Résumé : The slides were taken on collecting trips sponsored by the William L. Bryant Foundation, where books, music and art indigenous to the regions were gathered. The are organized by geographical location.
People walking down Bamboo Avenue in Lacovia, Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica. Bamboo Avenue, also known as “Bamboo Walk”, is a highway approximately 2.5 miles long planted with bamboos forming an arched canopy over the road. It is also known as Holland Bamboo because it was planted by the owners of the Holland Estate, a sugar estate that dates back to the mid-1700s. The avenue was planted with the Bambusa Vulgaris a species of Bamboo which was the largest variety introduced in Jamaica. Slide labeled Bamboo over road on Southern Plains.
Jamaica -- Caribbean region -- Lacovia, Saint Elizabeth

Droits : All rights to images are held by the respective holding institution. This image is posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. For permission to reproduce images and/or for copyright information contact Special Collections & University Archives, University of Central Florida Libraries, Orlando, FL 32816 phone (407) 823-2576, email: speccoll@mail.ucf.edu
CFM1972_01a
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00030851/00001

Résumé : The slides were taken on collecting trips sponsored by the William L. Bryant Foundation, where books, music and art indigenous to the regions were gathered. The are organized by geographical location.
Bamboo Avenue, located in Lacovia, Saint Elizabeth, is also known as “Bamboo Walk.” This avenue, approximately 2.5 miles long, is planted with bamboos forming an arched canopy over the road. Throughout the years the bamboo grove has suffered damage and is becoming less dense. The avenue is protected under the Public Gardens Regulation Act and managed by the Public Gardens Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Slide labeled Jam. south bamboo.
Jamaica -- Caribbean region -- Lacovia, Saint Elizabeth

Droits : All rights to images are held by the respective holding institution. This image is posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. For permission to reproduce images and/or for copyright information contact Special Collections & University Archives, University of Central Florida Libraries, Orlando, FL 32816 phone (407) 823-2576, email: speccoll@mail.ucf.edu
CFM1972_01a
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00030879/00001

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : French Guiana is a region located on the Guiana Shield in South America. Is presents at the same time a high originality in biodiversity, a good state of conservation and a strong correlation to Amazonian carbon stocks. Knowledge on evolution of the forest structure of French Guiana is however still insufficient to bring an optimal management at territory scale. Availability as never seen before of remote sensing data at high spatial resolution such as LiDAR, on large coverage, offers the opportunity to assess the forest resource in French Guiana. The work done during this thesis aim mostly to study the structure and the variations of the canopy height, the factors determining its variability and the consequences of forest logging activities. The data used during this thesis come from an airborne LiDAR and field data from Office National des Forêts (ONF). This thesis manuscript is divided in three parts. The first part introduces the problem and sets the objectives of the thesis. The second part takes the so-called "article" form, that is, the different chapters that compose it are scientific articles published or in the course of publication, it is composed of three studies (I) A study on the gaps detection and environmental determinants on the gap sizes distribution in natural forest: How to characterize the gap size distribution and are there environmental determinants that influence the statistical distribution of gap size? This article has been submitted in Biogeoscience. (ii) A study of the control of the environment on the canopy height structure and variations at different spatial resolutions. Which spatial scales are relevant for analyzing the environmental determinants of canopy height changes in tropical forests from remote sensing data? How can the environment help or not map the height of the canopy in the rainforest? This article was accepted for publication in Remote Sensing. (iii) a third study where we quantified the effects of Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) on the structure and variation of canopy height. What are the effects of logging on canopy height variations and gap size distribution? This article will be submitted for publication in a Forest Ecology and Management journal. In the last part, after a synthesis of the main results, we propose a conclusion.
La Guyane française est une région située sur le Plateau des Guyanes en Amérique du sud. Elle présente à la fois une grande originalité en termes de biodiversité, un bon état de conservation et une forte contribution au stock de carbone Amazonien. Les connaissances sur l’évolution de la structure forestière de la Guyane française restent cependant insuffisantes pour offrir une gestion optimale à l’échelle du territoire. La disponibilité sans précédent de données de télédétection à très haute résolution spatiale telles que le LiDAR , sur de larges couvertures nous offre l'opportunité d’évaluer la ressource forestière de la Guyane Française. Les travaux réalisés dans le cadre de cette thèse visent prioritairement à étudier la structure et les variations de la hauteur de canopée, les facteurs déterminant sa variabilité ainsi que les conséquences des activités d’exploitation forestière. Les données utilisées au cours de la thèse proviennent d’un LiDAR aéroporté et des données de terrains de l'Office National des Forêts (ONF). Ce manuscrit de thèse est divisé en trois grandes parties. La première partie introduit la problématique et fixe les objectifs de la thèse. La seconde partie prend la forme dite « sur article », c'est-à-dire que les différents chapitres qui la compose sont des articles scientifiques publiés ou en cours de publication, elle est composée de trois études. (i) Une étude concernant la détection des trouées et des déterminants environnementaux sur la distribution de tailles des trouées en forêt non exploitée : Comment caractériser la distribution de taille des trouées et est-ce qu’il y a des déterminants environnementaux qui influencent la distribution statistique de taille de trouées? Cet article à été soumis dans Biogeoscience. (ii) Une étude du contrôle de l'environnement sur la structure et les variations de la hauteur de canopée à différentes résolutions spatiales. Quelles échelles spatiales sont pertinentes pour analyser les déterminants environnementaux des variations de hauteur de la canopée en forêt tropicale à partir des données de télédétection ? Comment l’environnement peut aider, ou pas, à cartographier la hauteur de la canopée en forêt tropicale ? Cet article à été accepté pour publication dans Remote Sensing. (iii) Une troisième étude où nous avons quantifié les effets de l’exploitation à faible impact (EFI) sur la structure et la variation de la hauteur de canopée. Quelles sont les effets de l’exploitation forestière sur les variations de hauteur de canopée et sur la distribution de taille des trouées ? Cet article sera soumis pour publication dans une revue scientifique (Forest Ecology and Management). Dans la dernière partie, après une synthèse des principaux résultats, nous proposons des pistes de développement.
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01527553

