25th Jan 2022: Tommy Norin has arrived at CRIOBE to work on the metabolism of coral reef fish larvae... We've started him on some recently settled Dascyllus aruanus to test his fancy tiny respirometry system!
5th Jan 2022: The year has kicked off to a good start with Jules' second 
1st Jan 2022: Totally delighted to be on the Editorial Board of Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B as an Associate Editor. Looking forward to working through the new challenges this brings...
9th Dec 2021: For more than fifteen years, the clownfish has been one of the many pillars of CRIOBE research on coral reefs. From the studies by other teams on population connectivity in 2005 to the recent studies of my research team on the impacts of host anemone bleaching on clownfish metabolism, the clownfish is a model species to study life cycles, larval dispersal or behaviours of coral reef fish. Due to their limited mobility, clownfish are particularly useful for measuring the impact of human (anthropogenic) disturbance on coral reef fish.
I presented a summary of my teams' work on anemonefish to the general public in Moorea - you can see the presentation on the IRCP's webpage
4th November 2021: As a promising start to Jules' PhD, Jules and I wrote this piece on anemonefish for the local newspaper to celebrate the 50 year anniversary of CRIOBE.
8th Oct 2021: Excellent day of talks on the impacts of Ocean Acidification for the Colloque, FRB, Biodiversité et océans, Séminaire scientifique de restitution du programme Acidification. I presented work by our team: Bernard Banaigs, Isabelle Bonnard, Louis Bornancin, Jennie Pistevos and MSc students: Marie Derrien, Linda Salvaneschi and Thomas Cortier on Ecosystem Impacts of Ocean Acidification
7th Oct 2021: I presented my research team's work on the physiological impacts and coping mechanisms of anemonefish to environmental changes in the topic of Marine Threats for the Ecology and Evolution Series Seminars hosted by the Australian National University and the Universty of Melbourne
1st Oct 2021: Jules Schligler starts his 3-yr PhD funded by the EPHE on the Impact of Artifical Light at Night on all things anemonefish, coral reef fish recruitment and host anemone nutrition
24th September 2021: Gilles Siu, Yannick Chancerelle, René Galzin and myself wrote this article for the local newspaper for CRIOBE's 50 year anniversary highlighting the long-term monitoring work that goes on at CRIOBE
17th Sept 2021: Our Deep Reefs paper explained here....
16th Sept 2021: Amazing work by Anne Haguenauer, Frederic Zuberer and Gilles Siu, awesome techs/ingenieurs at CRIOBE, over 10 years to get data down to 60m across 7 islands/atolls in French Polynesia for our collaborative paper. They covered a massive 616,500 m2 of mesophotic reefs on rebreathers!!
15th Sept 2021: DEEP REEFS Great news: reproducing anemonefish were found across French Polynesia down to 60m. Bad news, temperatures at mesophotic reefs also increase during heatwaves, as much as shallow reefs. Also host anemones bleach, so reduced potential for deep reefs to act as a refuge for shallow populations.
Our paper on whether mesophotic deep reefs provide a thermal refuge for shallow species is out in Fishes!
17th June 2021: I was honoured to be on a panel (remotely) with Joachim Claudet together with J.-F. Sys (@UICNfrance) and M. Pelletier (@OFBiodiversite), discussing the effects of Ocean Acidification on marine ecosystems and coastal societies, hosted by FRB Biodiversity at Oceanopolis, Brest.
12th June 2021: Awesome graphics that Jules created to explain our Proceedings paper on ALAN, link here...
12th June 2021: Jules Schligler's first, first-authored paper is out in Proceedings of the Royal Society London B no less!
We find that long-term exposure to ALAN in the wild decreases survival and growth of anemonefish.
12th March 2021: Daphne Cortese rocked her PhD viva! Congratulations Daphne - really well deserved - some awesome papers coming out soon. Such a shame the viva had to be held online due to COVID, with this jury and committee it would have been a lot of fun!
