The Faculty of Geosciences and the Environment is one of the seven faculties at the University of Lausanne. It comprises three institutes, one of those being the Institute of Earth Surface dynamics (IDYST). It is an unprecedented time in Earth’s history. Changes in climate, biodiversity, and the degradation of soil and water ecosystems are major environmental issues facing society. IDYST investigates the fundamental processes that underlie these major challenges. Our research is guided by two key questions : 1)What is the impact of climate on landscape evolution, the cryosphere, and soil and water ecosystems ?2) How do humans impact the natural environment through resource use, land use, and pollutant mobilization ?The strengths of IDYST are in its ability to study processes using a multi-disciplinary approach, with a strong focus on gaining a mechanistic understanding of environmental processes through fundamental physical, chemical, ecological investigations and methodological innovation.

Visit Ecotox lab website

Research interests & main objectives

Developing and conducting projects for improving environmental risk assessment of organic chemicals is the center of the ecotox group’s research activities.
For example, we investigated the limits of the mixture models application for risk evaluation. We also validated mixture risk predictions with field observations.
Nowadays, there is a need of developing new sensitive indicators allowing highligting the toxic effects of chemicals early but also indicators that are relevant for predicting the impact at the population and ecosystem level. We are therefore investigating non-classical physiological parameters (life-traits parameters, molecular biomarkers) and their potential for predicting the risk of the chemicals.
Furthermore, we also conducted applied projects in collaboration with local authorities. For example we developed an approach to include mixture in water quality assessment or we proposed substance flow analysis for urban water management.
Regarding teaching, our group is involved in courses at the bachelor and master level, as well as in continuous education. Finally, one important part of our work is dedicated to science outreach.

Principal investigator

Prof. Nathalie Chèvre,  

Staff involved in Pharm-ERA: Research Group in ecotoxicology : 

• Loïc Cattin, PhD
• Marie Défago, PhD
• Micaela Faria, technician

Equipment and processes

The laboratory of ecotoxicology is equipped for culturing daphnids, algae, hydra as well as collembola. It is integrated within the IDYST labs that allows trace metal analysis, biomarker analysis as well as video tracking of animal behaviour.