Joan Llusia

• Doctor in Biology
• Researcher at Centre for Research on Ecology and Forestry Applications

Communities of soil insects in tropical rainforests are among the richest and most complex, but the mechanisms structuring them remain mostly unknown. Identifying whether nutrient availability plays a relevant role in the assembly of these communities poses several challenges due to the diverse nutritional requirements of insects. We investigated t...

There is increasing evidence showing that soils can emit and consume biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), a particularly relevant issue considering to current nutrient deposition rates on tropical ecosystems. Here, we assess the impact of 3-year experimental fertilization with nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and NP on soil BVOCs exchange in a...

Key message Inventory and seasonal variation of terpene emissions from tropical trees in French Guiana: implications for environmental and ecological roles. Abstract A limited understanding of foliar terpene emissions from different tree species is prominent in diverse tropical forests. We conducted a study in French Guiana, screening BVOC emissio...

Background The availability of soil phosphorus (P) often limits the productivities of wet tropical lowland forests. Little is known, however, about the metabolomic profile of different chemical P compounds with potentially different uses and about the cycling of P and their variability across space under different tree species in highly diverse tro...

Background Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play a crucial role in understanding soil ecology and the atmospheric environment. However, the biochemical cycles of VOCs in soil systems and their relationship to atmospheric VOC exchange remain unclear. The soil system serves as a primary site for the generation, emission, and uptake of VOCs, yet thes...

Fine roots mediate plant nutrient acquisition and growth. Depending on soil nutrient availability, plants can regulate fine root biomass and morphological traits to optimise nutrient acquisition. Little is known, however, about the importance of these parameters influencing forest functioning. In this study, we measured root responses to nutrient a...

Food production is threatened by direct climate change effects including drought. Indirect effects, including changes in plant-pathogen dynamics and increased susceptibility to pathogens, further exacerbate the risks. Root exudation, which plays a crucial role in plant defence against drought and pathogens, is influenced by both water stress and pa...

The exchange of isoprenoids, which includes isoprene, monoterpenes, and sesquiterpenes, between ecosystem soils and the atmosphere plays a significant role in soil ecology and atmospheric chemistry. However, research on flux exchange rates in subtropical ecosystems has been limited, as previous studies have mainly focused on temperate and boreal en...

Biogeochemical niche (BN) hypothesis aims to relate species/genotype elemental composition with its niche based on the fact that different elements are involved differentially in distinct plant functions. We here test the BN hypothesis through the analysis of the 10 foliar elemental concentrations and 20 functional‐morphological of 60 tree species...

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) play critical roles in ecosystems at various scales, influencing above- and below-ground interactions and contributing to the atmospheric environment. Nonetheless, there is a lack of research on soil BVOC fluxes and their response to environmental changes. This study aimed to investigate the impact of dro...

There is increasing evidence to suggest that soil nutrient availability can limit the carbon sink capacity of forests, a particularly relevant issue considering today's changing climate. This question is especially important in the tropics, where most part of the Earth's plant biomass is stored. To assess whether tropical forest growth is limited b...

Soil nutrient availability and functional traits interact in complex ways during the assembly of tree communities hindering our understanding of the implications that this may have for their phylogenetic and functional diversity. We combined abundance, taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional trait data of 222 tree species distributed along nutrient...

Nitrogen (N)-enriched biochar is a novel type of biochar prepared by mixing biomass with N-rich sources at a higher temperature via pyrolysis. Although the agronomic benefits of N-enriched biochar are reportedly positive, its effects on GHG emissions, crop yields, and soil bacterial communities in rice paddy fields remain undefined. This study exam...

Terrestrial vegetation is the largest contributor of isoprenoids (a group of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs)) to the atmosphere. BVOC emission data comes mostly from temperate regions, and less is known about BVOC emissions from tropical vegetation, even though it is estimated to be responsible for >70% of BVOC emissions. This review su...

Terrestrial biosphere models typically use the biochemical model of Farquhar, von Caemmerer, and Berry (1980) to simulate photosynthesis, which requires accurate values of photosynthetic capacity of different biomes. However, data on tropical forests are sparse and highly variable due to the high species diversity, and it is still highly uncertain...

Soil biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play an important role in soil ecology and function and may affect atmospheric chemistry. While previous studies of soil VOCs have predominantly measured surface flux exchange rates, VOC concentrations within the surface soil layer are largely unknown, especially in Mediterranean ecosystems. In this s...

Understanding the mechanisms that drive the change of biotic assemblages over space and time is the main quest of community ecology. Assessing the relative importance of dispersal and environmental species selection in a range of organismic sizes and motilities has been a fruitful strategy. A consensus for whether spatial and environmental distance...

The current study analyses the evolution of different human stress markers during an 8 h exposure to a Mediterranean Holm oak forest. We conducted a pre-post study with thirty-one subjects in which saliva samples were collected before the exposure (baseline) and after 1, 2, 4 and 8 h. Our results show: (A) a significant decrease in cortisol saliva...

