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In order to remediate the negative externalities caused by urbanization, urban planning policies are turning to developing productive and sustainable cities based on the development of nature in the city. The Bises project “Biodiversity of Urban soils in sustainable cities: state of art, interaction

A continuing challenge for scientists is to understand how multiple interactive stressor factors affect biological relationships and subsequently ecosystem functioning. It is largely recognized that local watersheds act as critical controls of aquatic ecosystem qualities. Inputs of terrestrial disso

The lack of robust understanding of the determinants of tree reproduction and forest regeneration has restricted the effectiveness of forest management practices in many countries worldwide. Masting, a highly variable seed production over years and synchronized within populations, occurs in many for

In agriculture, intraspecific competition is undesirable, since it drives the evolution of traits toward phenotypic values lowering group performance. Plant height is a well-documented example: tall plants win access to light over shorter plants by diverting resources to vegetative structures, which

The dramatic increase in problems caused by invasive species worldwide, paralleled by the planned abandonment of chemical pesticides, makes the development of sustainable pest management strategies a top research priority. The CrashPest project aims at developing a novel, environmentally-friendly me

Climate change impacts plants and animals in various ways, including poleward shifts of their geographical distribution and changes in their phenology (i.e., date of occurrence of life-stages). Our objective is to determine how phenology can shape the spatial distribution of species in a changing cl

Climate change is the biggest challenge that we are facing for food production. Increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, in temperature and in variability of precipitation, directly affect the abiotic environment of crops, their geographical distribution and their biotic interactions, leading to incr

Forests play a major role in climate change mitigation. By performing photosynthesis, trees incorporate carbon from atmospheric CO2 into their tissues. Subsequently, dead plant debris (litterfalls, senescent fine roots) enrich the soil with organic carbon. In soils, once stabilised, organic carbon c

The BloBiForM project aims at developping an array of tools for assessing forest management effects on biodiversity. We focus on organisms that depend on tree-related microhabitats (TreMs), i.e. small parts of trees with a specific structure that makes them habitat for some species like hollows,

Species distribution models (SDMs), the toolbox to project biodiversity redistribution under anthropogenic climate change, are based on ambiant-air temperature (i.e. macroclimate) but fail to capture apparent temperature near the ground (i.e. microclimate). Yet, microclimate matters for the distribu

The world hosts a high variety of livestock breeds on which numerous people depend, but these breeds currently face a number of threats, among which diversity erosion. This project aims at addressing this issue by providing a much-needed understanding of the dynamics of domestic animals diversity th

Coastal ecosystems functioning is exposed to many alterations associated with global change. In order to achieve sustainable resource management, it is necessary to better understand the species’ response facing environmental variability. In the Sine-Saloum Delta (Senegal), the bloody cockle (Senili

Worldwide, insect pests are responsible for potential crop losses up to 80%, so that crop protection plays a central role in safeguarding crop productivity. Recent studies estimate that invasive insect species cost a minimum of US$70.0 billion per year globally, while substantial savings could be ac