Raphaël Manlay (PhD)

Education

• Agricultural engineer, INA-PG.
• Rural, Water and Forestry Engineer.
• Master’s degree in Ecology — Aix-Marseille University.
• PhD in Environmental Sciences — ENGREF.

Professional experience

• Since 2003 – Lecturer and researcher at AgroParisTech.
• 2002–2003 – Research scientist at the French Research Institute for Development (IRD), Tropical Soil Carbon Sequestration research unit, Montpellier.
• 2001–2002 – Research scientist at Cemagref, now INRAE, Mediterranean Forest research unit, Aix-en-Provence.
• 1994–2001 – Research activities at IRD within the Fallow Systems programme in Dakar, Senegal, and at ENGREF in Montpellier.

• Lecturer and researcher within AgroParisTech’s Environmental Management Unit.
• AgroParisTech head of the ST2AE international Master’s, GEEFT track — Environmental Management of Ecosystems and Tropical Forests.
• AgroParisTech head of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master “Global Forestry” (GloFor).
• Associate researcher at UMR Eco&Sols — Functional Ecology and Biogeochemistry of Soils and Agroecosystems.
• Member of the French Corps of Bridges, Waters and Forests Engineers (IPEF).

Raphaël Manlay’s research focuses on the functioning of tropical agroecosystems, understood as hybrid systems produced by interactions between human societies and ecosystems. His work adopts an interdisciplinary approach, with a central role given to functional ecology.

He is particularly interested in the carbon cycle and its role in the functioning and sustainability of tropical agricultural and forest systems.

Main research areas

• Tropical agroecology and forestry.
• Sustainability of agricultural systems and climate-change issues in tropical regions.
• Assessment and modelling of carbon balances from ecosystem to landscape scale.
• Assessment of carbon-sequestration projects in forestry and agriculture.
• Modelling carbon storage in soils and vegetation according to environmental characteristics and human practices.
• Analysis of carbon allocation and dissipation mechanisms in agroecosystems.
• Development of carbon-cycle assessment tools at individual, territorial and national scales.
• Analysis of the contribution of family farming to climate-change mitigation.

Fieldwork and partnerships

Activities are mainly based in Montpellier, with priority field sites in Senegal and Burkina Faso.

Research is conducted in particular in partnership with UMR Eco&Sols.

• Agroecology and ecology of tropical ecosystems.
• Tropical forestry.
• Functioning and management of tropical agroecosystems.
• Carbon cycle, climate change and ecosystem management.

• Allerton T. A. P., Van Bloem S. J. & Manlay R. J. (2025). “Novel Fires Shift Biological Legacies Away From Natural Regeneration in Caribbean Tropical Dry Forest”, Journal of Vegetation Science, 36(2), e70030.
• Kisaka O. M., Shisanya C., Cournac L., Manlay R. J., Gitari H. & Muriuki J. (2023). “Integrating no-tillage with agroforestry augments soil quality indicators in Kenya’s dry-land agroecosystems”, Soil and Tillage Research, 227, 105586.