Its back to school !

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In early June of this year, four classes of students from the College of Einville-au-Jard (5th term) took part in a defoliation experiment on young beech trees in the framework of the LabEx ARBRE project MEPIB-DEATH. This event was supported by the EFPA department at INRA and EUREKA Lorraine. With school beginning again this month, Cathy Massonet and Nathalie Bréda with the Joint Research unit EEF, Pascale Frey-Klett with LabEx ARBRE and Cyril Galley with CPIE of Nancy-Champenoux will meet with teachers whose students participated in SURVIVORS to organize the next follow-up phases of the collaborative research project. This will include proposing exercises using dendrometric measurements taken for these young trees, as well as leaf area and chlorophyll levels, which will involve teachers in mathematics, life sciences, physics and technology. The young up and coming researchers will discover how research can simultaneously spur knowledge in a variety of disciplines.  Students now in their 4th term will meet with researchers this coming autumn who will talk about the first wave of research results and will present the projects next steps.

photo @ P Frey-Klett

Collaborating on Douglas-fir with Oregon State University

31 August – 21 September

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We have the pleasure of welcoming Nate Osborne this week to INRA in Champenoux. Nate is a visiting doctoral researcher who will work with the LEFoB unit for three weeks this month until September 21. Nate is working towards his PhD under the supervision of Professor Doug Maguire of Oregon State University, a Guistina Professor of Forest Managment and Director of the Center for Intensive Planted-Forest Silviculture (CIPS), which inspired our GIS “Cooperative data on the growth of forest stands”. Both are specialists in growth, yield and wood quality modeling for Douglas-fir and attended together the MoMoWood conference in early November 2013.

Nate describes his objectives during his brief stay in France:

Our first project is to integrate the ORGANON model into the Capsis platform.  Organon is an individual tree growth, yield and wood quality model for Douglas-fir in the Pacific Northwest developed at Oregon State University by the Center for Intensive Planted-forest Silviculture.  

Our second project is to scan Douglas-fir trees from France using computer tomography (CT).  With processed CT images, we plan to refit models developed in the Pacific Northwest for macroscopic wood structures in Douglas-fir.  Currently, we are in the experimental design phase of this project.  During my three week stay, I will work in Nancy and Montpellier.  On Monday, September 8, I will describe some work done at Oregon State University to model branch angles and implied branch pith curvature at the Doc/Post-Doctorate seminar hosted by LABEX.  On September 19 of my stay, I’ll make a presentation within the LERFoB about how to use the Organon growth and yield model.

Nate will come back to INRA next year to take part in the tomographic analysis of trees sampled in the GIS plots. Nate’s visit is supported by LabEx ARBRE.

Mixed forests and plantations have the potential, when compared to monocultures, (i) to show improved productivity, soil fertility, nutrient cycling, and carbon sequestration, (ii) to reduce hazards due to pests and diseases, and (iii) to exhibit greater biodiversity. However, the relationships between species diversity and ecosystem functioning is still largely debated. In mixed forests and plantations, tree species basically compete for resources, but facilitation or complementarity interactions also occur and influence ecosystem functioning. Furthermore, these relationships can be influenced by environmental conditions; global changes will thus influence species interactions and their effect on ecosystem functioning and services, including productivity.

The 2014 NFZ.forestnet Summer School on “Mixed Forest Ecosystems” (acronym MIXFOR) will offer applicants a complete and thorough view of the positive (e.g. facilitation, niche differentiation) and negative (competition) interactions for resource acquisition occurring in mixed forest ecosystems and their consequences on ecosystem functioning and services, in the context of environmental changes. Scientists from the NFZ.forestnet network working in this field as well as internationally recognized ones will share their research experience and illustrate concepts in community ecology and functional ecology to disentangle the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Illustrations might cover natural forests, plantations, and agro-forestry cultural systems, for temperate or tropical ecosystems.

