Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : The genus Cecropia includes pioneer trees that colonize canopy gaps and cleared areas. It is widely distributed from Mexico to Northern Argentina. Cecropia trees have architecture, which corresponds to the Rauh’s architectural model. In recent studies we have found that C. obtusa/ and C. sciadophylla, in French Guiana, have a strong annual periodicity for growth, branching and flowering processes, with annual emission of 35 nodes for C. obtusa and 25 for C. sciadophylla. Those species show different life histories since C. sciadophylla has longer life expectancy. In addition, C. sciadophylla is found more frequently in forest gaps, although in French Guiana mixed populations are found. The aim of this work was to compare developmental strategies of both species in three different field stations in French Guiana and to determine how these two species coexist during its first years of life. We studied a 20-year old population of /C. sciadophylla/ at Saint Elie’s Road, a 10-year old population of /C. obtusa/ at Paracou’s field station, and a 7-year old mixed population at Counami’s Road. /C. sciadophylla /emits 25 nodes per year in both studied populations, while/ C. obtusa /emits 35 nodes in the monospecific population and 30 nodes in the mixed population. In the monocaule stage, the lower number of nodes emitted by /C. sciadophylla/ compared to /C. obtusa /is compensated with a higher internodal length, which allows finding individuals with similar ages and lengths, but different number of nodes. The branching and flowering processes start on average three years before in /C. obtusa/, however for 12-year old individuals we observed a dominancy of C. sciadophylla over C. obtusa. In the mixed population it is likely that the different life histories would decrease competition effects allowing coexistence of both species during the first stages of life
Botany 2008
Vancouver, Canada

hal-01190209
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01190209
PRODINRA : 182910

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag/EDP Sciences
Résumé : International audience
Context : Functional - structural models (FSM) of tree growth have great potential in forestry, but their development, calibration and validation are hampered by the difficulty of collecting experimental data at organ scale for adult trees. Due to their simple architecture and morphological properties, " model plants " such as Cecropia sciadophylla are of great interest to validate new models and methodologies, since exhaustive descriptions of their plant structure and mass partitioning can be gathered. * Aims : Our objective was to develop a model-based approach to analysing the influence of environmental conditions on the dynamics of trophic competition within C. sciadophylla trees. * Methods : We defined an integrated environmental factor that includes meteorological medium-frequency variations and a relative index representing the local site conditions for each plant. This index is estimated based on model inversion of the GreenLab FSM using data from 11 trees for model calibration and 7 trees for model evaluation. * Results : The resulting model explained the dynamics of biomass allocation to different organs during the plant growth, according to the environmental pressure they experienced. * Perspectives : By linking the integrated environmental factor to a competition index, an extension of the model to the population level could be considered.
ISSN: 1286-4560

hal-00780347
https://hal-ecp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00780347
https://hal-ecp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00780347/document
https://hal-ecp.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00780347/file/Letort2011AFS.pdf
DOI : 10.1007/s13595-011-0131-x

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : Le genre Cecropia regroupe des arbres pionniers, à croissance rapide, qui colonisent les aires défrichées et les milieux ouverts à fort ensoleillement. Leur architecture est relativement simple et conforme au modèle de Rauh. Tout au long de la vie de la plante il est possible de retrouver a posteriori les cicatrices de feuille, d’inflorescences et de branches élaguées. En décrivant les axes noeuds à noeuds il est possible de construire des séquences d’événements ou l’index est le métamère et les variables associées la longueur de l’entre-noeud, la présence de fleurs, de branches, ou de leurs cicatrices. En analysant ces séquences avec des outils statistiques issus de l’analyse des séries temporelles il est possible de mettre en évidence des régularités structurelles (par ex: nombres de noeuds séparant 2 étages de branches) et de proposer une interprétation sur l’organisation dans le temps des processus de croissance, ramification et floraison qui mène à l’édification de l’architecture des représentants de cette espèces. C’est en suivant cette démarche que de récents travaux menés en Guyane française sur C. obtusa et C. sciadophylla ont démontré une forte périodicité annuelle pour les processus de croissance, de floraison et de ramification chez deux espèces. Le fait le plus remarquable est la grande régularité dans le nombre de feuilles émises chaque année avec 35 noeuds pour C. obusa et 25 noeuds pour C. sciadophylla. Cette régularité peut permettre déterminer l’âge d’un individu et de retrouver sa croissance passée. Dans ce travail nous avons voulu aborder la diversité et la plasticité de ces règles de construction en comparant des populations de C. sciadophylla ayant poussé dans des environnements variés en Guyane Française (2 populations) et en Colombie (4 populations). Les résultats montrent que le nombre de feuilles allongées chaque année est remarquablement stable pour l’ensemble des populations et est égal 25. La floraison est annuelle pour la majorité des individus mesurés mais il est cependant possible d’observer 2 floraisons par an chez certains arbres de Guyane. Les paramètres les plus variables concernent l’âge et la hauteur avant la première ramification ou la de la première floraison ainsi que les allométries entre la hauteur et le diamètre. Le lien entre cette variabilité et les conditions environnementales tel que la pluviométrie, la fertilité des sols ou la compétition seront discutés.
La plasticité phénotypique des arbres
Montpellier, France

