Search results for "Ecosystem"
showing 10 items of 1752 documents
Segetal plant conservation in arable fields: functional role, farmers’ perception and farming systems
2014
International audience; Segetal plants, or “messicoles” as they are known in French, are weedy inhabitants of wheat crops (mainly winter cereals). The national list of segetal species includes 102 taxa; of which 7 are extinct, 52 threatened, 30 to be kept under close observation and 12 abundant. Data on their distribution indicates that they are mostly in decline due to intensive farming systems. As their survival is intrinsically linked to farming systems, we need to improve knowledge on their relationships with land management in order to establish a sound scientific basis for protection tools, to support and guide farmer conservation measures and to disseminate concerns for segetal biodi…
Spécificité des besoins de recherche sur la qualité des sols en Agriculture Biologique. Bilan d’un séminaire transdisciplinaire INRA-ITAB
2023
In November 2018, ITAB (Institute of Agriculture and Organic Food) and INRA (National Institute for Agronomic Research) organized a transdisciplinary seminar to bring together stakeholders to: i) share issues associated with soil management in Organic Farming (OF) systems, ii) collectively define the main research questions to be addressed; and iii) facilitate the construction of networks or projects. More than 150 participants attended the seminar, which was designed using the method of citizen facilitation of the community forum type (Town Hall Meeting) allowing all parties to express themselves and a live summary by experts. The seminar identified important knowledge gaps on soils in OF …
Soil as a Support of Biodiversity and Functions
2014
The soil is a major reservoir of biological diversity on our planet. It also shelters numerous biological and ecological processes and therefore contributes to the production of a considerable number of ecosystem services. Among the ecological, social and economic services identified, the role of soil as a reservoir of diversity has now been well established, along with its role in nutrient cycling, supporting primary productivity, pollution removal and storing carbon. Since the development of industrialization, urbanization and agriculture, soils have been subjected to numerous variations in environmental conditions, which have resulted in modifications of the diversity of the indigenous m…
Exploit biodiversity in viticultural systems to reduce pest damage and pesticide use, and increase ecosystem services provision: the Biovine project
2019
International audience; Organic vineyards still rely on large external inputs to control harmful organisms (i.e., pests). The BIOVINE project aims to develop natural solutions based on plant diversity to control pests and reduce pesticide dependence. The capability of plants of increasing the ecosystem resistance to pests and invasive species is a well-known ecosystem service. However, monocultures (including vineyards) do not exploit the potential of plant diversity. BIOVINE aims to develop new viticultural systems based on increased plant diversity within (e.g., cover crops) and/or around (e.g., hedges, vegetation spots) vineyards by planting selected plant species for the control of arth…
Exploit biodiversity in viticultural systems to reduce pest damage and pesticide use, and increase ecosystems services provision: the BIOVINE Project
2018
Organic vineyards still rely on large external inputs to control harmful organisms (i.e., pests). The BIOVINE project aims to develop natural solutions based on plant diversity to control pests and reduce pesticide dependence. The capability of plants of increasing the ecosystem resistance to pests and invasive species is a well-known ecosystem service. However, monocultures (including vineyards) do not exploit the potential of plant diversity. BIOVINE aims to develop new viticultural systems based on increased plant diversity within (e.g., cover crops) and/or around (e.g., hedges, vegetation spots, edgings) vineyards by planting selected plant species for the control of arthropods, soil-bo…
Consequences of sown grass margin strip on weed flora
2010
The intensification of the management of weed populations, led by a potential decrease in the yield and quality of crop harvest, has largely induced their decline in arable zones across the last decades. This floristic decline in arable landscape, has induced a loss of a larger biodiversity because the presence of others organisms (birds, insects, mammals) are strongly linked with the abundance of trophic resources as weed are. To counter with this loss of biodiversity and to limit the negative impacts of farming practices on environment, numerous agri environmental schemes were launched through Europe. In France, sown grass strips were established by farmers along streams and rivers to lim…
Caractérisation des communautés microbiennes dans les technosols construits pour la restauration des friches industrielles
2012
Increasing soil degradation and its consequences on overall ecosystem services urge for restoration strategies. Construction of Technosols through assemblage of treated soil and industrial wastes is an innovative technology for the restoration of polluted land and re-use of industrial by-products. Recent studies have evidenced that Technosols could support ecosystemic services such as primary production but the knowledge about other soil functions, such as biogeochemical cycling, is limited. Due to the significant contribution of microbial communities to soil functioning, this PhD work was carried out to study the effect of the type of Technosol on microbial communities with a focus on func…
Deciphering biotic interactions and their role in soil microbial community assembly
2021
National audience; Soil microbial communities play key roles in ecosystem functioning. Yet, little is known aboutthe importance of microbe-microbe interactions in soil microbial community assembly andfunctions. To address this knowledge gap, the objective of my thesis is to assess the role ofinteractions between micro-organisms in soil microbial communities. For this purpose, we willmanipulate the interactions between microorganisms within complex soil microbialcommunities by (i) removing different members of the soil community, (ii) adding microbialtaxa to the soil community and (iii) increasing the physical distance between members of thesoil community. How shifts in microbial interaction…
Loss in microbial diversity affects nitrogen cycling in soil
2013
International audience; Microbial communities have a central role in ecosystem processes by driving the Earth's biogeochemical cycles. However, the importance of microbial diversity for ecosystem functioning is still debated. Here, we experimentally manipulated the soil microbial community using a dilution approach to analyze the functional consequences of diversity loss. A trait-centered approach was embraced using the denitrifiers as model guild due to their role in nitrogen cycling, a major ecosystem service. How various diversity metrics related to richness, eveness and phylogenetic diversity of the soil denitrifier community were affected by the removal experiment was assessed by 454 s…
Mechanisms underlying the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function
2019
International audience