4th March 2021: Of course, just when fieldwork was running smoothly and we had multiple fish clutches just waiting for data collection - we have a tsunami alert and all boats grounded. After watching all afternoon for the impressive 5cm water rise (NOT) to pass, we then had 1hr of daylight left to get a whole afternoon fieldwork done - enter Team Tsunami!! The team of 7 split into 4 groups, 2 boats, 1 car and 1 in the aquarium room and we did it! Ben & Jo on fish behaviour & egg collection; Jules and Emma and I caught fish, sampled blood, collected eggs and laid down night-time infra-red cameras, Thiabut organised the aquarium room and even my girls weren't abandoned at school or dance practise thanks to Isla!
February 2021: I was interviewed for EK magazine, a UK-based Exotics Keeper magazine about my team's research on anemonefish and rearing their eggs...
Thanks to Scott Giarnese for the fun exchanges!
February 2021: For the International Day of Women in Science I wrote this piece on past and present female members of CRIOBE .....
read it here (in french)
10th Jan 2021: Second attempt at the ALAN experiment - hopefully plans will not be scuppered by COVID this year...? We're starting an awesome 6 month Light Pollution manipulation experiment in the lagoon of Moorea investigating its impacts on anemonefish reproduction, physiology, communication & behaviour.
Awesome french students: Jules Schligler, Thibaut Roost and Jo-Ann Schies with University of Exeter PhD Emma Weschke, and MScs Isla Hely and Ben Williams
2nd Jan 2021: Daphne's awesome paper comes out:
Cortese, D., Norin, T., Beldade, R., Crespel, A., Killen, S., & Mills, S.C. 2021 Physiological and behavioural effects of anemone bleaching on symbiont anemonefish in the wild. Functional Ecology 35: 663-674
June 27th 2020: Our paper on the cleaning behaviours of the little known redlip cleaner wrasse is out in Coral Reefs with Isabelle Côté. How honest are redlips compared to their more well known counterparts?
9th April 2020: Read all about our Environmental Pollution paper from this graphical abstract
9th April 2020: Our new research out shows that anemonefish are chronically stressed by motorboatt noise. Fish have a compromised stress response system & can’t respond to further stressful events. These hormonal changes make clownfish hide, skip meals and attack their neighbours - putting damselfish in distress.
Our paper, Horwitz et al., went on to become one of the Top 100 in Ecology in 2020!!
28th March 2020: Check out our new collaborative paper during Rael Horwitz's post-doc with me, out today in Scientific Reports showing evidence of beneficial developmental plasticity in newly settled recruits of our favourite sea hare, Stylocheilus striatus, that developed under warmer conditions and ocean acidification, compared to individuals exposed when they were already adults. However, plasticity may not be enough to cope with the combined increase in OA and warming.... pdf here!
21st March 2020: ALAN experiment officially stopped due to coronavirus and self-confinement. Franzi returns to Germany, Loann to his rented house in Moorea and Jules stays at CRIOBE... I will miss you guys...
15th January 2020: Welcome to Franzi, Jules and Loann - the new anemonefish team of 2020 is kicking off the year with a 6-month field study looking at the impact of Artificial Light At Night (ALAN) in collaboration with Steve Swearer and Hanna Kokko on anemonefish reproduction, fecundity, hatching, reproductive and stress hormones as well as larval morphology, swim speed and dispersal - it's going to be a busy field season!
30th December 2019: Check out our study of the genetic population structure of sea anemones across the Indo-Pacific. The observed patterns are similar to the gentic patterns found for anemonefish! Link here!
July 2019: Camille Vizon was awarded the highest mark in her year for her Masters research project with us "Impacts of environmental change on the stress response in anemonefish". Congrats, Camille, Well deserved!
January 2019: Ricardo and I were filmed with Jeff Corwin for ABC Ocean Treks on our research in Moorea on the impacts of environmental change on anemonefish. A fun day hanging out with Jeff and the crew! Check out a teaser of the show here!
2nd October 2018: If you want to know what its like to come and work with us at CRIOBE in Moorea, check out this article by Sam Manning, a MSc student that came from the University of Amsterdam for a 7 month project working on anemonefish behaviours.
