RD (Romain) Darriaut

I completed my PhD in environmental microbiology at the University of Bordeaux (France) within the EGFV team, where I investigated the role of bacterial and fungal communities in vineyard decline ecosystems. Following my doctorate, I joined the ECOBIO team at the CNRS in Rennes (France) for my first postdoctoral position, focusing on the effects of microbial inputs on young trees in degraded soils.

I am now excited to contribute to the DIGDEEP project, exploring how host quality and root traits shape belowground disease dynamics in diverse grassland plant communities. The research involves investigating susceptibility and competence of several grassland plant species and in contact of different soil-borne fungal pathogens. The relationships between these epidemiological traits and root traits will be disentangled to understand the underlying mechanisms of disease transmission.