NNT : 2016YANE0006
tel-01527553
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01527553
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01527553/document
https://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-01527553/file/these-youven-goulamoussene2.pdf

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD MDPI
Résumé : International audience
Canopy height is a key variable in tropical forest functioning and for regional carbon inventories. We investigate the spatial structure of the canopy height of a tropical forest, its relationship with environmental physical covariates, and the implication for tropical forest height variation mapping. Making use of high-resolution maps of LiDAR-derived Digital Canopy Model (DCM) and environmental covariates from a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) acquired over 30,000 ha of tropical forest in French Guiana, we first show that forest canopy height is spatially correlated up to 2500 m. Forest canopy height is significantly associated with environmental variables, but the degree of correlation varies strongly with pixel resolution. On the whole, bottomland forests generally have lower canopy heights than hillslope or hilltop forests. However, this global picture is very noisy at local scale likely because of the endogenous gap-phase forest dynamic processes. Forest canopy height has been predictively mapped across a pixel resolution going from 6 m to 384 m mimicking a low resolution case of 3 points·km −2. Results of canopy height mapping indicated that the error for spatial model with environment effects decrease from 8.7 m to 0.91 m, depending of the pixel resolution. Results suggest that, outside the calibration plots, the contribution of environment in shaping the global canopy height distribution is quite limited. This prevents accurate canopy height mapping based only on environmental information, and suggests that precise canopy height maps, for local management purposes, can only be obtained with direct LiDAR monitoring.
ISSN: 2072-4292

hal-01590726
https://hal-univ-guyane.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01590726
https://hal-univ-guyane.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01590726/document
https://hal-univ-guyane.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01590726/file/remotesensing-08-00747.pdf
DOI : 10.3390/rs8090747