27th August 2018: Great article in La Depeche about the new equipment that we won in the SKYE Instruments Coral Reef Competition we'll be using to look at the impacts of Artificial Light At Night on Anemonefish (NEMO) in the lagoon
24th August 2018: Interviewed for Polynesian TV about our new equipment that we'll be using in our Artificial Light At Night experiments in Moorea lagoon
Check out coverage of our research on TV here!
24th August 2018: Article in Tahiti Infos, the local Newspaper in French Polynesia about our new equipment that we won in the Coral Reef Competition from SKYE Instruments that we'll be using in our Artificial Light At Night experiments on Nemo hor
20th August 2018: So happy to be the winners of the SKYE Instruments Coral Reef Competition. Here we are with our new fancy SpectroSense2+ (+GPS) ready to measure artificial light pollution underwater in the lagoon
11th April 2018: Some great media coverage of our new paper on effects of bleaching on anemonefish metabolism as part of our ANR-funded STAY OR GO project:
Norin, T., Mills, S.C., Killen, S. & Beldade, R. 2018. Anemone bleaching increases the metabolic demands of symbiont anemonefish. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Lond B 285: 20180282 Check it out here
12th December 2017: Last day of fieldwork with Harry Harding, Emma Weschke, Ricardo Beldade and Suzie Mills investigating long-term effects of boat noise on anemonefish (with Miguel Godinho Ferreira) and reef fish communities with Steve Simpson and Andy Radford. Happy Days.
7th Nov 2017: To "relax" our research group and collaborators go on a tiger shark dive in Tahiti - 100% relaxing...
from left: Suzie Mills, Tommy Norin, Till Deuss, Emma Weschke, Harry Harding, José Paula and Rui Rosa.
Suzie, with a tiger shark swimming past ...
27th October 2017: Sunny fieldwork with Ricardo Beldade, Emily Fobert and José Paula (Rui Rosa Lab) determining neurological and endocrinological impacts of light pollution at night on fish in Moorea.
10th October 2017: Our Nature Communications paper is out!
Beldade, R., Blandin, A., O’Donnell, R. & Mills, S.C. 2017 Cascading fitness effects of anemone bleaching on associated anemonefish hormones and reproduction. Nature Communications 8: 716 Check it out here
2nd-7th October 2017: Talks from the team Daphne Cortese, Ricardo Beldade, Isla Davidson and Suzanne Mills at the IPFC conference in Tahiti.
September 2017: Till Deuss finally cracks rearing our anemonefish in the lab from wild-collected eggs to 18 days post hatching - alive and kicking - over 70 of them per nest. Baby anemonefish everywhere - BREAKTHROUGH! Till is the best Aquaria manager!
1st September 2017: Daphne Cortese starts her PhD in our team under the co-supervision of Ricardo Beldade, Shaun Killen and myself. Great to have you Daphne.
August 2017: Gerrit Nanninga's new paper is finally out!:
Nanninga, G.B., Côté, I.M., Beldade, R. & Mills, S.C. 2017. Behavioural acclimation to cameras and observers in coral reef fishes. Ethology 123: 705-711. Check it out here
July 2017: We received the great news that we have been awarded 3 years funding from Fondation pour la Recherche sur la Biodiversité for our project "Ecosystem: ocean acidification and increased temperature on a coral reef ecosystem" in collaboration with Bernard Banaigs, Isabelle Bonnard and Louis Bornancin. Hoorah!
3rd-7th July 2017: Talks from the team by Ricardo Beldade, Sophie Nedelec and Isla Davidson at the 50th Anniversary Symposium FSBI. So much fun meeting up with lots of collaborators.