hal-01190210
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01190210
PRODINRA : 182912

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Résumé : Patterns of leaf production and leaf fall directly influence leaf area index and forest productivity. Here, we focused on Cecropia sciadophylla individuals inhabiting the extremes of the gradient in seasonality in rainfall at which C. sciadophylla occurs. In Colombia and French Guiana we compared the intra-annual variation in leaf production as well as the intra-annual fluctuation in internode length on a total of 69 saplings ranging in size from 1 to 2 m. The mean rate of leaf production was similar to 2 leaves mo(-1) in both populations, and the rate of leaf production was constant throughout the year. Our results showed monthly variation in internode length and the number of live leaves per sapling in the seasonal habitat and variation only in internode length in the everwet habitat. Because the rate of leaf production is constant at both localities, the difference in number of live leaves per sapling at the seasonal site must reflect seasonal variation in leaf life span. We show that in Cecropia, internode length can serve as an indicator of precipitation seasonality. Finally an open question is whether leaf production in other pioneer species is also independent of climatic seasonal cues. This information could allow us to link growth and climate of secondary forest species and better understand how past and future climate can affect plant growth trajectories.
ISSN: 0266-4674

hal-01032402
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032402
DOI : 10.1017/S0266467413000394

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : In a recent study based on a retrospective reconstruction of growth, we showed for Cecropia sciadophylla that branching and flowering processes, as well as alternation of long and short nodes were regularly spaced by ~23 nodes. We also found that this strong periodicity was related to an annual cycle of growth. Adult trees are successful individuals that have reached the canopy and our previous results were found in adult trees, suggesting that variability in the number of nodes produced per year is underestimated, because the degree of variation decreases with age. Here, we hypothesized that growth periodicity could be related to rainfall and we focus on two C. sciadophylla populations with contrasting precipitation seasonality. During 19 months and for 69 saplings, we measured growth at regular monthly intervals to test the intra-annual variability in the number of nodes produced per month and per year. We also characterized the intra-annual fluctuations in the number of present leaves in the main axis and internode lengths among months. We found that node elongation and number of present leaves in the main axis vary among months in the population subjected to a strong seasonal precipitation. In contrast, the population subjected to a non-seasonal precipitation showed smaller variation in node elongation and no variation in the number of leaves presented in the main axis among months. Regardless the population of origin, we also found that ~23 was the number of nodes produced per year and that the time required to produce a new node was ~15 days at any month of the year. The strong stability in the average number of nodes produced per month and per year among populations, suggests a genetically controlled trait. In spite of a strong genetic determination on the number of nodes produced per year, several environmental factors, including rainfall, could be the cause of the observed variation in elongation and number of present leaves in the main axis.INRAUM2
Botany 2010
Rhode Island, United States

hal-01191343
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01191343
PRODINRA : 178581

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag/EDP Sciences
Résumé :  
On 10 trees from 10 species of French Guyana tropical rainforest in a clear active process of restoring verticality growth strains were measured in situ in order to determine the occurrence of tension wood within samples. Wood specimens were cut in the vicinity of the growth strains measurements in order to measure some mechanical and physical properties. As suspected, tensile growth strains was very much higher in tension wood zone, because longitudinal modulus of elasticity was slightly higher. Longitudinal shrinkage was also much higher in tension wood than in opposite wood.
ISSN: 1286-4560

hal-01032110
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01032110
DOI : 10.1051/forest:2007027