François Bretagnolle

University of Burgundy | UB · Laboratoire Biogéosciences

L’étude des plantes vasculaires introduites par les humains hors de leur aire de répartition naturelle a généré une terminologie très prolifique qui est souvent devenue absconse et inutilement complexe. Durant les dernières décennies, l’écologie des invasions a cherché, au contraire, à replacer les processus d’introduction, de naturalisation et d’i...

Afrotropical forests are undergoing massive change caused by defaunation, i.e., the human-induced decline of animal species, most of which are frugivorous species. Frugivores’ depletion and their functional disappearance are expected to cascade on tree dispersal and forest structure via interaction networks, as the majority of tree species depend o...

Pathogen transfers between wild and domestic animals and between animals and humans are increasing. Their dramatic consequences for public and veterinary health as well as for conservation call for innovative and user-friendly methods for pathogen surveillance in wildlife. Xenosurveillance, a method based on the use of invertebrates (e.g., mosquito...

Larger animals are assumed to ingest larger seeds and consume larger fruits, but empirical studies reveal inconsistent trends between body mass and the average size of fruits and seeds ingested. Furthermore, no studies have explored seed size relationships with morphological traits, such as skull dimensions. Such characteristics might provide more...

Megaherbivores have pervasive ecological effects. In African rainforests, elephants can increase aboveground carbon, though the mechanisms are unclear. Here, we combine a large unpublished dataset of forest elephant feeding with published browsing preferences totaling nearly 200,000 records covering >800 plant species and with nutritional data for...

Frugivory in tropical forests is a major ecological process as most tree species rely on frugivores to disperse their seeds. However, the underlying mechanisms driving frugivore–plant networks remain understudied. Here, we evaluate the data available on the Afrotropical frugivory network to identify structural properties, as well as assess knowledg...

Over the course of history, humans have moved crops from their regions of origin to new locations across the world. The social, cultural and economic drivers of these movements have generated differences not only between current distributions of crops and their climatic origins, but also between crop distributions and climate suitability for their...

Plant nutritional properties (crude protein, fibers, minerals, and carbohydrates) and chemical defenses (tannins and phenols) are key traits determining food quality and feeding preferences of animals and humans. Plant nutritional properties are also relevant to crop production and livestock. Here we present PNuts, a global database containing > 10...

Invasive species are a key driver of the global biodiversity crisis, but the drivers of invasiveness, including the role of pathogens, remain debated. We investigated the genomic basis of invasiveness in Ambrosia artemisiifolia (common ragweed), introduced to Europe in the late 19th century, by resequencing 655 ragweed genomes, including 308 herbar...

Many emerging infectious diseases originate from wild animals, so there is a profound need for surveillance and monitoring of their pathogens. However, the practical difficulty of sample acquisition from wild animals tends to limit the feasibility and effectiveness of such surveys. Xenosurveillance, using blood‐feeding invertebrates to obtain tissu...

While invasive species are a key driver of the global biodiversity crisis, the drivers of invasiveness remain debated. To investigate the genomic basis of invasiveness in plants, we use the invasive weed Ambrosia artemisiifolia , introduced to Europe in the late 19 th century, resequencing 655 ragweed genomes, including 308 herbarium specimens coll...

Megaherbivores have pervasive ecological effects. In African rainforests, elephants can increase aboveground carbon, though the mechanisms are unclear. Here we combine a large unpublished dataset of forest elephant feeding with published browsing preferences totaling > 120,000 records covering 700 plant species, including nutritional data for 102 s...

Data on the prevalence of antibiotic resistance in Enterobacteriaceae in African wildlife are still relatively limited. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of phenotypic intrinsic and acquired antimicrobial resistance of enterobacteria from several species of terrestrial wild mammals in national parks of Gabon. Colony culture and i...

Los ensambles de árctinos (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae) son considerados indicadores de la calidad vegetal por la estrecha relación de sus especies con las plantas. Debido a esta, su diversidad debe ser alta en lugares de elevada diversidad y endemismo vegetal. La flora del matorral xeromorfo espinoso sobre serpentina (cuabal) posee estas cara...

The selection of new crops and the migration of crop areas are two key strategies for agriculture to cope with climate change and ensure food security in the coming years. However, both rely on the assumption that climate is a major factor determining crop distributions worldwide. Here, we show that the current global distributions of nine of twelv...

The selection of new crops and the migration of crop areas are two key strategies for agriculture to cope with climate change and ensure food security in the coming years. However, both rely on the assumption that climate is a major factor determining crop distributions worldwide. Here, we show that the current global distributions of nine of twelv...

Establishing laws of plant and ecosystems functioning has been an enduring objective of functional and evolutionary ecology. However, most theories neglect the role of human activities in creating novel ecosystems characterized by species assemblages and environmental factors not observed in natural systems. We argue that agricultural weeds, as an...

