Research

My research interests revolve around how aquatic ecosystems are responding to local and global perturbations. I work with a quantitative approach to identify and characterize major environmental drivers, to help managers take timely and appropriate management decisions. I work with a pluridisciplinary approach on lowland and high-altitude lakes, at different spatial (local, regional, global) and temporal (millennial to sub-hourly resolution) scales, and on different responses (physical, chemical, biological).


Publications (last updated on November 24, 2025, see also my ORCID profile):

    2021

  1. Monchamp, M.-E., Bruel, R., Frossard, V., McGowan, S., Lavrieux, M., Muschick, M., Perga, M.-E., Dubois, N., 2021. Paleoecological evidence for a multi-trophic regime shift in a perialpine lake (Lake Joux, Switzerland). Anthropocene DOI: 10.1016/j.ancene.2021.100301
  2. Bruel, R., Marsden, J. E., Pientka, B., Staats, N., Mihuc, T., Stockwell, J. D., 2021. Rainbow smelt population responses to species invasions and change in environmental condition. Journal of Great Lakes Research 47(4): 1171-1181. DOI: 10.1016/j.jglr.2021.04.008
  3. Rantala, M. V., Bruel, R., Marchetto, A., Lami, A., Spangenberg, J., Perga, M.-E., 2021. Heterogeneous responses of lake CO2 to nutrients and warming in perialpine lakes imprinted in subfossil cladoceran δ13C values. Science of the Total Environment (in press).
  4. Bruel, R., Girardclos, S., Marchetto, A., Kremer, K., Crouzet, C., Reyss, J.-L., Sabatier, P., Perga, M.-E., 2021. Reframing Lake Geneva ecological trajectory in a context of multiple but asynchronous pressures. Journal of Paleolimnology. 65(3): 353-368 DOI: 10.1007/s10933-021-00176-y
  5. Bruel, R., White, E. R., 2021. Sampling requirements and approaches to detect ecosystem shifts. Ecological Indicators. 121: 107096 DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2020.107096

    6. 2020

  6. Bruel, R., Sabatier, P., 2020. serac: a R package for ShortlivEd RAdionuclide Chronology of recent sediment cores. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 225. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvrad.2020.106449

    7. 2018

  7. Perga, M.-E., Bruel, R., Rodriguez, L., Guénand, Y., Bouffard, D., 2018. Storm impacts on alpine lakes: antecedent weather conditions matter more than the event intensity. Global Change Biology 24(10): 5004-5016. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14384     
  8. Bruel, R., Marchetto, A., Bernard, A., Lami, A., Sabatier, P., Frossard, V., Perga, M.-E., 2018. Seeking alternative stable states in a deep lake. Freshwater Biology 63(6): 553-568. DOI: 10.1111/fwb.13093

Preprints: (*published)

    

  1. *Bruel, R., Marsden, J. E., Pientka, B., Staats, N., Mihuc, T., Stockwell, J. D., 2020. Rainbow smelt population responses to species invasions and change in environmental condition. bioRxiv. DOI: 10.1101/2020.10.08.332205
  2. *Bruel, R., White, E. R., 2020. Sampling requirements and approaches to detect ecosystem shifts. bioRxiv. DOI: 10.1101/2020.04.07.030643
  3. *Bruel, R., Sabatier, P., 2020. serac: a R package for ShortlivEd RAdionuclide Chronology of recent sediment cores. earthaRxiv. DOI: 10.31223/osf.io/f4yma
  4. *Bruel, R., Girardclos, S., Marchetto, A., Kremer, K., Crouzet, C., Reyss, J.-L., Sabatier, P., Perga, M.-E., 2019. Reframing Lake Geneva ecological trajectory in a context of multiple but asynchronous stressors earthaRxiv. DOI: 10.31223/osf.io/j8up3


Colaborate!

Collaborate to the GLEON project ZooSize! ZooSize aims to get well represented individual crustacean zooplankton body length measurements for freshwater lakes across global lake thermal regions to gain insights on the following fundamental research question: How do size distributions of crustacean zooplankton communities differ across the globe and how are they influenced by bottom-up and top-down processes? Read more about our question, the data requirements, and authors guidelines here. Access the data call form here. Email me for an example on how to fill in the data call if necessary.