Frederic Pitre

• Université de Montréal

The climate crisis is changing temperature regimes worldwide, threatening global viticulture and wine production, as temperature is a primary driver of grape development. In Atlantic Canada, temperatures are projected to increase, inducing premature grape ripening, which can impact their biochemical profiles and, consequently, the quality of the vi...

Reducing the environmental impact of Canadian field crop agriculture, including the reliance on conventional synthesised fertilisers, are key societal targets for establishing long-term sustainable practices. Municipal bio-solids (MSB) are an abundant, residual organic material, rich in phosphate, nitrogen and other oligo-nutrients, that could be u...

Wastewater treatment is a necessary step to avoid environmental impacts of water consumption and usage. Traditional approaches are expensive and are limited to developed countries. Phytofiltration using fast-growing trees and shrubs like willows potentially offer an alternative. This paper aims to determine if wastewater treatment using phytofiltra...

Municipal biosolids (MBS) are suggested to be abundant, sustainable, inexpensive fertilisers, rich in phosphorus and nitrogen. However, MBS can also contain glyphosate and phosphonates that can degrade to AMPA. Glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH) are used in field crops all over the world. Most glyphosate generally degrades within a few weeks, mainly...

Municipal biosolids (MBS) are suggested to be abundant, sustainable, inexpensive fertilisers, rich in phosphorus and nitrogen. However, MBS can also contain glyphosate and phosphonates that can degrade to AMPA. Glyphosate-based herbicides (HBG) are used in field crops all over the world. Most glyphosate generally degrades within a few weeks, mainly...

Reducing the environmental impact of Canadian field crop agriculture, including the reliance on conventional synthesised fertilisers, are key societal targets for establishing long-term sustainable practices. Municipal biosolids (MSB) are an abundant, residual organic material, rich in phosphate, nitrogen and other oligo-nutrients, that could be us...

Organic waste decomposition can make up substantial amounts of municipal greenhouse emissions during decomposition. Composting has the potential to reduce these emissions as well as generate sustainable fertilizer. However, our understanding of how complex microbial communities change to drive the chemical and biological processes of composting is...

The herbicide glyphosate has several potential entry points into composting sites and its impact on composting processes has not yet been evaluated. To assess its impact on bacterial diversity and abundance as well as on community composition and dynamics, we conducted a mesocosm experiment at the Montreal Botanical Garden. Glyphosate had no effect...

Traditional treatment of wastewaters is a burden for local governments. Using short rotation coppice willow (SRCW) as vegetal filter has several environmental and economic benefits. Here, we investigated the effect of primary wastewater irrigation on wood structure and composition of the willow cultivar Salix miyabeana ‘SX67’ following two years of...

Traditional treatment of wastewaters is a burden for local governments. Using short rotation coppice willow (SRCW) as vegetal filter has several environmental and economic benefits. Here, we investigated the effect of primary wastewater irrigation on wood structure and composition of the willow cultivar Salix miyabeana ‘SX67’ following two years of...

The use of willow plantations can be a sustainable approach for treating primary municipal wastewater, potentially reducing both the environmental and economic burdens associated with conventional treatment. However, the impact of wastewater irrigation upon the willow biorefinery potential has not yet been established. To investigate this effect, t...

Maintaining astronaut health throughout long-duration spaceflight is essential to the feasibility of a manned mission to Mars. The ground-based Mars500 experiment investigated long-duration health by isolating six astronauts for 520 days, the longest controlled human confinement study conducted to date. After 520 days, astronauts had uniform streng...

Widely used as wood preservatives for the last century, Pentachlorophenol (PCP) and chromated copper arsenate (CCA) have been shown to leach from treated surfaces and contaminate soil of wood storage sites. We performed a four-year field phytoremediation trial in southern Quebec (Canada) on a site contaminated with PCP and CCA with the following ob...

Fast growing, high biomass willows (Salix sp.) have been extensively used for the phytoremediation of trace element-contaminated environments, as they have an extensive root system and they tolerate abiotic stressors such as drought and metal toxicity. Being dual mycorrhizal plants, they can engage single or simultaneous symbiotic associations with...

Municipal wastewater treatment using willow ‘phyto’-filtration has the potential for reduced environmental impact compared to conventional treatment practices. However, the physiological adaptations underpinning tolerance to high wastewater irrigation in willow are unknown. A one-hectare phytofiltration plantation established using the Salix miyabe...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have been shown to reduce plant stress and improve their health and growth, making them important components of the plant-root associated microbiome, especially in stressful conditions such as petroleum hydrocarbons (PHs) contaminated environments. Purposely manipulating the root-associated AMF assemblages in orde...

Human industrial activities have left millions of hectares of land polluted with trace element metals and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) around the world. Although contaminated sites are environmentally damaging, high economic costs often discourage soil remediation efforts. Phytoremediation is a potential green technology solution but can be...

