Ecological Function and Biodiversity Indicators in European Soils

The EcoGenomics lab of the Tree-Microbe Interactions Department (INRA-Nancy) organized on September 17^th, 2013 a workshop for EcoFINDERS’s graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.

The bioinformatics course was held within the framework of the EcoFINDERS’s WP3 and aimed to enable microbial ecologists to acquire basic bioinformatics skills for analyzing the sequence datasets generated by 454 pyrosequencing of DNA barcodes from the EcoFINDER’s LTO soil samples.

The course provided a platform for discussion of the key questions and challenges in the field of high-throughput microbial DNA sequencing. It has been delivered using a mixture of lectures, computer-based practical sessions and interactive discussions. Speakers provided an overview of key issues that affect bioinformatics tools for the analysis of microbial DNA barcoding data. Robert Griffiths (CEH, UK), Sébastien Terrat (INRA Dijon), Marc Buée, Vincent Hervé, Benoit Marçais, Francis Martin, Emmanuelle Morin, Claude Murat, Thibaut Payen and Emilie Tisserant (INRA Nancy) contributed to the lectures and practical sessions.

Twenty-three participants from Germany, Denmark, UK, France, Italy, Netherland and Portugal attended the course. The workshop was funded by EcoFINDERS and the Lab of Excellence ARBRE.

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EcoFinders Project
Summary

Soils provide numerous essential ecosystem services such as: primary production (including agricultural and forestry products); regulation of biogeochemical cycles (with consequences for the climate); water filtration; resistance to diseases and pests; and regulation of above-ground biodiversity.

However, soils are subjected to many threats, so there is an urgent need to preserve this resource which is not renewable at the Human time scale. The European Commission wants to define a policy for the sustainable management of soils with a view to adopting a legally binding Soil Framework Directive, such as exists for air and water. Scientific and technological knowledge on soil biodiversity and functioning in relation with the above mentioned ecosystem services is required to reach this goal.

Soils host a huge biodiversity (microbes and fauna) of which our understanding remains very limited. Our lack of knowledge is related to: the small size of the soilborne organisms; their immense diversity; the difficulty in isolating them; and the great heterogeneity of their habitats across different scales. However, recent progress in the molecular characterization of soil biodiversity offers the exciting prospect of exploring its complexity and better understanding its functioning.

The EcoFINDERS (Ecological Function and Biodiversity Indicators in European Soils) project aims to result in:

• at the scientific level, increasing our knowledge of soil biodiversity and its role in ecosystem services across different soils, climate types and land uses
• at the technological level, the standardization of methods and operating procedures for characterizing soil biodiversity and functioning, and the development of bioindicators
• at the economic level, the assessment of the added value brought by cost-effective bioindicators, and of cost effectiveness of alternative ecosystem service maintenance policies.

The soil biodiversity studied includes microbes (archaea, bacteria, fungi) and fauna (protozoa, microarthropods, nematodes, oligochaeta), and their relation with above-ground biodiversity.

This European project, coordinated by INRA, gathers together 23 partners from 10 European countries plus China, to harness expertise in ecology, biodiversity, environmental economy, modeling, bioinformatics and database management.

Contact
Dr. Philippe LEMANCEAU, project coordinator, Tel. +33 3 80 69 30 56, philippe.lemanceau (at) dijon.inra.fr

Grâce au soutien du Labex ARBRE, nous accueillons début octobre deux chercheurs québécois spécialisés dans l’utilisation de la technologie Lidar terrestre en Forêt.

Applications du LiDAR terrestre en forêt

La technologie émergeante du T-Lidar (Lidar terrestre) permet une acquisition à haute résolution et à grande vitesse d’une description très précise d’une scène forestière sous la forme d’un nuage de points en trois dimensions.  L’enjeu scientifique consiste à convertir ces données ponctuelles en informations géométriques synthétiques fournissant des variables dendrométriques ou écologiques d’intérêt..

