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Schimann, H., Bach, C., Lengelle, J., Louisanna, E., Barantal, S., Murat, C., et al. (2017). Diversity and Structure of Fungal Communities in Neotropical Rainforest Soils: The Effect of Host Recurrence. Microbial Ecology, 73(2), 310–320.
Abstract: The patterns of the distribution of fungal species and their potential interactions with trees remain understudied in Neotropical rainforests, which harbor more than 16,000 tree species, mostly dominated by endomycorrhizal trees. Our hypothesis was that tree species shape the non-mycorrhizal fungal assemblages in soil and litter and that the diversity of fungal communities in these two compartments is partly dependent on the coverage of trees in the Neotropical rainforest. In French Guiana, a long-term plantation and a natural forest were selected to test this hypothesis. Fungal ITS1 regions were sequenced from soil and litter samples from within the vicinity of tree species. A broad range of fungal taxa was found, with 42 orders and 14 classes. Significant spatial heterogeneity in the fungal communities was found without strong variation in the species richness and evenness among the tree plots. However, tree species shaped the fungal assemblages in the soil and litter, explaining up to 18 % of the variation among the communities in the natural forest. These results demonstrate that vegetation cover has an important effect on the structure of fungal assemblages inhabiting the soil and litter in Amazonian forests, illustrating the relative impact of deterministic processes on fungal community structures in these highly diverse ecosystems. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media New York.
Keywords: Amazonian forest; Fungal communities; Host recurrence; Litter; Second-generation sequencing; Soil
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Colin, F., Sanjines, A., Fortin, M., Bontemps, J. - D., & Nicolini, E. (2012). Fagus sylvatica trunk epicormics in relation to primary and secondary growth. Ann. Bot., 110(5), 995–1005.
Abstract: Background and AimsEuropean beech epicormics have received far less attention than epicormics of other species, especially sessile oak. However, previous work on beech has demonstrated that there is a negative effect of radial growth on trunk sprouting, while more recent investigations on sessile oak proved a strong positive influence of the presence of epicormics. The aims of this study were, first, to make a general quantification of the epicormics present along beech stems and, secondly, to test the effects of both radial growth and epicormic frequency on sprouting. MethodsIn order to test the effect of radial growth, ten forked individuals were sampled, with a dominant and a dominated fork of almost equal length for every individual. To test the effects of primary growth and epicormic frequency, on the last 17 annual shoots of each fork arm, the number of axillary buds, shoot length, ring width profiles, epicormic shoots and other epicormics were carefully recorded. Key ResultsThe distribution of annual shoot length, radial growth profiles and parallel frequencies of all epicormics are presented. The latter frequencies were parallel to the annual shoot lengths, nearly equivalent for both arms of each tree, and radial growth profiles included very narrow rings in the lowest annual shoots and even missing rings in the dominated arms alone. The location of the latent buds and the epicormics was mainly at branch base, while epicormic shoots, bud clusters and spheroblasts were present mainly in the lowest annual shoots investigated. Using a zero-inflated mixed model, sprouting was shown to depend positively on epicormic frequency and negatively on radial growth. ConclusionsSupport for a trade-off between cambial activity and sprouting is put forward. Sprouting mainly depends on the frequency of epicormics. Between-and within-tree variability of the epicormic composition in a given species may thus have fundamental and applied implications. © 2012 The Author.
Keywords: epicormics; European beech; Fagus sylvatica; mixed ZIP models; ontogeny; radial growth; sprouting
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Barabe, D., Cuerrier, A., & Quilichini, A. (2012). Botanical gardens: Between science and commercialization. Natures Sciences Societes, 20(3), 334–342.
Abstract: Les jardins botaniques: Entre science et commercialisation.
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Marcon, E., & Puech, F. (2003). Evaluating the geographic concentration of industries using distance-based methods. J. Econ. Geogr., 3(4), 409–428.