Manipulating the plant-root microbiota has the potential to reduce plant stress and promote their growth and production in harsh conditions. Community composition and activity of plant-roots microbiota can be either beneficial or deleterious to plant health. Shifting this equilibrium could then strongly affect plant productivity in anthropized area...

Organic wastes such as biosolids, green and food residues can make up over 5% of municipal greenhouse emissions during decomposition. Composting has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas production as well as provide sustainable fertilizer. However, our understanding of how microbial communities change to drive the complex chemical and biological...

Analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene amplification data for microbial barcoding can be inaccurate across complex environmental samples. A method is presented, ANCHOR, designed for improved species level microbial identification using paired‐end sequences directly, multiple high‐complexity samples and multiple reference databases. An SOP is rep...

In Eastern Canada, hops production is still in its infancy. Yet knowledge about EO accumulation and composition in developing hops cones is critical to optimize harvest decisions and product quality. In this study, the content and composition of the EO was studied in ripening cones of H. lupulus var. ‘Cascade’ and ‘Chinook’, from August 30th to Sep...

Background: One method for rejuvenating land polluted with anthropogenic contaminants is through phytoremediation, the reclamation of land through the cultivation of specific crops. The capacity for phytoremediation crops, such as Salix spp., to tolerate and even flourish in contaminated soils relies on a highly complex and predominantly cryptic i...

Industrial and agricultural activities have caused extensive metal contamination of land throughout China and across the globe. The pervasive nature of metal pollution can be harmful to human health and can potentially cause substantial negative impact to the biosphere. To investigate the impact of anthropogenic metal pollution found in high concen...

Plant survival and growth are essential parameters in monitoring the effectiveness of phytoremediation protocols for brownfields decontamination. The ability of different willow cultivars to survive and adapt to contamination in polluted soils can vary according to the nature and concentration of the contaminants. The objectives of this study were...

Phytoremediation using willows is thought to be a sustainable alternative to traditional remediation techniques involving excavation, transport, and landfilling. However, the complexity of the interaction between the willow and its associated highly diverse microbial communities makes the optimization of phytoremediation very difficult. Here, we ha...

The remediation of polluted land is an important issue of global concern. Canada alone has tens of thousands of highly contaminated sites. Phytoremediation is a promising solution for the treatment of contaminated soils which lignocellulosic biomass as a byproduct. By 2020, the city of Montreal will compost all domestic organic waste collected in i...

Trace element (TE) contaminated land represents an important risk to the environment and to human health worldwide. These soils usually contain a variety of TEs which can be a challenge for plant-based remediation options. As individual plant species often possess a limited range of TE remediation abilities, functional complementarity principles co...

Arsenic (As) is a toxic element for plants and one of the most common anthropogenic pollutants found at contaminated sites. Despite its severe effects on plant metabolism, several species can accumulate substantial amounts of arsenic and endure the associated stress. However, the genetic mechanisms involved in arsenic tolerance remains obscure in m...

Short rotation coppice willow (Salix sp.) is well established as an effective phytoremediation crop and is also emerging as an attractive lignocellulosic bioenergy option. The prospect of integrating value-added renewable chemicals as a supplementary component of the crop’s value is explored here in terms of absolute phenolic yields, extractable fr...

Metatranscriptomic study of non-model organisms require strategies that retain the highly resolved genetic information generated from model organisms while allowing for identification of the unexpected. A real-world biological application of phytoremediation, the field-growth of ten Salix cultivars on polluted soils, was used as an exemplar multifa...

Sustainable and inexpensive production of biomass is necessary to make biofuel production feasible, but represents a challenge. Five short rotation coppice willow cultivars, selected for high biomass yield, were cultivated on sites at four diverse regions of Quebec in contrasting environments. Wood composition and anatomical traits were characteriz...

High concentrations of petroleum hydrocarbon (PHC) pollution can be hazardous to human health and leave soils incapable of supporting agricultural crops. A cheap solution, which can help restore biodiversity and bring land back to productivity, is cultivation of high biomass yielding willow trees. However, the genetic mechanisms which allow these f...

The aim of our study, conducted as a pot experiment, was to assess the potential of willow (Salix miyabeana), alfalfa, (Medicago sativa) tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) and Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) to remediate two brownfield soils differentially contaminated with Ag, Cu and Zn (up to 113.60, 47.50 and 117.00 mg kg(-1) respectively). Whil...

In this preliminary screening study, we tested the phytoextraction potential of nine Canadian native/well-adapted plant species on a soil highly polluted by trace elements (TE) from a copper refinery. Plant physiological parameters and soil cover index were monitored for a 12-week period. At the end of the trial, biomass yield, bioconcentration (BF...

Key message Highly tolerant and productive willow cultivars have been identified as potential candidates for phytoremediation of contaminated soil with petroleum hydrocarbons (PHs) in southern Quebec, Canada. Abstract Tolerance of Salix to various organic and inorganic contaminants has been well documented and can vary widely among genotypes. In...

