Staff profile

BA (U. Paris Est), MA (U. Paris 7), Ph.D. (U. Paris 6)

Loïc studied Chemistry (BA) and Environmental Geosciences (MA) in Paris. After graduating in Water Sciences speciality, he started his Ph.D. at the University of Pierre et Marie Currie (Paris) about interactions between freshwater food web ecology and organic geochemistry. During his Ph.D., he started to use lipid biomarkers to identify ecological processes and freshwater species.

From the completion of his Ph.D. in September 2012 to March 2015, Loïc has undertaken a Post-Doctoral Research Associate position in Rennes (France) with Dr. Emilie Jardé and Dr. Laurent Jeanneau. Within the Riskmanche project, funded by the European programme Interreg, his role was to track faecal contamination sources in the environment thanks to faecal lipid biomarkers.

He then joined the University of Aberdeen (Scotland) in May 2015 as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the Department of Archaeology, working with Dr. Karen Milek (Geoarchaeology), Pr. Lorna Dawson (James Hutton Institute) and Pr. David Anderson (Anthropology) on the JPI Climate- and ESRC-funded Humanor project. As geochemist and newly inducted geoarchaeologist, he is lipid biomarkers and other methods (inorganic chemistry, GIS, etc.) to identify the presence of different mammals in archaeological sites to help understanding past and current lifestyle of nomadic people from northern Europe (Siberia and Sweden).

He moved to the Department of Archaeology of Durham University in 2017 to keep working on the Humnor proect with Karen Milek.

Loïc was hired as Assistant Lecturer at the Department of Biogeogemistry of the Sorbonne Université in Paris (UMR 7619 Metis) between for the 2018-2019 academic year and gave courses in geosciences and archaeochemistry, while pursuing its research on the application of organic geochemistry to archaeology.

Since September 2019, Loïc is back to the Department of Archaeology of Durham University as PDRA to work with Karen Milek on the Leverhulme funded 'COHABIT' project, for which he is developping the analysis of lipid biomarkers and faecal biomarker to reconstruct human-animal relationships and the organisation of social spaces during the Icelandic Viking Age. He is mainly conducting his research duties from the Metis lab at Sorbonne Université where he is hosted as Invited researcher.

• Geoarchaeology: organic (lipids) and inorganic (phosphates) geochemistry, soil survey, magnetic technics and GIS
• Organic Geochemistry: lipid analysis, faecal biomarkers (stanols), paleoclimate and paleovegetation biomarkers (GDGTs, alcohols, FAs, alkanes etc.)
• Faecal Contamination
• Species tracking
• Human-Animal-Environment Interactions
• Pastoralism
• Field and labwork

• Social-Ecological Transformations: HUMan-ANimal Relations Under Climate Change in NORthern Eurasia (HUMANOR)

• COHABIT project LEVERHULME Trust web site
• COHABIT project web site

Journal Article

• Davies, Althea, Harrault, Loïc, Milek, Karen, McClymont, Erin, Dallimer, Martin, Hamilton, Alistair & Warburton, Jeff (2022). A multiproxy approach to long-term herbivore grazing dynamics in peatlands based on pollen, coprophilous fungi and faecal biomarkers. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 598: 111032.
• Harrault, Loïc, Milek, Karen, Huguet, Arnaud, Anquetil, Christelle & Anderson, David (2022). Preserved lipid signatures in palaeosols help to distinguish the impacts of palaeoclimate and indigenous peoples on palaeovegetation in northwest Siberia. Organic Geochemistry 167: 104407.
• Sulas, Federica, Schifter Bagge, Merethe, Enevold, Renee, Harrault, Loïc, Kristiansen, Søren M., Ljungberg, Thomas, Milek, Karen B., Mikkelsen, Peter H., Jensen, Peter M., Orfnanou, Vana, Out, Welmoed A., Portillo, M. & Sindbæk, Søren M. (2022). Revealing the invisible dead: integrated bio-geoarchaeological profiling exposes human and animal remains in a seemingly ‘empty’ Viking-Age burial. Journal of Archaeological Science 141: 105589.
• Anderson, David G., Harrault, Loïc, Milek, Karen B., Forbes, Bruce C., Kuoppamaa, Mari & Plekhanov, Andreĭ V. (2019). Animal domestication in the high Arctic: Hunting and holding reindeer on the I͡Amal peninsula, northwest Siberia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 55: 101079.
• Harrault, Loïc, Milek, Karen, Jardé, Emilie, Jeanneau, Laurent, Derrien, Morgane & Anderson, David (2019). Faecal biomarkers can distinguish specific mammalian species in modern and past environments. PLoS ONE 14(2): e0211119.
• Jardé, Emilie, Jeanneau, Laurent, Harrault, Loïc, Quenot, Emmanuelle, Solecki, Olivia, Petitjean, Patrice, Lozach, Solen, Chevé, Julien & Gourmelon, Michèle (2018). Application of a microbial source tracking based on bacterial and chemical markers in headwater and coastal catchments. Science of The Total Environment 610-611: 55-63.
• Harrault, Loïc, Jardé, Emilie, Jeanneau, Laurent & Petitjean, Patrice (2014). Are fecal stanols suitable to record and identify a pulse of human fecal contamination in short-term exposed shellfish? A microcosm study. Marine Pollution Bulletin 89(1-2): 40-48.
• Harrault, Loïc, Jardé, Emilie, Jeanneau, Laurent & Petitjean, Patrice (2014). Development of the Analysis of Fecal Stanols in the Oyster Crassostrea gigas and Identification of Fecal Contamination in Shellfish Harvesting Areas. Lipids 49(6): 597-607.
• Harrault, Loïc, Allard, Béatrice, Mériguet, Jacques, Carmignac, David, Huon, Sylvain, Gauzens, Benoit & Lacroix, Gérard (2014). Bottom-up effects of lake sediment on pelagic food-web compartments: a mesocosm study. Freshwater Biology 59(8): 1695-1709.
• Guenet, Bertrand, Danger, Michael, Harrault, Loïc, Allard, Béatrice, Jauset-Alcala, Marta, Bardoux, Gérard, Benest, Danielle, Abbadie, Luc & Lacroix, Gérard (2014). Fast mineralization of land-born C in inland waters: first experimental evidences of aquatic priming effect. Hydrobiologia 721(1): 35-44.
• Harrault, Loïc, Allard, Béatrice, Danger, Michael, Maunory-Danger, Florence, Guilpart, Alexis & Lacroix, Gérard (2012). Influence of food-web structure on the biodegradability of lake sediment. Freshwater Biology 57(11): 2390-2400.