Abstract: We propose new methods for evaluating the spatial distribution of firms. To assess whether firms are concentrated or dispersed, economists have traditionally used indices that analyse the heterogeneity of a spatial structure at a single geographic level. We introduce distance-based methods, Besag's L function (derived from Ripley's K function) and Diggle and Chetwynd's D function to describe simultaneously spatial distribution at different geographical scales. Our empirical applications consider the distribution of French manufacturing firms in the Paris area and in France generally. For some geographic levels, results show significant concentration or dispersion of firms according to their sector of activity.
Keywords: agglomeration; clustering; geographic concentration; location of firms
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Perrin, A. - S., Fujisaki, K., Petitjean, C., Sarrazin, M., Godet, M., Garric, B., et al. (2014). Conversion of forest to agriculture in Amazonia with the chop-and-mulch method: Does it improve the soil carbon stock? Agric. Ecosyst. Environ., 184, 101–114.
Abstract: Fire-free forest conversion with organic inputs as an alternative to slash-and-burn could improve agro-ecosystem sustainability. We assessed soil carbon mass changes in a sandy-clayey and well-drained soil in French Guiana after forest clearing by the chop-and-mulch method and crop establishment. At the experimental site of Combi, native forest was cut down in October 2008; woody biomass was chopped and incorporated into the top 20cm of soil. After about one year of legume and grass cover, three forms of land management were compared: grassland (Urochloa ruziziensis), maize/soybean crop rotation with disk tillage and in direct seeding without tillage. There were four replicates. We measured 14.16kgm-2 of carbon in 2mm-sieved soil down to 2m depth for the initial forest. Forest clearing did not induce significant soil compaction; neither did any specific agricultural practice. In converted soils, C stocks were measured in the 0-30cm layer after each crop for three years. Carbon mass changes for soil fractions <2mm (soil C stock) and >2mm (soil C pool) in the 0-5, 5-10, 10-20 and 20-30cm soil layers were assessed on an equivalent soil mass basis. One year and 1.5 years after deforestation, higher C stocks (+0.64 to 1.16kgCm-2yr-1) and C pools (+0.52 to 0.90kgCm-2yr-1) were measured in converted soils, compared to those of the forest into the top 30cm of soil. However, the masses of carbon in these converted soils declined later. The highest rates of carbon decrease were measured between 1.5 and 2 years after forest conversion in the <2mm soil fraction, from 0.46kgCm-2yr-1 (in grassland soils) to 0.71kgCm-2yr-1 (in cropland under no tillage). The carbon pool declined during the third year at rates of 0.41kgCm-2yr-1 (cropland under disk tillage) to 0.76kgCm-2yr-1 (grassland soils). Three years after forest conversion, C masses in the top 30cm of soils for grassland showed similar values than for forest. In comparison, the carbon stock in cropped soils managed under no tillage in direct seeding (without mulch) was significantly 17% and 16% lower than in forest and grassland soils, respectively. None of the studied agricultural practices succeeded in accumulating carbon from the chopped forest biomass. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.
Keywords: Annual crops; Brachiaria; Deforestation; Fire-free; French Guiana; No-tillage
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Phillips, P. D., de Azevedo, C. P., Degen, B., Thompson, I. S., Silva, J. N. M., & van Gardingen, P. R. (2004). An individual-based spatially explicit simulation model for strategic forest management planning in the eastern Amazon. Ecol. Model., 173(4), 335–354.
