The olive tree (Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea var. europaea) is currently one of the most widely cultivated temperate fruit trees in the world. It is characterised by a large genetic diversity, as well as a large variation in phenotypic traits. Across the Mediterranean Basin, the nuclear genetic diversity of olive is organized into three main gr...
Aim: Tree crowns determine light interception, carbon and water exchange. Thus, understanding the factors causing tree crown allometry to vary at the tree and stand level matters greatly for the development of future vegetation modelling and for the calibration of remote sensing products. Nevertheless, we know little about large-scale variation and...
As demand for pepper is rising to unprecedented levels, gaps in our knowledge are underlined by our inability to reliably distinguish the different species, in particular in the south-western Indian Ocean; this hampers the possibility of developing their economic potential and protect them efficiently. The aim of this study was to characterise two ...
Leaf biochemical and structural traits are vegetation characteristics related to various physiological processes. Taking advantage of the physical relationship between optical properties and leaf biochemistry, field-based spectroscopy has allowed for the rapid estimation of leaf biochemical constituents and repeated non-destructive measurements thr...
Increasing the cultivated diversity has been identified as a major leverage for the agroecological transition as it can help improve the resilience of low input cropping systems. For wheat, which is the most cultivated crop worldwide in terms of harvested area, the use of cultivar mixtures is spreading in several countries, but studies have seldom ...
Over the past years, our research on baobabs mainly focused on the largest Malagasy species, namely the Reniala or Grandidier baobab (Adansonia grandidieri Baill.). The biggest A. grandidieri are located in the Morombe area, especially in the so-called Andombiry Forest. This giant forest of Reniala hosts well over 6000 mature individuals, out of wh...
The occurrence of natural root grafts, the union of roots of the same or different trees, is common and shared across tree species. However, their significance for forest ecology remains little understood. While early research suggested negative effects of root grafting with the risk of pathogen transmission, recent evidence supports the hypothesis...
Maritime pine is a major forest tree grown for wood production in Southern Europe. A breeding program for the selection of fast-growing varieties was established in the 1960s, in France. In the context of climate change, the magnitude of phenotypic plasticity is a key issue for the prediction of putative decreases in productivity in the improved ge...
Introduction – Piper borbonense from Reunion Island is an overlooked wild pepper that remains unutilized today. The purpose of this multidisciplinary work was to study its anatomy, morphology and biochemical composition with a view to its possible commercial development. Materials and methods – We determined its biochemical composition using, notab...
Although the leaf economic spectrum has deepened our understanding of leaf trait variability, little is known about how leaf traits scale with leaf area. This uncertainty has resulted in the assumption that leaf traits should vary by keeping the same pace of variation with increases in leaf area across the leaf size range. We evaluated the scaling ...
