Florian Delerue

Bordeaux-INP · UMR CNRS 5805 EPOC

Difference in vegetation composition between communities from calcareous and siliceous soils might be due to high competition on siliceous soils for species from calcareous origin, and high rock‐induced drought stress on calcareous soils for species from siliceous origin. We tested the hypothesis that, with increasing climate stress, competition sh...

In this study, we tackle the challenge of identifying plant species from ultra high resolution (UHR) remote sensing images. Our approach involves introducing an RGB remote sensing dataset, characterized by millimeter-level spatial resolution, meticulously curated through several field expeditions across a mountainous region in France covering vario...

The elemental allelopathy hypothesis states that the metal‐rich litter of hyper‐accumulating species may have a detrimental impact on neighbouring plants giving a competitive advantage to hyper‐accumulators. Here, we aim to specify the conditions of application of this hypothesis in realistic field conditions, and its relative importance compared t...

Il n’y a pas que les humains et les animaux qui migrent. Les arbres le font aussi naturellement, à une vitesse estimée à quelques kilomètres par siècle. Ainsi, via la dispersion de graines, certaines espèces ont pu migrer vers des latitudes plus clémentes, lors des grands changements climatiques passés.Mais face à la rapidité du changement climatiq...

Aims Dieldrin is an Organochlorine Pesticides (OCPs) which, due to its persistence in agricultural soils, continues to be a source of contamination for crops, especially Cucurbita pepo L. subsp pepo (C. pepo L.). The latter are able to absorb dieldrin from contaminated soils and transfer it from the roots to the shoots. However, dieldrin allocation...

Assisted tree migration has been proposed as a conceptual solution to mitigate lags in biotic responses to anthropogenic climate change. The rationale behind this concept is that tree species currently growing under warmer and drier climates will be more resistant and resilient to the new climatic conditions than tree species naturally growing in c...

Supplementary information on main text

Disentangling competitive-response and -effect abilities has strongly improved our understanding of the role of competition for the diversity and composition of plant communities. Much less is known about the relative importance of facilitative-effect and -response abilities in harsh ecosystems. Here, we aim to fill this gap by simultaneously asses...

Forest ecosystems can buffer understorey microhabitats and provide refuges for understorey species in a warming world. These effects are dependent on forest complexity and management. However, the roles of soils and bedrock types are less known although they also may affect forest complexity. We assessed differences in buffering effects of deciduou...

Plant‐plant interaction studies in metalliferous systems have focused either on the role of facilitation or on negative effects of elemental allelopathy. However, no studies have investigated both of these effects in the same system, and their relationships with the functional strategy of the nurse species, although this is crucial for the ecologic...

Questions In this study we investigated the direct effect of the shrub Juniperus oxycedrus s.l. on Mediterranean woody species regeneration, and how this interaction can be modified by the juniper habit, the forest canopy and/or infestation of the juniper by the plant parasite Arceuthobium oxycedri . We also aimed at identifying species response gr...

The relationship between competition and productivity in plant communities is unclear, and this is likely to be due to (1) a confusion in the literature between productivity and biomass, (2) the lack of studies assessing variation in competition in all combinations of biomass and productivity. We assessed the outcome of plant–plant interactions by...

The study of variation in plant–plant interactions along metal‐pollution gradient is in its infancy, although this is worth to be assessed for both restoration and theoretical perspectives. Additionally, the mechanisms of facilitation at stake in these particular stressed conditions are poorly known. We aim at understanding the importance of specie...

This article comments on: Chun Miao, Yuxuan Bai, Yuqing Zhang, Weiwei She, Liang Liu, Yangui Qiao and Shugao Qin, Interspecific interactions alter plant functional strategies in a revegetated shrub-dominated community in the Mu Us Desert, China, Annals of Botany, Volume 130, Issue 2, 1 August 2022, Pages 149–159 https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcac039

Polluted sites are ubiquitous worldwide but how plant partition their biomass between different organs in this context is unclear. Here, we identified three possible drivers of biomass partitioning in our controlled study along pollution gradients: plant size reduction (pollution effect) combined with allometric scaling between organs; early defici...

Since the fifties, organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) had been used in agriculture to protect vegetables. Two decades after their ban by the Stockholm convention in 2001, OCPs are still present in agricultural soils inducing vegetable contamination with concentrations above Maximum Residue Level (MRL). This is a major concern for a 5 km² peri-urban v...

Both chemical and physical properties of soils have been used for two centuries for explaining differences in species composition and diversity between plant communities from calcareous and siliceous soils. Here, we examine the prediction from the ‘physical hypothesis’, which proposes that species from siliceous soils are absent from calcareous soi...

How the relationship between species richness and productivity changes along environmental gradients remains poorly understood. We examined the context dependency of complementarity processes underpinning this relationship (biotic feedbacks, resource partitioning and facilitation) using the framework of Grime's (1973) humped‐back model. We consider...