Abstract: A model to simulate the ecological processes of tree growth, mortality and recruitment, and the processes of forest management, in the terra firme forests of the eastern Amazon is described. It is implemented within the SYMFOR (http://www.symfor.org) framework. It is based on measurements of all trees that have a diameter greater than 5 cm from experimental plots in the Jari Cellulose and Tapajos National Forest areas over a 16-year period. Ten species groups are used to describe the natural processes affecting tree behaviour. Growth rates are calculated for each species group using the tree diameter and a competition index. Mortality and recruitment are simulated as stochastic processes. Recruitment probability is based on the predicted growth rate of a hypothetical tree. Options exist to vary the human interaction with the forest reflecting forest management decisions, as for other SYMFOR models. Model evaluation compares the performance of the model with data describing forest recovery for 16 years following logging. The model was applied to simulate current forest management practice in the Brazilian Amazon, with 40 m(3) ha(-1) of timber extracted with a cutting cycle of 30 years. Results show that yields are sustained for three harvests following the first logging of primary forest, but that the composition of timber moves towards lightwooded species rather than hardwooded. The predicted size of extracted trees decreases and the number of trees extracted increases with successive harvests, leading to a prediction of increased costs and lower profits for the logging company despite constant yields. The standing volume of all trees just before harvest is reduced by 15% over 150 years, with pioneer species becoming increasingly prevalent in the stand. The model, in the SYMFOR framework, can be used to help understand the differences between alternative forest management strategies in the Brazilian Amazon. Such knowledge is required to improve forest management, regulation and certification, and help to conserve the worlds largest remaining tropical forest. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: model; individual; tropical forest; tree; spatial; Brazil; Amazon; competition; species grouping; management; certification; regulation
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Phillips, P. D., Thompson, I. S., Silva, J. N. M., van Gardingen, P. R., & Degen, B. (2004). Scaling up models of tree competition for tropical forest population genetics simulation. Ecol. Model., 180(2-3), 419–434.
Abstract: Understanding the effects of logging activity on genetic diversity is an important aspect of establishing the sustainability of selective logging management operations in tropical forests. Genetic variation is affected by selective logging directly, through the removal of and damage to trees within the population, and indirectly, through a change in the forest structure and environment in which the remaining population lives. Eco-Gene is a population genetics model applied to tropical forests over a scale of hundreds of hectares. SYMFOR is a modelling framework for individual-based spatially explicit ecological and management models applied to tropical forests over a scale of 0.25 4 ha. We have linked the models to enable simulations using processes involved in both models. To overcome problems of scale, the spatially explicit competition index calculated in SYMFOR simulations has been modelled such that it can be applied at scales representing much larger areas for which the data are not available, as required by Eco-Gene. The competition index is modelled as a distribution on a grid-square basis, and implemented in the linked Eco-Gene/SYMFOR system. Each tree within a grid-square is given a “relative competition” within the distribution, biased according to species. A competition index value is obtained for the tree by transforming the grid-square distribution to be relevant to the size of the tree, and extracting a value according to the tree's relative competition within the distribution. The distribution and each tree's relative competition within it change according to the effects of growth, mortality and logging activity. The model was calibrated using data from the Tapajos region of the Eastern Amazon forest. This paper describes the model, its calibration and validation and the implications of scaling up from an explicit representation to a modelled quantity. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: tropical rain; forest; population genetics; model SYMFOR; eco-gene; scaling up; competition
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Lehnebach, R., Bossu, J., Va, S., Morel, H., Amusant, N., Nicolini, E., et al. (2019). Wood density variations of legume trees in French Guiana along the shade tolerance continuum: Heartwood effects on radial patterns and gradients. Forests, 10(2).
Abstract: Increasing or decreasing wood density (WD) from pith to bark is commonly observed in tropical tree species. The different types of WD radial variations, long been considered to depict the diversity of growth and mechanical strategies among forest guilds (heliophilic vs. shade-tolerant), were never analyzed in the light of heartwood (HW) formation. Yet, the additional mass of chemical extractives associated to HW formation increases WD and might affect both WD radial gradient (i.e., the slope of the relation between WD and radial distance) and pattern (i.e., linear or nonlinear variation). We studied 16 legumes species from French Guiana representing a wide diversity of growth strategies and positions on the shade-tolerance continuum. Using WD measurements and available HW extractives content values, we computed WD corrected by the extractive content and analyzed the effect of HW on WD radial gradients and patterns. We also related WD variations to demographic variables, such as sapling growth and mortality rates. Regardless of the position along the shade-tolerance continuum, correcting WD gradients reveals only increasing gradients. We determined three types of corrected WD patterns: (1) the upward curvilinear pattern is a specific feature of heliophilic species, whereas (2) the linear and (3) the downward curvilinear patterns are observed in both mid- and late-successional species. In addition, we found that saplings growth and mortality rates are better correlated with the corrected WD at stem center than with the uncorrected value: taking into account the effect of HW extractives on WD radial variations provides unbiased interpretation of biomass accumulation and tree mechanical strategies. Rather than a specific feature of heliophilic species, the increasing WD gradient is a shared strategy regardless of the shade tolerance habit. Finally, our study stresses to consider the occurrence of HW when using WD.
