Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Trees can control their shape and resist gravity thanks to their ability to produce wood under tensile stress. This stress is known to be produced during the maturation of wood fibres but the mechanism of its generation remains unclear. This study focuses on the formation of the secondary wall in tension wood produced in artificially tilted poplar saplings. Thickness of secondary wall layer (SL) and gelatinous layer (GL) were measured from cambium to mature wood in several trees sampled at different times after tilting. Measurements on wood fibres produced before tilting show the progressive increase of secondary wall thickness during the growing season. After the tilting date, SL thickness decreased markedly from normal wood to tension wood while the total thickness increased compared to normal wood, with the development of a thick GL. However, even after GL formation, SL thickness continues to increase during the growing season. GL thickening was observed to be faster than SL thickening. The development of the unlignified GL is proposed to be a low cost, efficient strategy for a fast generation of tensile stress in broadleaved trees.
IAWA journal / International Association of Wood Anatomists.

hal-01229277
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01229277
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01229277/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01229277/file/AbediniClair-Iawa-TensionCellWallThickening_preprint_HAL.pdf
DOI : 10.1163/22941932-00000084

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : One of the major challenges in forest ecology is to understand the ecology, physiology and potential responses of the> 250000 species of vascular plants of the planet through the categorization of this diversity into functional groups. This approach is essentially based on functional traits analysis, but few investigations were made in tropical areas. The aim of this study was to determine functional groups in two contrasted tropical ecosystems, dry (DF) and mountain rain (MRF) forest (respectively rainfall of 1 200 mm/year and 10 000 mm/year). Guadeloupe Island in FWI presents both these ecosystems spread over less 100 km. In a first time, we developed an original species typology based on 7 "soft" traits, easy to measure (stomatal density, leaf trichom density, chlorophyll content, leaf nitrogen content, specific leaf area, wood density, leaf area, plant height). The method was based on principal component analysis (PCA) and agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) applied to these traits measured at the individual level (Blazy et al., 2009). In a second time, we evaluated the relevance of these soft trait-based groups compared to a typology based on 5 "hard" ecophysiological traits, more costly to quantify but with higher functional significance (difference between predawn and minimum leaf water potential, stomatal conductance, maximal carbon assimilation rate, leaf water potential at 90% of loss of stem hydraulic conductivity). When performed on the dominant canopy species in DF and MRF (a total of 13 species and 60 mature individuals), the typological approach based on soft traits seems relevant to discriminate groups with a distinct functional reality. Through both ecosystems, we obtained 4 homogenous groups. Two were exclusively composed by DF's or MRF's species, indicating that a functional strategy can be linked to specific environmental conditions. The two other groups showed a mix of DF and MRF species indicating that different functional strategies can coexist in the same environment. These mixed groups seem distinct by their ecophysiological features, particularly in term of hydraulic characteristics. One group was composed by drought tolerant species, water spender species, with a high xylem embolism resistance, whereas the second one was composed by water saver species, less resistant to embolism. Therefore, a determination of functional groups based on soft traits could be useful to model ecosystem's responses to environmental changes on a global scale.
Book of Abstracts - isem 2013 - Ecological Modelling for Ecosystem Sustainability
Toulouse, France

hal-00964668
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00964668