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Introduction
I am an ecologist and sustainability scientist
Current institution
Additional affiliations
March 2013 - September 2013
Education
October 2010 - March 2013
September 2006 - May 2010
Publications
Publications (30)
Groundwater resources in arid regions are under increasing strain, making effective governance critical for mitigating resource degradation. Recognising the context-specific nature of water governance, and challenging the prescription of universal solutions, this study examines groundwater governance challenges and opportunities in Morocco's Middle...
As a result of human activities and climate change, salinity levels have risen considerably in many of the world’s rivers, particularly in arid and semi-arid areas. This freshwater salinization primarily affects microalgal biofilms, the primary producers in aquatic ecosystems. This study is aimed at assessing short-term salinity effects on benthic...
https://td-academy.org/tdacademy/updates/what-is-a-good-transformation-and-who-gets-to-define-it-insights-from-critical-social-science-to-strengthen-reflexivity-and-refine-transdisciplinary-research-tools/
Les régions oasiennes du Maroc sont confrontées à des changements continus liés à des facteurs comme la rareté de l’eau, les migrations et l’urbanisation, conditionnant la survie de ces espaces millénaires. Cependant, les activités des femmes et leurs contributions sociales et économiques face à ces changements sont peu prises en compte dans le mon...
Algal biofilms play an essential role in ecosystem functioning, but their physiological and biochemical changes during salt stress remain poorly understood. This study aimed at investigating how biofilm communities react to different salinity in a microcosm experiment and to offer insights into the potential effects of future freshwater salinizatio...
Freshwater salinization increasingly threatens river ecosystems in arid regions. In situ studies on effects of salinity on freshwater communities are still scarce, especially in largely understudied areas of Africa. To compare macroinvertebrate communities in differing salinity levels, we conducted a confluence-based study in the Draa River basin i...
Cloeon vanharteni Gattolliat & Sartori, 2008 was newly discovered in the framework of our study of Ephemeroptera in the Draa basin, located in the southern region of the High Atlas in Morocco. This discovery is rather unexpected as the species was never reported outside the Arabian Peninsula and Levant; it is thus the first record for the Maghreb....
River ecosystems are being threatened by rising temperatures, aridity, and salinity due to climate change and increased water abstractions. These threats also put human well-being at risk, as people and rivers are closely connected, particularly in water-scarce regions. We aimed to investigate the relationship between human well-being and biologica...
The Draa river basin is located south of the High Atlas Mountain rangee in Morocco. The Ephemeroptera (mayflies) fauna of its three sub-basins: the High, Middle, and Lower Draa are poorly known. This study contributes to the knowledge of Ephemeroptera and its distribution in relation to environmental parameters in this area. The larvae of Ephemerop...
Since the UN Water Conference in 1977, international debates have centered on global water scarcity and achieving sustainable development. In 1995, Morocco introduced a water policy to strengthen the country’s socio-economic development through irrigated agriculture, while ensuring the long-term sustainability of water resources through integrated...
Spatial variation in benthic diatom communities in relation to salinity in the arid Drâa River basin (Southern Morocco)-3709-APPLIED ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 20(5):3709-3736. Abstract. Many arid rivers worldwide are under increasing human pressures amplified by hydrological drought and climate change. The Oued Drâa River, Southern Morocco...
Freshwater ecosystems deliver an extensive range of ecosystem services (ESs), which are the benefits people obtain from their interaction with nature. Increasing pressure on water resources threatens the sustainable supply of water-related ecosystem services, especially in arid regions, as is the case for the Drâa Valley located in southern Morocco...
The abundance or scarcity of surface water in a watershed is related to environmental factors including its morphology, substrate type, rainfall, slope, and exposure to moist air masses. The combination of these characteristics explains the hydrological behavior of the river network, knowledge of which is important for water resources management. G...
The basis for the assessment of ecosystem services (ES) of non-perennial rivers to date has been a comparison of the ES provision among three different hydrological phases: flowing conditions, isolated pools, and dry streambeds. Being of an opinion that this practice might promote an incomplete and hence biased ES assessment, we propose two conside...
A climatic shift from temperate to arid conditions is predicted for Northwest Africa. Water temperature, salinity, and river intermittency are likely to increase, which may impact freshwater communities, ecosystem functioning, and related ecosystem services. Quantitative data and information on the impact of climate change on insect communities (e....
Place-based research faces multiple threats, including both natural and global health hazards and political conflicts, which may disrupt fieldwork. The current COVID-19 pandemic shows how these threats can drastically affect social-ecological research activities given its engagement with different local stakeholders, disciplines, and knowledge syst...
Place-based research faces multiple threats, including both natural and global health hazards and political conflicts, which may disrupt fieldwork. The current COVID-19 pandemic shows how these threats can drastically affect social-ecological research activities given its engagement with different local stakeholders, disciplines, and knowledge syst...
Linking environmental and biological data using ecological models can provide crucial knowledge about the effects of water quality parameters on freshwater ecosystems. However, a model can only be as reliable as its input data. Here, the influence of sampling frequency of temporal variable environmental input data on the reliability of model result...
Water is essential to human societies and a prerequisite for flourishing nature, especially in arid regions. Yet, climate change and socio-economic developments are expected to exacerbate current and future stresses on water resources, demanding innovative approaches to balance water needs for society and nature conservation.
In this study, we use...
The main objective of this work was to study the richness and the effect of abiotic and anthropogenic factors on the distribution of riparian plant in Draa basin, which is part of the Oasis Biosphere Reserve located in SouthEast of Morocco. For this purpose, water quality parameters such as temperature, pH, salinity, electrical conductivity, Dissol...
Abstract Parabens and sorbic acid are commonly used as food preservatives due to their antimicrobial effect. However, their use in foods for infants and young children is not permitted in the European Union. Previous studies found these compounds in some gel-filled baby teethers, whereby parabens, which are well-known as endocrine disruptors, were...
In many dry parts of the world, salinization of water resources threatens freshwater biodiversity and the livelihood of people. However, ecological impact studies remain scarce. Here, we review field-observations of salinity impacts on ecosystem processes such as leaf decomposition, metabolism, biomass production and nutrient cycling, with a specia...
Monitoring of macroinvertebrate communities is frequently used to define the ecological health status of rivers. Ideally, biomonitoring should also give an indication on the major stressors acting on the macroinvertebrate communities supporting the selection of appropriate management measures. However, most indices are affected by more than one str...
In 2015, over 90 percent of German rivers failed to reach a good ecological status as demanded by the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). Deficits in water quality, mainly from diffuse pollution such as agricultural run-off, but also from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), have been suggested as important drivers of this decline in ecological qua...
Alkyl esters of p-hydroxybenzoic acid (parabens) are well-known to be used as preservatives in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and food products due to their antimicrobial effect. However, parabens are also known to act as endocrine disruptors. Thus, if manufactures of consumer goods use parabens particularly in products for infants and young children,...
Concerns have been raised regarding the human health effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), many of which are associated with and leaching from plastics. As infants are particularly vulnerable to EDCs, we have investigated whether plastic teethers for babies represent a relevant source of exposure. Applying effect-directed analysis, we u...
Ecological speciation assumes reproductive isolation to be the product of ecologically based divergent selection. Beside natural selection, sexual selection via phenotype-assortative mating is thought to promote reproductive isolation. Using the neotropical fish Poecilia mexicana from a system that has been described to undergo incipient ecological...