Keywords: French Guiana; Growth-mortality rate; Heartwood; Heartwood extractives; Legumes; Sapwood; Shade tolerance; Tropical tree species; Wood density variations
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Guevara, J. E., Damasco, G., Baraloto, C., Fine, P. V. A., Peñuela, M. C., Castilho, C., et al. (2016). Low Phylogenetic Beta Diversity and Geographic Neo-endemism in Amazonian White-sand Forests. Biotropica, 48(1), 34–46.
Abstract: Over the past three decades, many small-scale floristic studies of white-sand forests across the Amazon basin have been published. Nonetheless, a basin-wide description of both taxonomic and phylogenetic alpha and beta diversity at regional scales has never been achieved. We present a complete floristic analysis of white-sand forests across the Amazon basin including both taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity. We found strong regional differences in the signal of phylogenetic community structure with both overall and regional Net Relatedness Index and Nearest Taxon Index values found to be significantly positive leading to a pattern of phylogenetic clustering. Additionally, we found high taxonomic dissimilarity but low phylogenetic dissimilarity in pairwise community comparisons. These results suggest that recent diversification has played an important role in the assembly of white-sand forests causing geographic neo-endemism patterns at the regional scale. © 2016 The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation.
Keywords: Amazon; Neo-endemism; Phylogenetic beta diversity; Recent diversification; White sands
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Brouard, O., Céréghino, R., Corbara, B., Leroy, C., Pelozuelo, L., Dejean, A., et al. (2012). Understorey environments influence functional diversity in tank-bromeliad ecosystems. Freshw. Biol., 57(4), 815–823.
Abstract: A substantial fraction of the freshwater available in neotropical forests is impounded within the rosettes of bromeliads that form aquatic islands in a terrestrial matrix. The ecosystem functioning of bromeliads is known to be influenced by the composition of the contained community but it is not clear whether bromeliad food webs remain functionally similar against a background of variation in the understorey environment. We considered a broad range of environmental conditions, including incident light and incoming litter, and quantified the distribution of a very wide range of freshwater organisms (from viruses to macroinvertebrates) to determine the factors that influence the functional structure of bromeliad food webs in samples taken from 171 tank-bromeliads. We observed a gradient of detritus-based to algal-based food webs from the understorey to the overstorey. Algae, rotifers and collector and predatory invertebrates dominated bromeliad food webs in exposed areas, whereas filter-feeding insects had their highest densities in shaded forest areas. Viruses, bacteria and fungi showed no clear density patterns. Detritus decomposition is mainly due to microbial activity in understorey bromeliads where filter feeders are the main consumers of microbial and particulate organic matter (POM). Algal biomass may exceed bacterial biomass in sun-exposed bromeliads where amounts of detritus were lower but functional diversity was highest. Our results provide evidence that tank-bromeliads, which grow in a broad range of ecological conditions, promote aquatic food web diversity in neotropical forests. Moreover, although bromeliad ecosystems have been categorised as detritus-based systems in the literature, we show that algal production can support a non-detrital food web in these systems. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Keywords: Food webs; French Guiana; Invertebrates; Microorganisms; Phytotelmata; Rainforest
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