Dr. Pierre Noiset

Short profile

My research interest lies in the ecology and evolution of insects, particularly bees. Building on my previous PhD research on Afrotropical stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae, Meliponini), my work integrates microbial ecology, pollination biology, chemical ecology, biodiversity monitoring, biogeography, and evolutionary ecology to better understand bee–environment interactions across spatial and temporal scales. My research combines field ecology, molecular approaches, microbiome analyses, species distribution modelling, and emerging monitoring tools to investigate how environmental factors, plant–pollinator interactions, and global change shape bee diversity, health, and ecosystem functioning.
I'm currently investigating the effect of soil parameters on soil and pollinator microbes, their genomic functions and bee health, while developping novel monitoring methods such as environmental DNA (eDNA) and automated camera monitoring within the EU Horizon project ProPollSoil (https://www.propollsoil.eu/).

Selected publications

1. Vereecken, N. J., Héger, M., Aganze Mweze, M., Razakamiaramanana, A., Karanja, R. H. N., Nkoba, K., & Noiset, P. (2025). Afrotropical Stingless Bees Illustrate a Persistent Cultural Blind Spot in Research, Policy and Conservation. Diversity, 17(12), 826. https://doi.org/10.3390/d17120826

2. Noiset, Pierre, Madeleine Héger, Chloé Salmon, et al. 2025. “Ecological and Evolutionary Drivers of Stingless Bee Honey Variation at the Global Scale.” Science of The Total Environment 969 (March): 178945. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.178945

3. Noiset, P., Ndunda, R. M., Mokaya, H. O., Chege, M., Ndungu, N. N., Sharifu, N., Vereecken, N. J., & Nkoba, K. (2024). Insularity and its impact on stingless bee honey properties: A case study in the Zanzibar Archipelago (Tanzania). JSFA Reports, 4(2), 64–71. https://doi.org/10.1002/jsf2.170

4. Héger, Madeleine, Pierre Noiset, Kiatoko Nkoba, and Nicolas J. Vereecken. 2023. “Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Non-Food Uses of Stingless Bee Honey in Kenya’s Last Pocket of Tropical Rainforest.” Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 19 (1): 42. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13002-023-00614-3

5. Noiset, Pierre, Nathalie Cabirol, Marcelo Rojas-Oropeza, Natapot Warrit, Kiatoko Nkoba, and Nicolas J. Vereecken. 2022. “Honey Compositional Convergence and the Parallel Domestication of Social Bees.” Scientific Reports 12 (1): 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-23310-w