The agenda will include conferences and workshops on technical, methodological, or conceptual aspects accompanied by case-studies. Classroom sessions will take place on INRA premises in Champenoux (15 km from Nancy, transportation provided by INRA). There will be visits of 3-4 mixed plantations or natural forests in Lorraine. These visits will be conducted in collaboration with the local forest partners (namely Office national des forêts, ONF) and will contribute to illustrate the experimental or observational studies conducted in Lorraine.

This event was organized by Damien Bonal et Nicolas Marron d’EEF.
For more information – NFZ.forestnet

On July 8th researchers met on site at INRA in Champenoux to launch the INABACT project (Impact of nutrient availability on the diversity, function and functioning of forest soil bacterial communities: Insights on soil succession at the experimental forest site at Montiers-sur-Saulx).

This multidisciplinary project linking workpackages WP1 (Tree-microbe interfaces) and WP2 (Forest ecoystem functioning and dysfunction in a changing environment) involves five research units supported by LabEx ARBRE (IAM, BEF, EEF, LERMAB and DYNAmic).  At the interface between environmental genomics and biogeochemical cycles, this project aims to understand the impact soil fertility has on taxonomic structure and functioning within microbial communities.  This launch meeting began the exchange process between partners as they laid the groundwork for the project to begin in September of this year.  Support funding for INABACT has allowed for the recruitment of one PhD student and one postdoctoral researcher.

As part of the LabEx ARBRE PhD & Postdoc Seminar, we have the pleasure of welcoming Mr. Jean-Marc Galan as a guest speaker. A researcher with CNRS and a biologist by training, Jean-Marc specializes in scientific mediation. Within the framework of his expertise in the field of scientific mediation, he will present a conference open to the public on Monday, September 8 at 2 pm at the Centre INRA in Champenoux on the theme: “The objectives and difficulties of scientific researchers mediation”.

Jean-Marc Galan is especially well known as a producer/host of the radio show ‘Ongoing Research’, and for the series of online multi-disciplinary conferences called ‘Treize Minutes’ (Thirteen Minutes).  In addition, he coordinates group training for TRACES and teaches courses on communicating science to different audiences (PhD students, researchers, students in scientific journalism…).

To read more about Jean-Marc Galan ..

• Radio program – Ongoing Research
• Interview Université Paris Diderot
• Online conferences – Thirteen Minutes
• Compte Twitter : @jeanmarcgalan

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For more information on the LabEx ARBRE PhD & Postdoc Seminar ..

• Presentation & Program
  
• Registration

Year 2013 / 2014

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The wood sector holds an important position in the regional economy and lies at the heart of the specialty Master FAGE program ‘Wood-Forest-Sustainable Development’, which aims to study the sector of the material as a resource, the biology of trees as integral parts of forests, with particular emphasis on international contexts and which includes a specialty in English and a specialty focused on tropical forests. Scientific knowledge acquired by students who have chosen this specialty are either oriented towards further in-depth study of fundamental issues, or related to the resolution of major environmental problems.

A study proposed by the inter-professional group promoting the wood sector in Lorraine, Gipeblor, was conducted by engineering students at AgroParisTech, enrolled in the “Wood-Forest-Sustainable Development” specialty Master FAGE program at the University of Lorraine. Its aim was to provide an in-depth analysis of this sector. This study also aimed to compare interests of sector actors in these areas with those of actors in the Black Forest.

To read the report, please follow this link :
Strategies of softwood sawmills from wood resources in Alsace-Lorraine and in Bade-Wurtemberg (Vosges and the Black Forest)

Henri Cuny is a post-doctoral researcher. He is currently woking with the Joint Research Unit for Forest and Wood Resource Studies (LERFOB) at INRA Nancy-Lorraine. He is participating in the WADE project (Wood Acclimation to Disturbed Environments). His research project is titled “Influence of climate on the dynamics of formation of wood”. Henri is the author of the article “Kinetics of tracheid development explain conifer tree-ring structure” published in may 2014 in the journal New Phytologist.