Intervenants :

Richard Fournier, Professeur, Université de Sherbrooke
Jean-François Côté (PhD), Centre canadien sur la fibre de bois
Thierry Constant (PhD), LERFoB – INRA
Alexandre Piboule (PhD), Office National des Forêts

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16 octobre 2013 à 9h30

AgroParis Tech – Amphithéatre A
14 rue Girardet, 54000 Nancy

Pour l’afffiche détaillé veuillez cliquer ici – Conférence T-Lidar

25 septembre 2013

Ingénieur de recherche au Laboratoire d’études des ressources forêt-bois (LERFOB, UMR Inra-AgroParisTech) à l’INRA de Nancy, Jean-Claude Pierrat est distingué pour les éminents services rendus aux équipes de recherche LERFOB et  IAM dans les domaines statistiques et informatiques. Il a assuré avec créativité et efficacité un appui méthodologique pertinent au traitement statistique des données et a contribué à produire des résultats originaux dans les domaines aussi variés que la microbiologie, la pathologie, l’écologie végétale ou l’inventaire forestier. Il a également contribué à introduire en écologie forestière l’utilisation de méthodes statistiques récentes qui s’appuient sur le calcul intensif et le ré-échantillonnage de bases de données.

Pour ceux qui sont curieux de savoir ce que récompense cette médaille :

La médaille de vermeil récompense des collaborateurs techniques proches de la retraite qui ont rendu, au cours de leur carrière, d’éminents services à des équipes de recherche, ou des responsables de travaux récents et encore peu connus, mais dont il apparaît déjà clairement qu’ils auront des conséquences importantes. Cette médaille peut également distinguer des auteurs d’ouvrages dont l’analyse a été faite par l’Académie et dont la qualité et l’originalité sont particulièrement remarquables.

Bravo Jean-Claude!

Natasha Clairet completed her Master 2 followed by two months of research at the LERFoB (UMR1092) lab at INRA. She participated in the ClimTree 2013 conference (Climate Change and Tree Responses in Central European Forests) which was held earlier in September 2013, in Zurich. The aim of this event, organized in conjunction with the 20th anniversary celebration anniversary of EFI (European Forest Institute), was to take stock of research currently focused on the impact of climate change on forests in the centre of Europe. Natasha was awarded the first prize for her poster entitled: “Interactions between climate-growth relationships and social tree status in a mature silver-fir Plantation”.

In her research, Natacha was able to show that trees from different social status, despite formation from contrasting wood, responded similarly to interannual climate variations.

Natasha is currently looking for a thesis funded to start a scientific career after his promising debut.

Our congratulations !

Hundreds of people from all over Europe and beyond are expected in Nancy the week of 23-27 September to celebrate 20 years of forestry research in Europe.

Program highlights of the week will include the forum “Our forests in the 21st century – ready for risks and opportunities?” on Wednesday, 25 September,  followed on September 26 by the session entitled “Risks to European Forests – What added value can a European Forest Risk Facility provide?”. Both will take place at the Palais des Congrès in Nancy.

Featured guest speakers confirmed for September 25 will include the prestigeous Prof. Dr. Eduardo Rojas Briales (FAO), Dr. Janez Potočnik (Commissioner for the environment, European Commission), Mr. Kriton Arsenis (European Parliament) and Ms. Jan McAlpine (United Nations Forest Forum).

Also worth noting is a round table discussion for the general public on Tuesday, 24 September, at 8 pm at the Museum-Aquarium in Nancy (“Forests of Europe: ready for the future?”) and two field trips planned for Friday, September 27 (one half-day morning outing to Champenoux and a second scheduled for the afternoon to the Haye forest).

Finally, several parallel meetings and satellite events will be held during this eventful week. More information can be found on the official event website (also in English).

This event is co-organized by the European Forest Institute (EFI) through its regional office for Central Europe and the European Observatory of Forests (EFICENT-OEF), the National Institute of Agronomic Research (INRA), the University of Lorraine, AgroParisTech, GIP Ecofor and Labex ARBRE.

About the ash dieback: France Inter (http://www.franceinter.fr/emission-lactu-pres-de-chez-vous-la-maladie-du-frene-avec-vosges-matin) and Vosges Matin (http://www.vosgesmatin.fr/vosges/2013/07/01/les-frenes-malades-et-menaces).

Friday, July  12, 13h30 – 15h30 (INRA Champenoux), Conference Room

On July 12, we are pleased to welcome to INRA two renowned researchers in the field of tree ecophysiology; Annie Desrochers of the Univeristy of Québec and Andrew Merchant from the Australian Research Council and the University of Sydney.  Both will present their research in the conference room at INRA.

