e-mail: mathilde.an.godefroid@ulb.be
Research interests
I am a marine biologist fascinated by hexacorals as ecosystem-engineer species, being responsible for the formation of biodiversity oases across depths. My research explores how hexacorals respond to environmental change, combining marine ecology, eco-physiology, and biophysics to understand the mechanisms driving resilience.
My research background has centered on evaluating the impacts of global ocean changes, such as ocean acidification and warming, on hexacorals, including scleractinians and antipatharians. During my PhD, I combined fieldwork with controlled laboratory experiments, across shallow and mesophotic reefs. I examined black coral responses from an eco-physiological perspective, linking environmental stressors to organismal performance.
My postdoctoral research at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology (Germany) expanded this work to the microscale environment surrounding corals. I study how corals exchange gases and metabolites with their environment through mass transport processes, and how these exchanges are shaped by ciliary activity and ambiant water flow. To address these questions, I apply cutting-edge approaches at the interface of marine ecology, biophysics, and chemical sensing, including sensPIV, which enables the simultaneous visualization of flow dynamics and oxygen distributions, alongside microsensor techniques.
Currently, as a postdoctoral researcher in the Evolutionary Biology and Ecology lab at the Université libre de Bruxelles, I am integrating molecular approaches to my research, to better understand coral adaptation and resilience across biological scales.
Alongside research, I am willing to bridge science and society through science communication and collaborations connecting Art and Science, and by contributing to inclusive, collaborative, and impactful scientific communities.
Main ongoing research projects:
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•Ciliary flow as regulators of mass transport in scleractinian corals
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•Factors governing thermotolerance in antipatharian holobionts
Publications
*Equal author contribution.
Godefroid M, Otero-Ferrer F, Wind-Hansen M, Behrendt L, Ransquin I, Soler-Onis E, Espino F, Littman S, Ahmerkamp S. (2026) Ciliary flow and morphology shape mass transport at the surface and within gastrovascular cavities in black corals. Communications Biology 9, 876.
Ahmerkamp S, Pacherres CO, Mosshammer M, Godefroid M, Wind-Hansen M, Kuypers M, Behrendt L, Koren K, Kühl M (2025). Novel approach for lifetime-proportional luminescence imaging using frame straddling. ACS sensors 9, 5531-5540.
Palacios-Castillo L, Navarro-Mayoral S, Godefroid M, Garcia-Herrera C, Tuya F, Haroun R, Otero-Ferrer F (2025). Sex matters: female black corals experience higher stress under different current velocities. Coral Reefs, 1-15.
Terrana L, Rouzé H, Opresko DM, Under The Pole Consortium, Eeckhaut I, Dubois Ph, Godefroid M (2024). Whip black corals (Antipatharia: Antipathidae: Stichopathes) of the Mesophotic Coral Ecosystem of Mo’orea (French Polynesia), with the description of a new species. Zootaxa 5486, 182-212.
Godefroid M, Vandendriessche M, Todinanahary G, Ransquin I, Dubois Ph (2024). Thermal sensitivity of black corals (Antipatharia: Hexacorallia): comparisons between sympatric species from a thermally fluctuating site in Madagascar and between allopatric congenerics. Science of the Total Environment 908, 168311.
Godefroid M*, Gouveia A*, Dubois Ph, Espino F, Tuya F, Haroun R, Otero-Ferrer F (2023d). Thermal stress response of Antipathella wollastoni (Gray, 1857) from the Canary Islands archipelago. Coral Reefs, 1-7.
Godefroid M, Gouveia A, Otero-Ferrer F, Espino F, Tuya F, Dubois Ph (2023c). Higher daily temperature range at depth is linked with higher thermotolerance in antipatharians from the canary islands. Journal of Thermal Biology, 103593.
Godefroid M, Dubois P, Hédouin L, Under The Pole Consortium (2023b). Thermal performance with depth: comparison of a mesophotic scleractinian and an antipatharian species subjected to internal waves in Mo'orea, French Polynesia. Marine Environmental Research 184, 105851.
Godefroid M*, Zeimes T*, Bramanti L, Romans P, Bo M, Toma M, Danis B, Guillaumot C (2023a). Low vulnerability of the Mediterranean antipatharian Antipathella subpinnata (Ellis & Solander, 1786) to ocean warming. Ecological Modelling 475, 110209.
Godefroid M, Dupont S, Metian M, Hédouin L (2022b). Two decades of seawater acidification experiments on tropical scleractinian corals: overview, meta-analysis and perspectives. Marine Pollution Bulletin 178, 113552.
Godefroid M, Hédouin L, Mercière A, Dubois Ph (2022a). Thermal stress responses of the antipatharian Stichopathes sp. from the mesophotic reef of Mo’orea, French Polynesia. Science of the Total Environment, 153094.
Gress E, Godefroid M, Eeckhaut I, Dubois Ph, Roberty S, Richir J, Terrana L (2021d). Investigating densities of Symbiodiniaceae in two species of Antipatharians (Black Corals) from Madagascar. Oceans 2, 772-784.
Godefroid M, Georges Boleslas Todinanahary G, Dubois Ph, Eeckhaut I, Sturaro N, Lepoint G, Terrana L (2021c). Pespectives on working underwater with black coral nubbins (Cnidaria: Antipatharia): the case of Cirrhipathes anguina (Dana, 1846). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 545, 151645.
Godefroid M, Arcuby R, Lacube Y, Espiau B, Dupont S, Gazeau F, Metian M, Hédouin L (2021b). More than local adaptation: high diversity of response to seawater acidification in 7 coral species from the same assemblage in French Polynesia. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 101, 675-683.
Dugauquier JM, Godefroid M, M’Zoudi S, Terrana L, Todinanahary G, Eeckhaut I, Dubois Ph (2021a) Ecomechanics of black corals (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Hexacorallia: Antipatharia): a comparative approach. Invertebrate Biology 140, e12347.
Pinte N*, Godefroid M*, Abbas O, Baeten V, Mallefet J (2019). Deep-sea sharks: relation between the liver's buoyancy and red aerobic muscle volumes, a new approach. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology 236, 110520.
Research background
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•Postdoctoral Researcher, Chargée de Recherches FNRS: Evolutionary Biology and Ecology Group, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Feb 2026 – Present (3 years)
Supervisor: Jean-François Flot (ebe)
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•Postdoctoral Researcher: Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Germany
Feb 2024 – Feb 2026 (2 years)
Multiscale approach to investigate coral resilience : from single-cell to ecosystems
Supervisor: Dr Soeren Ahmerkamp
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•PhD, FRIA-FNRS: Marine Biology Laboratory, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
October 2018 – February 2023 (4.5 years)
Thermal tolerance of black corals: a global comparative approach
Supervisors: Prof. Philippe Dubois (ULB, Belgium) and Dr Laetitia Hédouin (CRIOBE, France)