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD MDPI
Résumé : International audience
LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) remote sensing has been shown to be a good technique for the estimation of forest parameters such as canopy heights and above ground biomass. Whilst airborne LiDAR data are in general very dense but only available over small areas due to the cost of their acquisition, spaceborne LiDAR data acquired from the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) have a coarser acquisition density associated with a global cover. It is therefore valuable to analyze the integration relevance of canopy heights estimated from LiDAR sensors with ancillary data such as geological, meteorological, and phenological variables in order to propose a forest canopy height map with good precision and high spatial resolution.In this study, canopy heights extracted from both airborne and spaceborne LiDAR, were first extrapolated from available environmental data (e.g. geology, slope, vegetation indices, etc.). The estimated canopy height maps using random forest (RF) regression from the airborne or GLAS calibration datasets showed similar precisions (RMSE better than 6.5 m). In order to improve the precision of the canopy height estimates regression-kriging (kriging of random forest regression residuals) was used. Results indicated an improvement in the RMSE (decrease from 6.5 to 4.2 m) for the regression-kriging maps from the GLAS dataset, and from 5.8 to 1.8 m for the regression-kriging map from the airborne LiDAR dataset. Finally, in order to investigate the impact of the spatial sampling of future LiDAR missions on the precision of canopy height estimates, six subsets were derived from the initial airborne LiDAR dataset with flight line spacing of 5, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 km (corresponding to 0.29, 0.11, 0.08, 0.05, 0.04, and 0.03 points/km² respectively). Results indicated that using the regression-kriging approach achieved a precision of 1.8 m on the canopy height map with flight line spacing of 5 km and achieved an average RMSE of 4.8m for the configuration for the 50 km flight line spacing.
ISSN: 2072-4292

hal-01361343
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01361343
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01361343/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01361343/file/mt2016-pub00048036.pdf
DOI : 10.3390/rs8030240

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : In a perfect-deficit approach (Yi, 2012), the daily maximum carbon storage capacity (CPC) of a given ecosystem for each year defines the perfect annual CPC curve. Deficits are the differences in the daily observational data for a given year against a perfect curve. The area between this curve and instantaneous canopy photosynthetic rates represents the potential productivity. Using an 11-year (2004 – 2014) eddy covariance flux and meteorological data, this perfect-deficit approach was used to examine the relationship between potential productivity and droughts occurring in 2005 and 2010 in a tropical rainforest of French Guiana, South America. Surprisingly, CPC deficits were only reduced by 24% (2005) and 19% (2010) from their respective perfect CPCs, indicating a subtle effect of drought to ecosystem productivity. Highest precipitation occurred in 2010 but precipitation deficits dropped drastically during this year (71% reduction from its perfect value) which reflects a drought condition. However, its deficits showed no correlation annually and seasonally. Soil water content (SWC) appeared to be the single driver for CPC deficits during long dry periods but is weakly correlated (r = 0.30; P <0.01 and r = 0.31; P <0.01, in 2005 and 2010, respectively). These results indicate that soil water is not a major limiting factor for productivity of this ecosystem during drought periods. In contrast, global radiation (Rg) corresponds to the peak of CPC deficits in 2010, but only 19% had been reduced from its ideal value. Yet, highest gross primary production (GPP) of 4106±231 gCm−2yr−1 occurred this year (mean 3753±231 gCm−2yr−1). Therefore, smaller deficits in Rg coupled with sufficient water may have induced higher productivity in 2010. Nevertheless, weaker correlations between potential productivity and climatic drivers may imply that other controlling aspects such as biological constraints may also have an effect to the dynamics of potential productivity during drought events, hence, must also be considered.
AGU Fall Meeting 2015
San Francisco, United States

hal-01269439
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01269439
PRODINRA : 338570

Résumé : The slides were taken on collecting trips sponsored by the William L. Bryant Foundation, where books, music and art indigenous to the regions were gathered. The are organized by geographical location.
Vehicles and children on Bamboo Avenue in Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica. Bamboo Avenue, also known as “Bamboo Walk,” is a highway approximately 2.5 miles long planted with bamboos forming an arched canopy over the road. It is also known as Holland Bamboo because it was planted by the owners of Holland sugar estate and dates back to the mid 1700s. The purpose of the grove was to provide shade for plantation slaves and owners of the estate while on their way to the town of Lacovia. Slide labeled Jam. bamboo.
Jamaica -- Caribbean region -- Lacovia, Saint Elizabeth

