Antoine Kremer
Research Director and winner of INRA’s 2011 Agricultural Research Award
(07/12/2011)
A pioneer in his field, Antoine Kremer initiated Europe-wide forestry research as early as the 1980s based on population genetics and evolutionary biology. Using a combined historical and genetic approach on a sample of 2,600 forests, Antoine Kremer reconstructed oak distribution scenarios in Europe and uncovered the adaptation and migration mechanisms of forest species. He later launched Evoltree, a European network of excellence which he now coordinates. Dr Kremer’s work gained international recognition in 2006 when he won the Marcus Wallenberg Prize, the “Nobel Prize in the world of wood”. Antoine Kremer has published over 180 articles. He is Research Director at BIOGECO (BIOdiversity, Genes and ECOsystems), a Joint Research Unit at INRA, Bordeaux. In 2011 he was named coordinator of a laboratory of excellence (LabEx) on the evolution, adaptation and governance of continental and coastal ecosystems, financed by the French Stimulus Initiative.
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“Genetic diversity between two randomly selected forest oaks is four times greater than the diversity between two humans in a given population! Forest trees are able to maintain wide ranges of genetic diversity that enable them to adapt quickly despite long generation times”, the forest and genome researcher explains. “I try to understand how forest species respond to natural and artificial phenomena. Evolution is a central issue in the context of climate change”.
Barking up the right tree
In the 1980s, when research in the genetics of trees was limited to selection and improvement, Antoine Kremer applied data to diversity management in forest populations, an initiative no doubt attributable to his dual background in forestry engineering and quantitative genetics. “In the early 1980s, pedunculate oak forests died off following droughts in 1975-76. I wanted to understand why certain populations were affected and not others, and imagined this was due to genetic differences developed over time. I received support from the French Forestry Bureau (ONF) and later from the European Union to explore these phenomena, first in France and later across Europe”. Fairoak, the European research project thus created, combined genetic and historical data and computer-simulated scenarios to reconstruct the history of European oak populations from the last glaciation onwards. “To my knowledge, this approach has not been used with other species and has become an example”.
Driving research excellence
In 1992, at the request of the Forestry Unit, Antoine Kremer launched a research program focused on tropical species diversity in French Guyana. An enthusiastic worker, he was named Research Director in 1995 and Director of the French Biodiversity Institute in 2001. In 2003 Dr Kremer was awarded the European Forest Research Award and named Director of the newly created Joint Research Unit for Biodiversity, Genes and Communities (BIOGECO) at INRA-University of Bordeaux. He became the first French scientist to win the Marcus Wallenberg Prize in 2006 for his work on tree genetics. Since 2006 he has coordinated Evoltree, a network of excellence made up of 25 research centres in 15 countries aimed at combining ecology, evolution and genomics to understand how trees evolve and adapt in response to environmental change. Dr Kremer is a talented communicator who builds connections: “Creating a climate of confidence between different teams is important to make things work on a group and individual level.” Committed to sharing his expertise, he has received an increasing number of invitations to speak at conferences for the general public.
Since 2011, Dr Kremer has coordinated the Evoltree network and the COTE Laboratory of Excellence. This network of 200 scientists works toward understanding and predicting responses of different ecosystems (coastal and continental, natural and domesticated populations) to environmental change. “Combining research on ecosystems is an essential tool in understanding and predicting how natural environments and resources respond to environmental change”.
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 On winning the award?
“This award reflects the work of a team from several French and foreign research centres. Research in the evolutionary biology of forests has been successfully conducted with no internal or external constraints. I am deeply grateful to all the organizations that provided support”.
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Antoine Kremer with his team
© INRA, C. Slagmulder
>> view the film on Antoine Kremer
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