Henri recently presented his work and that of his team at the TRACE 2014 Conference (Tree Rings in Archaeology, Climatology and Ecology) in Aviemore, Scotland this past May. Henri was awarded the prize for ‘Best Presentation’, “Model of tracheid development explains conifer tree-ring structure”. Henri is the recipient of a postdoctoral grant from LabEx ARBRE.

Follow this link to read the interview Henri agreed to grant us recently.
ARBRE Interview – Henri Cuny

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LabEx ARBRE and the Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia (Kunming, Yunnan, Chine) have signed a collaboration agreement

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As part of a recent visit of the Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia and the Chinese Academy of Science in Kunming, China (the capital and largest city in Yunnan Province), Francis Martin, Scientific Director of LabEx ARBRE signed an agreement of collaboration between the two important research centers.  This collaboration will aim to develop exchange programs for young researchers studying the biology and ecology of forest mushrooms.

Yunnan Province, situated in southwest China, is known for its extreme plant and fungal biodiversity which is the result of its tremendously diverse physical landscapes (ranging from tropical jungle to alpine meadows) and climates (tropical, subtropical, temperate and mountain).  The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is funding several large projects that will focus on the exploitation of forest mushrooms for the medical and food industries, but also on the ecology and biogeography of these fungal species.

Photo : Prof. Jianping Xu, Francis Martin (Director of LabEx ARBRE), Prof. Kequin Zhang (Vice-President of the University of Kunming), Prof. Zhuliang Yang (Director of Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Biogeography) – © Claude Murat.

Bacterial-fungal interactions: a federative field for fundamental and applied microbiology

The summary report is now available from the international Jacques Monod conference that took place on 11 December 2013 in Roscoff, Bretagne.  To view this report, please click here :  Conference Report

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Conference Summary

The first International Jacques Monod conference took place in Roscoff (Bretagne) from 7 to 11 December.  This conference co-organized by CNRS, INRA and Labex ARBRE was titled « Bacterial-fungal interactions: a federative field for fundamental and applied microbiology ». No fewer than 77 scientists of 15 different nationalities (France, Europe, United States, Mexico, Sri Lanka) participated in learning more about the wide cross-sectoral nature of this area of research which is rapidly gaining momentum. Representing a wide cross-section of research areas (agronomy-forestry, environment, agri-food, medicine, biotechnology, synthetic biology and cultural heritage), these researchers in turn discussed their most recent results relevant to ecology and the molecular mechanisms of bacteria-fungius interactions and their applications and implications to all areas combined.  The dynamic momentum created by this conference led participants to a program a similar event for 2016-2017 and to formalize the development of an international network of laboratories working on this theme. This network is open to any and all laboratories interested (contact A. Deveau; deveau@nancy.inra.fr).

A participative research project with students from Einville-au-Jard
The experiment has started – defoliation begins the first week of June

2 – 6 June 2014
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SURVIVORS is an original participatory research project launched by a team of INRA researchers (UMR EEF) with the support of Labex ARBRE and the CPIE.  An experimental seedling nursery site was installed at INRA in Champenoux to understand how young beech trees survive severe changes in their functioning water-carbon-nitrogen levels. Nearly 2,000 beech trees were planted eight years ago by the UEFL as the first step to study this important seedling stage.

Three classes of students from the College of Einville- au-Jard class have been invited to participate in this experiment for hands on discovery of the research process. Each student will be given responsibility of sponsoring one tree in this experiment, “their” tree which they will follow and observe for 3 years.

Researchers have already met with these middle school students to present the key issues and the process of implementing research projects. These students will be welcomed on site at INRA the first week of June this year to continue their adventure during the defoliation process.

For more information about SURVIVORS ..

Contacts : Nathalie Bréda and Cathy Massonnet with the research team, Pascale Frey-Klett with Labex «ARBRE » and Cyril Galley with CPIE.