30th June 2017: Louis Bornancin's new paper is out:
Bornancin, L., Bonnard, I., Mills, S.C. & Banaigs, B. 2017 Chemical mediation as a structuring element in marine gastropod predator-prey interactions. Natural Products Report 34: 644-676 (IF = 10.9!) Check it out here
3rd May 2017: Eric Armstrong's new paper is now out!:
Armstrong, E.J, Allen, T., Beltrand, M., Dubousquet, V., Stillman, J.H. & Mills, S.C. 2017 Interactive effects of ocean acidification and warming on the development and physiology of a mollusc, the blue-ring sea hare, Stylocheilus striatus. Marine Biology 164: 107 Check it out here
17th April 2017: Anemone bleaching bleaching for second year running in Moorea and impacts on anemonefish spawning frequency and fecundity.
20th March 2017: Zoe Scholz a valuable part of our team, who has spent many hours in the field determining anemone territory size ready for a manipulation study and also measured larval morphological characteristics for our STAY OR GO project leaves CRIOBE Moorea.
15th March 2017: ERASMUS exchange student Tara Cousins says farewell after 7 months at CRIOBE measuring clownfish larvae, Amphiprion chrysopterus, larval behavioural syndrome for our STAY OR GO project. Research team bids a fond farewell to Tara at the best meal on the island at Fred's.
10th January 2017: Till Deuss arrived at CRIOBE as our Aquarium technician for as part of our STAY OR GO project. Clownfish larvae, Amphiprion chrysopterus will be the 53rd species that he has reared.....
December 2016: Daphne Cortese arrives at CRIOBE as an EPHE Masters student to study swimming speed (Ucrit) and endurance of clownfish larvae, Amphiprion chrysopterus as part of our STAY OR GO project.
November 2016: Tommy Norin sets up cool metabolic rate experiment with Rael Horwitz and Sue-Ann Watson using sea hares, Stylocheilus striatus, developmentally acclimated to ocean acidification and increased temperature as part of our LabEx funded, ACCLIMACID project and IRCP grant......
November 2016: Clownfish larvae, even only 24hrs old, swim their hearts out (not literally of course)..... check out the video here http://www.shaunkillen.com/videos/
October 2016: Fun times, measuring oxygen consumption in larval clownfish using the tiniest metabolic chamber ever!
October 2016: Shaun Killen and Tommy Norin arrived at CRIOBE from University of Glasgow to work on metabolic rate of clownfish larvae and juveniles, as well as of sea hares, Stylocheilus striatus.
30th September 2016: Coverage in the local newspaper about Sue-Ann Watson's arrival at CRIOBE thanks to an IRCP grant that Shubha Singa was also awarded! Welcome!
September 2016: Sue-Ann Watson a post-doctoral fellow from JCU arrived at CRIOBE on an IRCP grant to work on developmental acclimation of sea hare behaviour, Stylocheilus striatus, to ocean acidification and increased temperature.
15th June 2016: We received the great news that we have been awarded 2 years funding from Total Fondation for our project "Ecosystem: ocean acidification and increased temperature on a coral reef ecosystem" in collaboration with Bernard Banaigs, Isabelle Bonnard, Louis Bornancin, Rael Horwitz, Mayalen Zubia, Jeremie Vidal-Dupiol, Riccardo Rodolfo-Metalpa and Guillaume Mitta. Hoorah!
14th June 2016: Sophie Nedelec's new paper is out:
Nedelec, S.L., Mills, S.C., Nedelec, B., Lecchini, D., Simpson, S.D. & Radford, A.N. 2016 Repeated exposure to noise increases tolerance in a coral reef fish. Environmental Pollution Check it out here
8th June 2016: All the team wishes a fond farewell to Thibault Tamin (MSc Student) who is leaving Polynesia today after a 4 month student project at CRIOBE on adult clownfish behavioural syndromes. Get busy writing the publication Thibault!
June 2016: PhD applicants welcome for a PhD project:
Impacts of ocean acidification and elevated temperature on the structure and functioning of a coral ecosystem.
Supervisors: Suzanne C. Mills (CRIOBE, USR 3278, France), Bernard Banaigs (CRIOBE, USR 3278, France), Mark Hay (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) More info here
18th May 2016: Lauriane Derrien (DEUST technicien de la mer et du littoral à Calais) arrives at CRIOBE for a 4 month project on rearing clownfish larvae and measuring larval traits within our ANR funded STAY OR GO project. 1st day out on the boat with field-savvy Agathe.