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [...].

In Gabon, terrestrial mammals of protected areas have been identified as a possible source of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Some studies on antibiotic resistance in bats have already been carried out. The main goal of our study was to detect extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs) that are produced by enterobacteria from bats in the Makokou regi...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Large herbivores, such as elephants, can have important effects on ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles. Yet, the influence of elephants on the structure, productivity and carbon stocks in Africa’s rainforests remain largely unknown. Here, we quantify those effects by incorporating elephant disturbance in the Ecosystem Demography model, and verify...

Seed predation by natural predators can contribute to the regulation of the weed seedbank, hence has been acknowledged as a promising way to significantly reduce the use of chemicals and mechanical weeding to manage arable weeds. However, the complex aspects that determine seed species preference are not yet fully understood, especially, the relati...

Megafauna (terrestrial vertebrate herbivores > 5kg) can have disproportionate direct and indirect effects on forest structure, function, and biogeochemical cycles. We reviewed the literature investigating these effects on tropical forest dynamics and biogeochemical cycles in relation to ecology, paleoecology, and vegetation modelling. We highlight...

Integrating principles of ecological intensification into weed management strategies requires an understanding of the many relationships among weeds, crops and other organisms of agro-ecosystems in a changing context. Extensively used during the last two decades in weed science, trait-based approaches have provided general insights into weed commun...

Background: Variation in style length has been reported in Senecio vulgaris and has been associated with outcrossing rate. Aims: To determine if (i) long styles lack germinated pollen on stigmas left to self-pollinate, (ii) successful self-pollination causes styles to stop elongating and shrink in length and (iii) seed set increases with the amount...

Background: It has been reported that some plants of the self-compatible species Senecio vulgaris produce capitula containing long-styled florets which fail to set seed when left to self-pollinate, although readily set seed when self-pollinated by hand.Aims: To determine if production of long-styled florets is associated with higher outcrossing rat...

The ecological consequences of seed size variation have been studied extensively in plants. Curiously, little attention has been paid to the qualitative and quantitative variation of the seed-stored molecules and on their ecological significance. Here, we analysed the oil content and oil composition of ca. 200 weed seed species from agricultural fi...

In order to minimize risks of pathogen transmission with the development of ecotourism in Gabon, a seasonal inventory has been performed in five contrasted biotopes in Ivindo (INP) and Moukalaba-Doudou (MDNP) National Parks. A total of 10,033 hematophagous flies were captured. The Glossinidae, with six different species identified, was the most abu...

http://www.cnrs.fr/fr/pdf/inee/prospective-eco-tropicale/#/1/

Agriculture faces the challenge of increasing food production while simultaneously reducing the use of inputs and delivering other ecosystem services. Ecological intensification of agriculture is a paradigm shift, which has recently been proposed to meet such challenges through the manipulation of biotic interactions. While this approach opens up n...

In an Afrotropical forest, we tested the hypothesis that fleshy-fruit plants with interspecific differences in fruit quality and quantity affect ranging behaviour of their seed dispersal vector. If fruiting plants could affect their dispersal vector, the plants also affect their seed dispersal distance and eventually their plant population biology....

SPE EA ECOLDUR GEAPSI équipe CAPA

L’écologie des forêts d'Afrique tropicale dépend non seulement de la protection des habitats, mais également de la protection des espèces qui la composent telle que les primates frugivores identifiés parmi les disperseurs de graines les plus importants pour de nombreuses plantes. L’étude de la dispersion de graines par des bonobos (Pan paniscus) da...

In this experiment, the rodent is attracted by the stick with dung smell while the control stick do not affect the porcupine behavior. LuiKotale, Salonga NP, DR Congo

75 empirical data on seed dispersal induced by free ranging bonobo LuiKotale, Salonga NP, DR Congo

Assessing the diet of farmland birds during the wintering period has important implications for conservation. However, for some species such as the skylark, the diet composition remains poorly known across its wintering range. On the basis of gizzards collected in mid-winter over a 10-year interval and in two regions of Western France, we quantifie...

Seed dispersal mode of plants and primary interactions with animals are studied in the evergreen Afrotropical forest of LuiKotale, at the south-western part of Salonga National Park (DR Congo). We first analysed seed dispersal strategies for (a) the plant species inventoried over a decade at the study site and (b) the tree community in 12 9 1 ha ce...

Survival of Afrotropical primary forests depends not only on habitat protection but also on the protection of animal species such as frugivorous primates, recognized as the most important seed dispersers for many plants. Here we investigate seed-dispersal services by the bonobo (Pan paniscus) in an evergreen lowland tropical rain forest of the Cong...