Droits : All rights to images are held by the respective holding institution. This image is posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. For permission to reproduce images and/or for copyright information contact Special Collections & University Archives, University of Central Florida Libraries, Orlando, FL 32816 phone (407) 823-2576, email: speccoll@mail.ucf.edu
CFM1972_01a
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00030880/00001

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD European Geosciences Union
Résumé : International audience
The seasonal climate drivers of the carbon cycle in tropical forests remain poorly known, although these forests account for more carbon assimilation and storage than any other terrestrial ecosystem. Based on a unique combination of seasonal pan-tropical data sets from 89 experimental sites (68 include aboveground wood productivity measurements and 35 litter productivity measurements), their associated canopy photosynthetic capacity (enhanced vegetation index, EVI) and climate, we ask how carbon assimilation and aboveground allocation are related to climate seasonality in tropical forests and how they interact in the seasonal carbon cycle. We found that canopy photosynthetic capacity seasonality responds positively to precipitation when rainfall is < 2000 mm yr(-1) (water-limited forests) and to radiation otherwise (light-limited forests). On the other hand, independent of climate limitations, wood productivity and litterfall are driven by seasonal variation in precipitation and evapotranspiration, respectively. Consequently, light-limited forests present an asynchronism between canopy photosynthetic capacity and wood productivity. First-order control by precipitation likely indicates a decrease in tropical forest productivity in a drier climate in water-limited forest, and in current light-limited forest with future rainfall < 2000 mm yr(-1).
ISSN: 1726-4170

hal-01557759
https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/hal-01557759
https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/hal-01557759/document
https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/hal-01557759/file/bg-13-2537-2016.pdf
DOI : 10.5194/bg-13-2537-2016

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé :   Diplôme : DEA
il s'agit d'un type de produit dont les métadonnées ne correspondent pas aux métadonnées attendues dans les autres types de produit : DISSERTATION
Tropical rainforests are complex ecosystems, rarely investigated from ground-level. The canopy, highest part of the cover, can on the other hand be studied by several remote sensing tools. The aim of this study is to assess in what way the canopy is related to the forest structure below and the forest dynamic. We looked for correlation between the canopy texture (crown size) observed from aerial photographs and various parameters of the forest (spatial and demographic structure, forest dynamic, floristic structure). We worked on the Paracou experimental device, in French Guiana, at two different scales. 1- At a local scale (6.5 ha ; scale of the photographs 1: 4 000), we demarcated six sub-plots with big crowns in the canopy and six with small crowns. 2- At a forest scale (approximately one hundred ha ; scale of the photograph 1: 25 000), we compared 2 forest plots: one with a rough canopy texture and one with a smooth canopy texture. We found that the size of the crowns in the canopy do not express the same characteristics of the fore according to the scale of study : at the local scale, difference in crown size means a difference in basal area but not in density, while at the forest scale it is the opposite. Several hypotheses related to the sylvigenetic cycle, the floristic structure or the nature of the substratum are suggested to explain these results.
Les forêts tropicales humides (FTH) sont des écosystèmes complexes difficiles à étudier depuis le sol. Leur canopée, partie supérieure du couvert, est en revanche abordable par divers outils de télédétection. Cette étude vise à déterminer en quoi la structure de la canopée est le reflet de la structure forestière sous-jacente et de la dynamique spatio-temporelle qui s'y exerce. Nous avons donc recherché des corrélations, entre la texture de canopée (taille des couronnes) vue sur des photographies aériennes, et différents paramètres de la forêt sous-jacente (structure spatiale et démographique, dynamique forestière, structure floristique). Ce travail a été abordé sur le dispositif expérimental forestier de Paracou, en Guyane Française, à 2 échelles différentes. 1- A l'échelle de la parcelle (6,5 ha ; photographies au 1: 4 000), nous avons délimité des placettes à grosses couronnes en canopée et des placettes à petites couronnes. 2- A l'échelle du massif forestier (une centaine d'ha ; photographies IGN au 1: 25 000) nous comparons une parcelle de texture de canopée, grossière et une parcelle de texture fine. Le résultat principal de notre étude est que la taille des couronnes en canopée ne reflète pas les mêmes caractéristiques du couvert selon l'échelle de l’étude : à l'échelle de la parcelle, des différences de taille de couronnes traduisent des différences de surface terrière mais pas de densité, tandis qu'à l'échelle du massif forestier c'est l'inverse. Plusieurs hypothèses, invoquant des différences dans le stade sylvigénétique, la composition floristique ou la nature du substrat des placettes ou parcelles comparées, sont proposées pour expliquer ces résultats.
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01189180

hal-01189180
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01189180
PRODINRA : 12184