April and May 2016: El Nino anemone bleaching on the North shore of the Moorea lagoon has caused anemonefish to stop spawning completely - but only those in bleached anemones.
7th April 2016: El Nino anemone bleaching on the North shore of the Moorea lagoon is underway. At least one anemone at each of our clownfish sites has bleached, but clownfish haven't moved. We will continue to follow the bleaching progress and its affects on clownfish within our ANR funded STAY OR GO project.
3rd April 2016: Theresa Rueger (PhD student James Cook University) arrives at CRIOBE in Moorea thanks to an FSBI Small Research Grant. Theresa has come to work with Ricardo Beldade and Suzie Mills on analysing and mulling over her Pyjama cardinalfish, Sphaeramia nematoptera, data from PNG: "Sexy mouthbrooders: how sexual selection and gender roles lead to the evolution of paternal care". Here's to a great month!
30th March 2016: Rory O'Donnell (ERASMUS BSc student University of Ulster) returns to Ireland after a 7 month placement following variation in clownfish spawning and fecundity of 20 couples in Moorea lagoon and outer reef within our STAY OR GO project at CRIOBE. His last BBQ and farewell party. Thanks Rory for visiting the clownfish sites every two days (regardless of the weather) and collecting and counting a million eggs!! (Bets are on for the final count...). What will we do without you?
24th March 2016: Gerrit Nanninga (Post-Doc CNRS, STAY OR GO project) leaves to start his Pierre and Marie Curie funded Post-Doc in Cambridge, UK and Melbourne. Good luck Gerrit!
8th March 2016: Lauric Thiault (PhD student UPMC with Joachim Claudet) and Suzie Mills braved the swells hitting the North coast of Moorea to measure coral recruits in the lagoon at night (using UV) for our collaborative turbinaria manipulation experiment (with Fabio Bulleri and Joachim). After one underwater slate was lost (but found a week later) and the pencil on the only other remaining underwater slate was washed away, the mission impossible was abandoned, awaiting improved conditions!
5th March 2016: Welcome meal for Rael Horwitz, who arrived with his fiancé Noa, to start a year's Post Doc (LabEx funded, ACCLIMACID) on transgenerational and developmental acclimation of sea hares, an opistobranch, Stylocheilus striatus, to ocean acidification and increased temperature.
26th February 2016: Farewell meal for Georgia McDowell and Hollie Moore (ERASMUS student from University of Ulster, Ireland) who finished their 6 month placements on context-dependent behavioural syndromes of clownfish within our STAY OR GO project.
Cyclone Zena in Fiji, 25 knot winds in Moorea, but our clownfish just keep on spawning, "business as usual" style. Agathe, Ricardo and Suzie brought in one clutch on 22nd February 2016. Rory and Gerrit tried to bring in more on 25th February 2016.
1st clownfish clutch of 2016 brought into lab for rearing 27th January 2016. Rory (ERASMUS student from University of Ulster, Ireland) seen here collecting the eggs after monitoring spawning in 19 breeding couples over the last 6 months for STAY OR GO clownfish project. Simon will show us his skills in the aquaria....
Day 1 of Bernard Banaigs' (CNRS, Perpignan) LabEx collaborative project Keymicals, 25th January 2016. Mayalen Zubia (University Polynesie francaise, UPF), Oscar Prado-Merini (Masters student, UPF) and Suzie Mills out in the field looking blooms of Anabaena torulosa and Lyngbya majuscula and finding lots of them!
Suzie Mills, Ricardo Beldade, Andy Radford and Steve Simpson continue our discussion on boat noise, clownfish stress and our amazing future plans at the University of Bristol, UK over local brews and British tapas..... 12th January 2016.
Suzanne Mills examines Lauren Fear's thesis on "The ecology of fear and anthropogenic noise", University of Bristol, UK 11th January 2016. Congratulations Lauren!
