 1-year long ecoacoustic recording data; for the first time in this discipline, a precise measure of the anthropophony component will be developed. We will sample 270 individuals in the selected populations, collect their DNA and HS profiles using oto-acoustic emission. We will sample an equal ratio of men and women, a prerequisite for testing our scientific hypotheses. We will sequence their whole genome at 30x depth and analyse a set of 35 candidate hearing loss genes. We will explore both the genetic variants in coding sequences, as well as non-coding regulatory regions and associated CNV variants; the latter types of genetic variants being highly polymorphic, they are likely to retain the potential signature of ongoing local adaptation. All these data will be combined using explainable AI and machine learning procedures to reveal the relative impact of the different factors shaping hearing sensitivity. The results might lead to new paradigms on how, and by which mechanisms, the deep characteristics of our environment might influence the evolution of the hearing sensory traits. These results will open the discussion on the continuous adaptation of our hearing sensitivity to the current rapidly changing acoustic environment and especially on the potential maladaptive character of new forms of hearing sensitivity. Key information will be collected on rural and urban-specific soundscapes in human population, on population-specific global hearing loss and hyperacusis, on putative new genetic markers to consider in hearing loss genetic screening, and on the factors, ranked, affecting hearing sensitivity. Through an efficient scientific communication and the development of simple and efficient tools for the general public, we propose to increase awareness of hearing fragility.

The objective of this project is to study, in a systematic comparison, focusing on traded species consumed both in rural and urban areas, the representation of insect consumption in different multicultural Latin American countries. It also questions how, at a local level, gathering, processing, trade and consumption of insects may constitute a biocultural heritage and, at a wider level, which actions of heritagization involving edible insects are taking place or not. Eventually, how does this consumption reveal tensions between social classes and ethnic groups? By analyzing environmental and culinary knowledge, threats on insects’ environment and nutritional quality of insects, it finally aims at valuing this heritage, supporting local stakeholders in their practices and co-constructing knowledge to respond to food issues for the future.