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : IGARSS 2015, Milan, ITA, 26-/07/2015 - 31/07/2015
International audience
LiDAR remote sensing has been shown to be a good technique for the estimation of forest parameters such as canopy heights and aboveground biomass. Whilst airborne LiDAR data are in general very dense but only available over small areas due to the cost of their acquisition, spaceborne LiDAR data acquired from the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) have a coarser acquisition density associated with a global cover. It is therefore valuable to analyze the integration relevance of canopy heights estimated from LiDAR sensors with ancillary data such as geological, meteorological, and phenological variables in order to propose a forest canopy height map with good precision and high spatial resolution.In this study, canopy heights extracted from both airborne and spaceborne LiDAR, were first extrapolated from available environmental data. The estimated canopy height maps using random forest (RF) regression from the airborne or GLAS calibration datasets showed similar precisions (RMSE better than 6.5 m). In order to improve the precision of the canopy height estimates regression-kriging (kriging of RF regression residuals) was used. Results indicated an improvement in the RMSE (decrease from 6.5 to 4.2 m) for the regression-kriging maps from the GLAS dataset, and from 5.8 to 1.8 m for the regression-kriging map from the airborne LiDAR dataset.
Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2015 IEEE International
Milan, Italy

hal-01244677
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01244677
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01244677/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01244677/file/mt2015-pub00044297.pdf
DOI : 10.1109/IGARSS.2015.7326729

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : Vegetation phenology is the study of the timing of seasonal events that are considered to be the result of adaptive responses to climate variations on short and long time scales. In the field of remote sensing of vegetation phenology, phenological metrics are derived from time series of optical data. For that purpose, considerable effort has been specifically focused on developing noise reduction and cloud-contaminated data removal techniques to improve the quality of remotely-sensed time series. Comparative studies between time series composed of satellite data acquired under clear and cloudy conditions and from radiometric data obtained with high accuracy from ground-based measurements constitute a direct and effective way to assess the operational use and limitations of remote sensing for predicting the main plant phenological events. In the present paper, we sought to explicitly evaluate the potential use of MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) remote sensing data for monitoring the seasonal dynamics of different types of vegetation cover that are representative of the major terrestrial biomes, including temperate deciduous forests, evergreen forests, African savannah, and crops. After cloud screening and filtering, we compared the temporal patterns and phenological metrics derived from in situ NDVI time series and from MODIS daily and 16-composite products. We also evaluated the effects of residual noise and the influence of data gaps in MODIS NDVI time series on the identification of the most relevant metrics for vegetation phenology monitoring. The results show that the inflexion points of a model fitted to a MODIS NDVI time series allow accurate estimates of the onset of greenness in the spring and the onset of yellowing in the autumn in deciduous forests (RMSE <= one week). Phenological metrics identical to those provided with the MODIS Global Vegetation Phenology product (MDC12Q2) are less robust to data gaps, and they can be subject to large biases of approximately two weeks or more during the autumn phenological transitions. In the evergreen forests, in situ NDVI time series describe the phenology with high fidelity despite small temporal changes in the canopy foliage. However, MODIS is unable to provide consistent phenological patterns. In crops and savannah, MODIS NDVI time series reproduce the general temporal patterns of phenology, but significant discrepancies appear between MODIS and ground-based NDVI time series during very localized periods of time depending on the weather conditions and spatial heterogeneity within the MODIS pixel. In the rainforest, the temporal pattern exhibited by a MODIS 16-day composite NDVI time series is more likely due to a pattern of noise in the NDVI data structure according to both rainy and dry seasons rather than to phenological changes. More investigations are needed, but in all cases, this result leads us to conclude that MODIS time series in tropical rainforests should be interpreted with great caution. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ISSN: 0034-4257

hal-01032407
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032407
DOI : 10.1016/j.rse.2013.01.010