Suzanne Mills and Ricardo Beldade visit Albano Beja-Pereira in Porto (Portugal) and hand over >500 clownfish fin clips for analysis for our STAY OR GO project on the 21st December 2015.
Ricardo Beldade teaches and gets help from local high school students at Pao Pao college in Moorea in clownfish research 9th December 2015.
Simon Hacquart has just been hired as our Aquarium technician at CRIOBE in Moorea for our STAY OR GO project 18th November 2015 . Simon will be arriving on the 14th December to rear thousands of clownfish larvae..... Looking forward to having you here Simon.
8th November 2015 Lab weekend fun with ERASMUS students from Ulster University, who are carrying out projects within STAY OR GO, Georgia, Hollie and Rory, project and the family kayaking to visit the rays and sharks in Moorea.
Dr. Sophie and Brendan Nedelec welcomed their son, Robin, into the world today 11th October 2015 which also happens to be Sophie's birthday, as well as Isa's! What a great day on which to be born!
Congratulations to Dr. Mike Gil as he is awarded his PhD 9th October 2015
"Context dependence in effects of nutrient enrichment on tropical coral reefs"
Check out his website
Great job Dr. Mike!! see more congratulations from the Osenberg lab
Suzanne Mills presented a PopBio seminar: "Life-histories, hormones and immunity" 9th October 2015 at the University of Florida, Gainesville invited by Mike Gil
Mike Gil's PhD exit seminar 8th October 2015
"Context dependence in effects of nutrient enrichment on tropical coral reefs"
at the University of Florida, Gainesville
Ricardo Beldade in Moorea for Outreach for the National Science Festival 8th October 2015
For the Fete de la Science 2015 at CRIOBE, Moorea, Ricardo introduced local High School students to our new aquaria, explained the life cycle of clownfish and showed the students clownfish larvae and juveniles that we are rearing for our "Stay or Go" ANR project.
Suzanne Mills presented a departmental seminar: "Life-histories, hormones and immunity" 6th October 2015
at the Ecology Department, University of Georgia, Athens invited by Craig Osenberg
We received LABEX funding for a 1yr Post Doc to work on "Transgenerational and developmental acclimation of the sea hare to ocean acidification and temperature stress" 5th October 2015
We look forward to welcoming Rael Horwitz in 2016 at CRIOBE, Moorea.
For more drawings see Agathak 2015, Carnet du Criobe (avec le soutien de la SOGEDA, Monaco)
Bernard Banaigs and our collaborative team with Isabelle Bonnard, Mayalen Zubia Arrieta and Melanie Roue received LABEX funding "Keymicals" to work on the chemical ecology and transmission of secondary metabolites along the food chain from cyanobacteria, through opistobranchs to nudibranchs and crabs 5th October 2015
We have sea hares in aquaria - let the work begin!
For more drawings see Agathak 2015, Carnet du Criobe (avec le soutien de la SOGEDA, Monaco)
Our paper entitled "Lime Juice and Vinegar Injections as a Cheap
and Natural Alternative to Control COTS
Outbreaks" came out in PLos One today 10th September 2015
Suzanne Mills gave a seminar: "Where do we go now: Larval dispersal" 8th September 2015
for the LABEX colloque at the Aquarium de la Porte Dorée, Paris from the 7-9th September.
Stay or Go Clownfish aquarium opening at CRIOBE 28th August 2015 Inauguration of our new "state of the art" closed aquarium equipped to rear 40,000 clownfish larvae at once (if we were so inclined) for our Stay or Go ANR project on larval dispersal. Big thanks to Antonio Gomes from Tropical Marine Center for installing it all for us.
Dr. Sophie Nedelec is awarded her PhD 17th August 2015 "Impacts of anthropogenic noise on behaviour, development and fitness of fishes and invertebrates" Check out her website. CONGRATULATIONS Dr. Sophie!!!
Our paper entitled "Ghosts of thermal past: reef fish exposed to historic high temperatures have heightened stress response to further stressors" came out in Coral Reefs online today 4th August 2015 Check it out here!