Species of the gender Dialium commonly are trees found in Central African rainforests. They produce tasty sugary fruits, feeding numerous frugivores, but are, despite their valuable nutritional value, rarely exploited by humans. A potential reason for this could be the complexity of symbiotic dependence between trees and pollinators, germination ac...

In an evergreen lowland rain forest of the Cuvette Centrale, DR Congo, at the LuiKotale Max-Planck research site, forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) are close to extinction. Between January 2009 and June 2011 we investigated the influence of elephant decline on sustainability of elephant-dispersed tree populations. For this, we explored how tree...

Acis nicaeensis and A. fabrei are two endemic geophytes from the Maritime Alps and the Vaucluse (Nesque basin) respectively. The aims of this study are to establish the distinctive morphological characters between the two snowflakes, to examine the chorology and the demography of the populations, in addition with the evaluation of their ecological...

A positive interaction is any interaction between individuals of the same or different species (mutualism) that provides a benefit to both partners such as increased fitness. Here we focus on seed dispersal mutualism between an animal (bonobo, Pan paniscus) and a plant (velvet tamarind trees, Dialium spp.). In the LuiKotale rainforest southwest of...

Tolerance and resistance are defence strategies evolved by plants to cope with damage due to herbivores. The introduction of exotic species to a new biogeographical range may alter the plant herbivore interactions and induce selection pressures for new plant defence strategies with a modified resource allocation. To detect evolution in tolerance to...

Seed dispersal with seed deposited by animal in faeces attracts dung beetles. In the Congo forest of LuiKotale (DRC), granivores such as the giant pouched rat (Cricetomys emini) or porcupine (Atherurus africanus) are attracted to bonobo dung in order to forage for seeds. These nocturnal seed predators are preceded by diurnal dung beetles (Scarabaeo...

Seed dispersal with seed deposited by animal in faeces attracts dung beetles. In the Congo forest of LuiKotale (DRC), granivores such as the giant pouched rat (Cricetomys emini) or porcupine (Atherurus africanus) are attracted to bonobo dung in order to forage for seeds. These nocturnal seed predators are preceded by diurnal dung beetles (Scarabaeo...

Short field note

Phenotypic plasticity may play a critical role in the response of natural populations to selective pressures in variable environments and may help explain differences in the ecological and geographical distribution of closely related taxa. In this study we quantify phenotypic plasticity in three subspecies of the European grass polyploid complex Ar...

The impact of natural selection on the adaptive divergence of invasive populations can be assessed by testing the null hypothesis that the extent of quantitative genetic differentiation (Q(ST) ) would be similar to that of neutral molecular differentiation (F(ST) ). Using eight microsatellite loci and a common garden approach, we compared Q(ST) and...

Recent comprehensive data provided through the DAISIE project (www.europe-aliens.org) have facilitated the development of the first pan-European assessment of the impacts of alien plants, vertebrates, and invertebrates in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments on ecosystem services. There are 1094 species with documented ecological impact...

*An improved inference of the evolutionary history of invasive species may be achieved by analyzing the genetic variation and population differentiation of recently established populations and their ancestral (historical) populations. Employing this approach, we investigated the role of gene flow in the post-invasion evolution of common ragweed (Am...

This article documents the addition of 283 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Agalinis acuta; Ambrosia artemisiifolia; Berula erecta; Casuarius casuarius; Cercospora zeae-maydis; Chorthippus parallelus; Conyza canadensis; Cotesia sesamiae; Epinephelus acanthistius;...

Chapter 13: Species Accounts of 100 of the Most Invasive Alien Species in Europe

Ambrosia artemisiifolia (Asteraceae) is an invasive annual plant introduced from North America to Europe over 100 years ago. This plant species is now widespread in numerous countries all over the world, causing damages to agricultural crops and human health. Ambrosia artemisiifolia is spreading as a weed in many field crops but is also able to inv...

In order to understand the successful spread of Ambrosia artemisiifolia in France, the variability of colonised habitat by this species was studied at 48 locations, from its central to peripheral area of distribution. Each site was characterised by a vegetation survey, a description of the A. artemisiifolia population and a soil analysis. Differenc...

The seed-bank dynamics of Ambrosia artemisiifolia (Asteraceae), an annual invasive plant introduced from North America to Europe, were studied in nine French populations developing in field crops, set-asides or wastelands. The vertical distribution of seeds was studied in two different depth sections (0–5 cm and 5–20 cm), and the spatial horizontal...

The most common form of polyploidization is that which occurs via the fertilization of unreduced 2n gametes, i.e. gametes that possess the somatic chromosome number of the species. However, very few data are available concerning the frequency of spontaneous polyploidization in diploid plant populations. In this study we have quantified both the fre...