Salix L. is the largest genus in the family Salicaceae (450 species). Several classifications have been published, but taxonomic subdivision has been under continuous revision. Our goal is to establish the phylogenetic structure of the genus using molecular data on all American willows, using three DNA markers. This complete phylogeny of American w...

Previous revision versions of Fig 2, Fig 3, and S1 Fig were incorrectly published. Please view the correct Fig 2, Fig 3, and S1 Fig here. Fig 2 BEAST gene tree of matK and rbcL. Fig 3 BEAST gene tree of ITS.

We investigated the short-term response of poplar roots to low and high nitrogen availability in order to elucidate the mechanisms involved in nutrient acquisition. After 28 days of fertilization with low versus high ammonium nitrate, an increase in aboveground biomass was observed accompanied by a decrease in root biomass, reducing the root: shoot...

Previous research has established that SRC willow rapidly produces a large quantity of biomass, thus reducing the footprint on land and minimizing production costs. Willow in SRC therefore has great potential for biofuel and bio-products markets. Here, we describe a first experiment in which we investigated how willow wood polymers (cellulose, hemi...

Phytoremediation is a cost-effective green alternative to traditional soil remediation technologies, but has experienced varied success in practice. The recent omics revolution has led to leaps in our understanding of soil microbial communities and plant metabolism, and some of the conditions that promote predictable activity in contaminated soils...

This is a preliminary hydroponic study to test willow sensitivity to silver nitrate, a highly toxic chemical compound. We grew willow cuttings for a period of three weeks in the presence of increasing AgNO3 concentrations and assessed the response in terms of growth and physiology. We found that AgNO3 is generally extremely harmful to willow. AgNO3...

Minimizing nitrogen (N) fertilization inputs during cultivation is essential for sustainable production of bioenergy and biofuels. The biomass crop willow (Salix spp.) is considered to have low N fertilizer requirements due to efficient recycling of nutrients during the perennial cycle. To investigate how successfully different willow genotypes ass...

Maintaining the long-term productivity of short-rotation coppice plantations is very important to ensure the large-scale deployment of biomass as a renewable energy source. In Quebec (Canada), willow short rotation coppice has been studied since the early ‘90s, thereby allowing long-term analysis of the dynamic performance of several species and hy...

Biomass produced from dedicated plantations constitutes a source of renewable energy and is expected to play an important role in several countries in the coming decades. The cultivation of woody crops such as willows therefore raises several environmental issues. In North America, several native willows are potentially interesting for biomass prod...

Short rotation coppice willow is a potential lignocellulosic feedstock in the United Kingdom and elsewhere; however, research on optimising willow specifically for bioethanol production has started developing only recently. We have used the feedstock Salix viminalis × Salix schwerinii cultivar 'Olof' in a three-month pot experiment with the aim of...

Previous studies indicated that high nitrogen fertilization may impact secondary xylem development and alter fibre anatomy and composition. The resulting wood shares some resemblance with tension wood, which has much thicker cell walls than normal wood due to the deposition of an additional layer known as the G-layer. This report compares the short...

Short rotation coppice (SRC) willows (Salix spp.) are fast-growing woody plants which can achieve high biomass yields over short growth cycles with low agrochemical inputs. Biomass from SRC willow is already used for heat and power, but its potential as a source of lignocellulose for liquid transport biofuels has still to be assessed. In bioethanol...

Non‐destructive assessment of root systems is important in order to understand and optimise the potential of resource capture and allocation by the plant. We studied the relationships between electrical capacitance (EC) and the below‐ and above‐ground biomass of willows. Cuttings of Salix viminalis × Salix schwerinii cv. Olof were maintained in pot...

The short-term influence of adequate and high nitrogen fertilization on poplar lignification was investigated. The high nitrogen supply decreased lignin staining in the newly formed secondary xylem, indicating that lignin deposition was affected. Acetyl bromide determinations gave a 9-10% decrease in lignin content; however, Klason lignin content w...

The application of nitrogen-containing fertilisers is one approach used to increase growth rates and productivity of forest tree plantations. However, the effects of nitrogen fertilisation on wood properties have not been systematically assessed. The aim of this work was to document the impacts of nitrogen fertilisation on wood formation and second...

To date, few homologues of animal programmed cell death (PCD) regulators have been identified in plants. Among these is the plant Bax Inhibitor-1 (BI-1) protein, which possesses, like its human counterpart, the ability to suppress Bax-induced lethality in yeast cells. As the role of BI-1 in the regulation of plant PCD remains to be elucidated, we c...

Cytological features of programmed cell death in Nicotiana tabacum cells in relation to the expression and localization of death regulators. - Volume 8 Issue S02 - Louise Brisson, Nathalie Bolduc, Mario Ouellet, Frédéric Pitre, Israel Fortin