Abstract:
One of the major research activities of the M2C lab (Univ. Rouen-Normandy, France) addresses questions along the Land to Sea Continuum. Taking the examples of the Seine and Rhône Rivers, (i) the sediment and POC sources exported by rivers, (ii) their contribution and variability to the sediments and POC fluxes, (iii) the characterisation of the nature (e.g. labile or recalcitrant POM) of these SPM, (iv) the calculation and limits of SPM flux in an estuary subjected to tidal-fluvial interactions, (v) the memory of past anthropogenic activities and hydroclimatic variations reserved in fluvial sediments, are among the major scientific concerns outlined in this seminar. Particular attention will be paid to badlands as a major hotspot of continental erosion and, applied to a source to sink approach, the use of hyperspectral imaging as a pioneer method in the reconstruction of the origin and quality of material in sedimentary archives.

Bio:
Dr. Yoann Copard, born on 1973, get his PhD in 2002 at the University of Orleans, where his research addressed on the impact of weathering on the petrography and geochemistry of Carboniferous coals. After several teaching and research contracts, he joined the University of Rouen-Normandy and the M2C lab in 2005 as Associate Professor (tenure position), teaching a wide range of disciplines in earth and environmental sciences as mapping, geology of Alps, field school in geology, geochemistry, erosion, sediment transfer, organic matter in environment etc. His main research addresses: (i) what happens to the fossil particulate organic carbon (fPOC) in the Critical Zone and within the Land-to-Sea Continuum, (ii) what are the impacts of these fPOC fluxes for the C cycle; (iii) what are the hot-spots and moments of the continental erosion with a specific focus on badlands; (iv) what are the contribution of Climate, Human and Geology in the sediments and POC fluxes and how the climatic signals is filtered by catchment. His research area is moving toward marine environments, by addressing the impact of fPOC continental discharges, deposition and preservation for the marine C sink. Investigated scales in time and space range from the Holocene to flood events and from CZOs to large catchments. To address these questions, he currently co-develops methods in UV-VIS spectroscopy, isotopy, and landscape modelling. Since 2016, he is director of the MSc "Sustainable Management of Hydrogeosystems" and co-leader of a research group of the M2C lab. Up till today, he co-supervised 7 PhD / 15 MSc students, co-authored about 30 peer-reviewed papers (Int. J. Coal Geol., Earth Surf. Proc. Land., Earth-Sci. Rev., Earth Planet. Sc. Lett.) and was the co-leader of national (CNRS) and international (Mediterranean area) projects.
Address: UMR 6143 M2C, Université de Rouen Normandy, 76821, Mont-Saint-Aignan – France
http://www.unicaen.fr/recherche/m2c / https://scholar.google.fr/citations?user=fexjotQAAAAJ email: yoann.copard@univ-rouen.fr, phone: 33 235 140 019