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Ecological Society of America
Résumé : We investigated performance trade-offs among seedlings of nine tropical tree species during a five-year field experiment. Seedlings were grown in eight microhabitat types composed of paired gap and shaded understory sites in each of four soil types. We defined performance trade-offs relevant to coexistence as significant pairwise rank reversals for species performance between contrasting situations, of which we characterize three types: microhabitat, fitness component, and ontogenetic. Only 2 of 36 species pairs exhibited microhabitat trade-offs or reversed rankings for survival or relative growth rate (RGR) among microhabitats, and only one species pair reversed performance ranks among soil types. We found stronger evidence for rank reversals between fitness components (survival and RGR), particularly in gap vs. understory environments, suggesting a general trade-off between shade tolerance (survival in shade) and gap establishment (RGR in gaps). Third, the most frequent rank reversals between species pairs occurred between early and later ontogenetic stages, especially between fitness components in contrasting microhabitats. Overall, 15 of 36 pairs of potentially competing species exhibited some type of seedling performance trade-off, two species pairs never outperformed one another, and for 19 species pairs one species was a consistent better performer. We suggest that ontogenetic trade-offs, in concert with microhabitat and fitness component trade-offs, may contribute to species coexistence of long-lived organisms such as tropical trees.
ISSN: 0012-9658

hal-01031914
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01031914

Éditeur(s) : EDP Sciences
Résumé : We present results obtained from a pristine site of French Guiana (South America), at the Pic Matecho, a region far from gold mining activity. This area contains a small permanent lake, a rare situation in French Guiana. Tree canopy, soils and Lake Matecho sediments were analysed in total Hg and Pb-210. The annual deposit of litterfall is estimated at 40 mug (Hg)/m(2)/y. The top sediment content of 0.2 mug (Hg)/g indicates a large contribution of the atmospheric deposit. In sediment, the decrease of total Hg with depth is neither due to local human influence, nor to increase of atmospheric background during this century. It is attributed to remineralization of organic matter in the upper part of the sediment : the majority of the total Hg deposited at the water/sediment interface is not permanently trapped in the sediment but remobilized in water. Interpretation of the historical sediment profile suggests a constant deposit rate over the last millennium.
Journal De Physique Iv (1155-4339) (EDP Sciences), 2003-05 , Vol. 107 , P. 859-862

Droits : 2003 EDP Sciences
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/10630/9348.pdf
DOI:10.1051/jp4:20030433
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/10630/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag/EDP Sciences
Résumé : International audience
Key message: Genetic diversity appears to be unaffected by disturbance in a stand of the light-demanding Neotropical treeV. michelii. Although spatial genetic structure is modified in post-disturbance cohorts, mixing of seeds from different mother trees in canopy gaps appears to efficiently maintain genetic admixture. Context: The interplay between genetic and demographic processes has major consequences on population viability. Population size affects demographic trends, while genetic diversity insures viability by reducing risks of inbreeding depression and by maintaining adaptive potential. Yet, the consequences of increases in census size (as opposed to effective size) on genetic diversity of forest populations are poorly known. Aims: We have studied the structure of genetic diversity in populations of saplings of the light-responsive tree, Virola michelii (Myristicaceae, the nutmeg family), in two plots having undergone different levels of canopy-gap opening disturbance. This allowed us to test the “intermediate disturbance” hypothesis, which generally applies to species diversity, at the intra-specific scale. Methods: Levels and distribution of genetic diversity were compared between plots and between life stages. Sapling parentage was analysed to infer each adult tree’s contribution to regeneration. Results: Genetic diversity was higher, and spatial genetic structure was stronger in the post-disturbance than in the control seedling population. Parentage analysis suggested that a limited number of parents contributed to most of the regeneration, but that efficient mixing of their progeny may have enhanced the diversity of saplings occupying canopy gaps. Conclusion: A mixture of demo-genetic processes may contribute to maintain genetic diversity in spite of, or possibly due to, ecosystem disturbance in V. michelii.
ISSN: 1286-4560

hal-01502942
https://hal-agroparistech.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01502942
https://hal-agroparistech.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01502942/document
https://hal-agroparistech.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01502942/file/art_10.1007_s13595-015-0508-3-1_%7B869D58F4-272C-491F-A903-DAD6CDBDC042%7D.pdf
DOI : 10.1007/s13595-015-0508-3

