EcoSilva

The EcoSilva (Ecology of little anthropised forests and ecosystems) team analyses the mechanisms linking environmental factors (mainly climate and soil) and the evolution of terrestrial ecosystems that are little anthropised, mainly forests but also grasslands. It studies the vulnerability, adaptation and resilience of trees and ecosystems to disturbances such as climatic accidents, biotic hazards, long-term changes in climate, fertility and management practices, from the seasonal to the century scale. Research focuses on

(i) changes in tree growth and health and the mechanisms that can lead to tree mortality or resilience, and

(ii) changes in herbaceous plant communities in relation to changes in climate, atmospheric nitrogen deposition, management practices, changes in land use and changes in wild ungulate population densities.

The aim of this research is, on the one hand, to detect and quantify the relative impact of environmental changes on ecosystems and, on the other hand, to identify tree or herbaceous species and communities that are particularly vulnerable to these changes, as well as the mechanisms and functional traits explaining this vulnerability.