Macarie Hervé

Hervé Macarie has worked for the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD) since October 1994. He has developed research into the technological and microbiological aspects of anaerobic wastewater treatment, and has experience both in the laboratory and on a full scale (reactors of up to 20,000 m³). One of his areas of interest is the anaerobic degradation of xenobiotic compounds (e.g. terephthalic acid, pentachlorophenol). Since 2008, his research has focused on the microbial degradation of chlordeconean organochlorine insecticide that was once used to combat banana weevils and which, 3 decades after it was banned, is now responsible for a major threat to human health. health, environmental, economic and social crisis in the French West Indies. The aim is to understand the factors limiting the natural attenuation of chlordecone and how to manipulate them in order to propose a bioremediation process to decontaminate polluted soils.

Discovery of the presence of freshwater hydra in the French West Indies: Hervé Macarie (SANTES team, IMBE) and Daniel E. Martinez from Pomona College (USA) have demonstrated for the first time in 2019 the presence of freshwater hydra (small, 1 mm long animals from the jellyfish family) in the rivers of Martinique, Guadeloupe and Saint Lucia (see photo). The DNA of the individuals collected is currently being studied to determine the biodiversity of the species encountered and to identify their closest relatives in order to establish hypotheses as to how these organisms were able to colonise these volcanic islands surrounded by salt water. As hydras are bioindicators of water quality, live individuals have also been collected to enable colleagues in the SANTES team (L. & X. Moreau, P.-H. Villard) to study their sensitivity to the phytosanitary agents that are polluting the waterways of the West Indies today, including the insecticide chlordecone.