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Ecological Society of America
Résumé : Line transect surveys are widely used in neotropical rainforests to estimate the population abundance of medium- and large-sized vertebrates. The use of indices such as Encounter Rate has been criticized because the probability of animal detection may fluctuate due to the heterogeneity of environmental conditions among sites. In addition, the morphological and behavioral characteristics (biological traits) of species affect their detectability. In this study, we compared the extent to which environmental conditions and species' biological traits bias abundance estimates in terra firme rainforests in French Guiana. The selected environmental conditions included both physical conditions and forest structure covariates, while the selected biological traits included the morphological and behavioral characteristics of species. We used the distance sampling method to model the detection probability as an explicit function of environmental conditions and biological traits and implemented a model selection process to determine the relative importance of each group of covariates. Biological traits contributed to the variability of animal detectability more than environmental conditions, which had only a marginal effect. Detectability was best for large animals with uniform or disruptive markings that live in groups in the canopy top. Detectability was worst for small, solitary, terrestrial animals with mottled markings. In the terra firme rainforests which represent ~80% of the Amazonia and Guianas regions, our findings support the use of relative indices such as the encounter rate to compare population abundance between sites in species-specific studies. Even though terra firme rainforests may appear similar between regions of Amazonia and the Guianas, comparability must be ensured, especially in forests disturbed by human activity. The detection probability can be used as an indicator of species' vulnerability to hunting and, thus, to the risk of local extinction. Only a few biological trait covariates are required to correctly estimate the detectability of the majority of medium- and large-sized vertebrates. Thus, a biological trait model could be useful in predicting the detection probabilities of rare, uncommon or localized species for which few data are available to fit the detection function.
ISSN: 1051-0761

hal-01555267
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01555267
DOI : 10.1002/eap.1549
PRODINRA : 396614
PUBMED : 28419598

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Public Library of Science
Résumé : International audience
Little is known of how linkage patterns between species change along environmental gradients. The small, spatially discrete food webs inhabiting tank-bromeliads provide an excellent opportunity to analyse patterns of community diversity and food-web topology (connectance, linkage density, nestedness) in relation to key environmental variables (habitat size, detrital resource, incident radiation) and predators: prey ratios. We sampled 365 bromeliads in a wide range of understorey environments in French Guiana and used gut contents of invertebrates to draw the corresponding 365 connectance webs. At the bromeliad scale, habitat size (water volume) determined the number of species that constitute food-web nodes, the proportion of predators, and food-web topology. The number of species as well as the proportion of predators within bromeliads declined from open to forested habitats, where the volume of water collected by bromeliads was generally lower because of rainfall interception by the canopy. A core group of microorganisms and generalist detritivores remained relatively constant across environments. This suggests that (i) a highly-connected core ensures food-web stability and key ecosystem functions across environments, and (ii) larger deviations in food-web structures can be expected following disturbance if detritivores share traits that determine responses to environmental changes. While linkage density and nestedness were lower in bromeliads in the forest than in open areas, experiments are needed to confirm a trend for lower food-web stability in the understorey of primary forests.
PLoS ONE

hal-00913931
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00913931
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00913931/document
DOI : 10.1371/journal.pone.0071735
OATAO : 10204

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley
Résumé : Seasonal variations in environmental conditions influence the functioning of the whole ecosystem of tropical rain forests, but as yet little is known about how such variations directly influence the leaf gas exchange and transpiration of individual canopy tree species. We examined the influence of seasonal variations in relative extractable water in the upper soil layers on predawn leaf water potential, saturated net photosynthesis, leaf dark respiration, stomatal conductance, and tree transpiration of 13 tropical rain forest canopy trees (eight species) over 2yr in French Guiana. The canopies were accessed by climbing ropes attached to the trees and to a tower. Our results indicate that a small proportion of the studied trees were unaffected by soil water depletion during seasonal dry periods, probably thanks to efficient deep root systems. The trees showing decreased tree water status (i.e., predawn leaf water potential) displayed a wide range of leaf gas exchange responses. Some trees strongly regulated photosynthesis and transpiration when relative extractable water decreased drastically. In contrast, other trees showed little variation, thus indicating good adaptation to soil drought conditions. These results have important applications to modeling approaches: indeed, precise evaluation and grouping of these response patterns are required before any tree-based functional models can efficiently describe the response of tropical rain forest ecosystems to future changes in environmental conditions.
ISSN: 0006-3606

hal-01032411
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032411
DOI : 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2012.00902.x