13h30 : Annie Desrochers,  professor at the University of Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Research Institute of Forests (IRF), The Research and Forestry Development unit of Abitibi-Témiscamingue (URDFAT),  will present her work on root links between trees.

Presentation summary:

Trees are traditionally considered as distinct entities competing with each other for resources. However, many tree species in North America are interconnected through their roots, which challenges classic notions of forest ecology and competition. Indeed, root connections allow trees to share water, sugars and secondary compounds.  Throughout the years we have excavated the root systems of many tree species (trembling aspen, balsam poplar, jack pine, red pine, black spruce) and found high levels of root grafting or parental root connections for species regenerating through root suckering. We found that responses to defoliation (tree level) or to commercial thinning (stand level) could be affected by root connections.  For a clonal species (trembling aspen), we also found that root grafting could be responsible for the conservation of dead genotypes underground, until the next disturbance allows them to come back through root suckering. These examples show us that trees can directly affect the physiology of other trees through root connections, and suggest that stands with trees growing on communal root systems could be considered as single organisms. Hence, root connections are important in forest ecology and should be taken into account in forest management.

Speaker profile : http://chaireafd.uqat.ca/chercheurs/PageIndividus_f.asp?IdCollaboration=25

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14h15: Andrew Merchant, of the University of Sydney and an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery postdoctoral fellow in plant metabolism, while visiting Nancy, will give a presentation called “Transcriptome responses to long term water deficit among eucalypt species of contrasting ecotype”.

Speaker profile : http://sydney.edu.au/agriculture/staff/find_staff_member/staff_profiles/andrew_merchant.shtml

All are welcome!

We welcome Dr. Jessy Labbé, a former INRA Ph.D. student, who joins us from the Biosciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (TE, USA). Within the framework of the DOE Plant-Microbe Interfaces project, Jessy is working with François Le Tacon and Francis Martin on the QTL for mycorrhiza formation in poplar. He is funded by the LabeX ARBRE.

Atelier REGEFOR 2013, les 10, 11 et 12 Juin sur le campus de l’INRA à Champenoux

En forêt, le maintien de la fertilité, qui englobe l’ensemble des paramètres physiques, chimiques et biologiques déterminant l’aptitude d’un sol à soutenir une production, n’est pas une préoccupation récente des chercheurs et des gestionnaires. Les grands principes visant à garantir la « bonne gestion » des sols forestiers sont connus, du moins dans leurs grandes lignes, et largement appliqués dans la pratique.

Cependant, l’intérêt que porte la société à cette question a fortement évolué au fil du temps en fonction du contexte énergétique, économique et environnemental. Des enjeux nouveaux et les tensions qui en résultent caractérisent la période actuelle. Les engagements pris par la France en matière de récolte accrue de biomasse forestière, l’évolution des itinéraires sylvicoles et le recours croissant à la mécanisation sont des évolutions susceptibles d’impacter la fertilité. L’adaptation de la gestion au changement climatique, et l’intérêt croissant de la société pour la conservation de la biodiversité appellent d’autres inflexions de la gestion qui ne sont pas sans effet sur la fertilité des sols.

L’Atelier Regefor 2013 propose un point sur les connaissances sur la fertilité des sols forestiers et les cycles biogéochimiques des principaux nutriments dans les écosystèmes forestiers. Il s’appuie sur des approches d’écologie et de biologie des sols et examine les interactions entre sylviculture, gestion des peuplements et fertilité. Il s’intéresse à la gestion à court terme de la fertilité, à des procédures de remédiation, mais également à des perspectives à long terme de son évolution dans le cadre des changements globaux. L’Atelier est essentiellement consacré aux forêts tempérées, mais s’intéresse aussi à des études de cas en forêt tropicale et dans les systèmes agroforestiers. C’est l’occasion de présenter des moyens d’investigation nouveaux (isotopes stables, métagénomique des micro-organismes du sol…), des outils d’aide à la décision et de débattre des pratiques et limites de la remédiation.

L’atelier comporte des sessions de présentations synthétiques, des sessions de présentations volontaires ainsi que des tables rondes et discussions. Il est organisé par l’Inra, AgroParisTech, l’Université de Lorraine, le Labex ARBRE et le GIP Ecofor.