Stand regeneration is a crucial step in the management of many forests and its failure can jeopardize future forest growth and production. Thus, adapting forestry practices to improve seedling establishment is of prime importance to maintain sustainable forest management. In the coastal dune forests of maritime pine in SW France, regeneration failu...

Using nurse shrubs to improve tree seedling establishment in stressed environments is a common practice in forestry. Recent refinements of the stress‐gradient hypothesis suggest that positive nurse effects occur under intermediate stress and decline in the harshest conditions. Additionally, indirect facilitation (e.g. protection from herbivory) is...

We explored the ecological impact of a nitrogen-fixing shrub (Ulex europaeus, common gorse) cultivated as an intercrop species in the interlines of a young stand of maritime pine (Pinus pinaster). Nitrogen fixing species are well-known for their advantage of increasing the soil fertility in agriculture. Nevertheless, in forest ecosystems, their use...

Development of organisms that live on contaminated soils depends on toxicity as well as several physical and chemical soil properties. We aimed to identify plant bioassays most responsive to contaminants and not to confounding factors due to soil type differences. We implemented a multi-site approach in seven contaminated sites and used different o...

The importance of competition in low productive habitats is still debated. Studies which simultaneously evaluate preemption of resources and consequences for population dynamics are needed for a comprehensive view of competitive outcomes. We cultivated two emblematic species of European heathlands (Calluna vulgaris and Molinia caerulea) in a nurser...

Symbiosis with ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi can be important for regeneration success. In a context of increasing regeneration failures in the coastal forest of maritime pine in Southwest France, we tried to identity whether differences in ECM communities could partly explain the variation of regeneration success and how they are influenced by fores...

Background and aims: Large, persistent seed banks contribute to the invasiveness of non-native plants, and maternal plant size is an important contributory factor. We explored the relationships between plant vegetative size (V) and soil seed bank size (S) for the invasive shrub Ulex europaeus in its native range and in non-native populations, and...

Phenotypic plasticity may be advantageous for plants to be able to rapidly cope with new and changing environments associated with climate change or during biological invasions. This is especially true for perennial plants, as they may need a longer period to respond genetically to selective pressures than annuals, and also because they are more li...

The identification of an ecological niche specific to the regeneration phase has mobilised significant attention. However, the importance of the regeneration niche concept remains unclear. Our main objective was to study the existence of such a regeneration niche for a leguminous shrub, Ulex europaeus. This study was carried out in southwest France...

Our objective was to quantify the production of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) hyphae throughout the growing season. For this purpose, we used ingrowth mesh bags (30 μm mesh filled with 40 g sand) in top soils of Fagus sylvatica, Quercus petraea and Pinus pinaster forests in France. Installations were done at three or four different growth phases at each si...

Common gorse (Ulex europaeus) is one of the most invasive species worldwide. Biological control of gorse by two pre-dispersal seed predators (the weevil Exapion ulicis and the moth Cydia succedana) is used in New Zealand. Gorse shrubs are distributed along wide natural gradients, and this could influence seed predation. The aim of this study was to...

[1] Symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF) is the main natural source of nitrogen (N) in terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. Previous studies have shown that fixation of N by plants can be limited by the availability of phosphorus (P) in soils. We used global meta-analysis to investigate how P availability controls SNF. In experiments in which plants were...

Symbiotic nitrogen fixation by European gorse (Ulex europaeus) is a major source of nitrogen in the 'Landes de Gascogne' cultivated forest of maritime pine. This thesis aims to build a conceptual model of the population dynamic of gorse in the region, with a view to predict the associated flux of nitrogen. To achieve this, several steps of the life...

La fixation symbiotique d'azote par l'ajonc d'Europe (Ulex europaeus) représente une source importante d'azote dans la forêt cultivée de pins maritimes des 'Landes de Gascogne'. Cette thèse a pour objectif la création d'un modèle conceptuel de dynamique de population de l'ajonc dans la région en vue de la prédiction du flux d'azote associé. Pour ce...

Context While many woody perennials grow and reproduce in varying environments, their ability to modify their reproductive allocation under varying resource availability is unclear. Aims This study aimed to demonstrate the occurrence of plasticity of reproductive allocation in a pioneer woody species (Ulex europaeus). Methods We studied seed produc...

By overemphasizing the role of overstory trees in forest studies, researchers, managers and policy makers could well ignore an important functional component of the forest ecosystem: the understory. This could be particularly true in forests with relatively open canopies. In maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.) plantation forests in the southwest of...

Symbiotic nitrogen fixation is the main natural source of nitrogen in ecosystems. Previous studies have shown that this process can be limited by the availability of phosphorus (P) in soils. However, it is still unclear whether or not phosphorus controls symbiotic nitrogen fixation. Through a compilation of a global dataset, our analyses showed tha...