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Résumé : Nodulated legume trees comprised 43% of the stand basal area in the low, most frequently flooded microsites, and 23% in higher, drier microsites in a tropical freshwater swamp forest in French Guiana. Dinitrogen fixation in Pterocarpus officinalis, Hydrochorea corymbosa and Inga pilosula was confirmed by acetylene reduction assay (ARA), presence of leghaemoglobin in nodules and the N-15 natural abundance method. The results for Zygia cataractae were inconclusive but suggested N-2 fixation in drier microsites. Nodulated Inga disticha had a N-15-to-N-14 ratio similar to non-N-2-fixing trees, but ARA indicated nitrogenase activity and leghaemoglobin was present in nodules. All bacterial strains were identified as Bradyrhizobium spp. according to the partial 16S rDNA sequences, and they were infective in vitro in the model species Macroptilium atropurpuretan. About 35-50% of N in the leaves of P. officinalis, H. corymbosa and I. pilosula was fixed from the atmosphere. Dinitrogen fixation was estimated to contribute at least 8-13% and 1728% to whole-canopy N in high and low microsites, respectively. Symbiotic N, fixation appears to provide both a competitive advantage to legume trees under N-limited, flooded conditions and an important N input to neotropical freshwater swamp forests.
ISSN: 0266-4674

hal-01189191
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01189191
PRODINRA : 13151
DOI : 10.1017/S0266467403006059

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Decreasing growth rate (Feeley et al., 2007) and large die-back due to drought (Phillips et al., 2009) suggest that tropical forests are suffering recent climate changes. Forest vulnerability to external factors (e.g. air pollution, acid rain) is widely studied in northern countries, while only a few attempts have investigated crown integrity in the Tropics. The method needs to be generic enough to account for the large number of species and crown shapes encountered in tropical forests. In the present study, we developed and tested a novel field method that estimates crown fragmentation (main branch mortality (MB) and secondary branch mortality (SB)), liana infestation (LI) and crown position (CP) in the canopy. The relationship between crown fragmentation and annual growth rate (agr) was investigated through multiple regression. Six out of eight canopy tree species showed significant growth decline with increasing crown fragmentation. Higher probability of death was also found in trees with severe crown fragmentation. The capacity of such crown assessment to depict tree vitality in a forest stand is discussed along with potential applications in both forest science and management
ISSN: 0378-1127

halsde-00611465
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halsde-00611465
DOI : 10.1016/j.foreco.2010.10.025

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag/EDP Sciences
Résumé : We characterised the among species variability in leaf gas exchange and morphological traits under controlled conditions of seedlings of 22 tropical rainforest canopy species to understand the origin of the variability in leaf carbon isotope discrimination (Delta) among species with different growth and dynamic characteristics (successional gradient). Our results first suggest that these species pursue a consistent strategy in terms of (Delta) throughout their ontogeny (juveniles grown here versus canopy adult trees from the natural forest). Second, leaf (Delta) was negatively correlated with WUE and N, and positively correlated with gs, but among species differences in (Delta) were mainly explained by differences in WUE. Finally, species belonging to different successional groups display distinct leaf functional and morphological traits. We confirmed that fast growing early successional species maximise carbon assimilation with high stomatal conductance. In contrast, fast and slow growing late successional species are both characterised by low carbon assimilation values, but by distinct stomatal conductance and leaf morphological features. Along the successional gradient, these differences result in much lower (Delta) for the intermediate species (i.e. fast growing late successional) as compared to the two other groups.
ISSN: 1286-4560

hal-01032038
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032038
DOI : 10.1051/forest:2006101