Terrestrial biosphere models typically use the biochemical model of Farquhar, von Caemmerer and Berry (1980) to simulate photosynthesis, which requires accurate values of photosynthetic capacity of different biomes. However, data on tropical forests are sparse and highly variable due to the high species diversity, and it is still highly uncertain h...

Production, emission, and absorption of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) in ecosystem soils and associated impacts of nutrient availability are unclear; thus, predictions of effects of global change on source-sink dynamic under increased atmospheric N deposition and nutrition imbalances are limited. Here, we report the dynamics of soil B...

In tropical forests, free‐living Biological nitrogen (N) fixation (BNF) in soil and litter tends to decrease when substrate N concentrations increase, whereas increasing phosphorus (P) and molybdenum (Mo) soil and litter concentrations have been shown to stimulate free‐living BNF rates. Yet, very few studies explored the effects of adding N, P, and...

Resorption is the active withdrawal of nutrients before leaf abscission. This mechanism represents an important strategy to maintain efficient nutrient cycling; however, resorption is poorly characterized in old-growth tropical forests growing in nutrient-poor soils. We investigated nutrient resorption from leaves in 39 tree species in two tropical...

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are emitted from many sources and have important implications for plant fitness, ecological interactions, and atmospheric processes, including photochemistry and ozone formation. Forest ecosystems are strong sources of biogenic VOCs. We aimed to characterize forest below-canopy VOC mixing ratios, monitored by Proto...

The current body of literature points monoterpenes as one of the determinant factors of the interaction between forests and human health. The present study aims at analyzing the monoterpene absorption by humans during a 2 -hs forest exposure in a Mediterranean holm oak forest focusing on the four most abundant monoterpene compounds: alpha-pinene, b...

The richness of measurements obtained by Proton-Transfer Reactions Mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS) has opened a new paradigm for the quantification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). A wide range of compounds can be monitored, however, each detected signal is subject to a compound assignment instead of actual identification because PTR techniques are...

Productivity of tropical lowland moist forests is often limited by availability and functional allocation of phosphorus (P) that drives competition among tree species and becomes a key factor in determining forestall community diversity. We used non-target ³¹P-NMR metabolic profiling to study the foliar P-metabolism of trees of a French Guiana rain...

The emissions of isoprenoids, a kind of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), from soils is not well characterized. We quantified the exchange of isoprenoids between soil with litter and atmosphere along a horizontal gradient from the trunks of the trees, in a Mediterranean Pinus pinea plantation with dry and green needle litter to open herb...

Monoterpenes have been identified as potential determinants of the human health effects induced by forest exposure. The present study characterizes the total monoterpene concentrations at nose height in a Mediterranean Holm oak forest located in North-East Iberian Peninsula during the annual emission peak (summer and autumn: June to November) using...

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) play important roles at cellular, foliar, ecosystem, and atmospheric levels. The Amazonian rainforest represents one of the major global sources of BVOCs, so its study is essential for understanding BVOC dynamics. It also provides insights into the role of such large and biodiverse forest ecosystem in reg...

Tropical rainforests harbor a particularly high plant diversity. We hypothesize that potential causes underlying this high diversity should be linked to distinct overall functionality (defense and growth allocation, anti-stress mechanisms, reproduction) among the different sympatric taxa. In this study we tested the hypothesis of the existence of a...

The potential of forests as a source of health has been addressed by the scientific community and is now being considered in national forest strategies, management plans and policies. Studies identifying the mechanisms by which forest characteristics may induce these effects on human health are nevertheless scarce. This systematic review of literat...

Aerobic methanotrophs in paddies serve as methane (CH4) filters and thereby reduce CH4 emissions. Amending soil with waste products can mitigate CH4 emissions in crops, but little is known about the impacts of amendments with steel slag and biochar on the populations and activities of aerobic methanotrophs in rice cropland. We used real-time quanti...

Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research sp...

Climate change is a worldwide threat to biodiversity and ecosystem structure, functioning, and services. To understand the underlying drivers and mechanisms, and to predict the consequences for nature and people, we urgently need better understanding of the direction and magnitude of climate‐change impacts across the soil–plant–atmosphere continuum...

Soil fauna is a key control of the decomposition rate of leaf litter, yet its interactions with litter quality and the soil environment remain elusive. We conducted a litter decomposition experiment across different topographic levels within the landscape replicated in two rainforest sites providing natural gradients in soil fertility to test the h...

Biogenic volatile organic compounds play important roles in atmospheric chemistry, and their emissions can be greatly influenced by the variations in environmental conditions and physiological activities caused by continuously increasing global nitrogen (N) deposition. However, this influence is still poorly understood, especially in a natural ecos...

Soil fauna is a key control of the decomposition rate of leaf litter, yet its interactions with litter quality and the soil environment remain elusive. We conducted a litter decomposition experiment across different topographic levels within the landscape replicated in two rainforest sites providing natural gradients in soil fertility to test the h...

At high temperatures, isoprene‐emitting plants display a higher photosynthetic rate and a lower nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) compared with nonemitting plants. The mechanism of this phenomenon, which may be very important under current climate warming, is still elusive. NPQ was dissected into its components, and chlorophyll fluorescence lifetime...

Widespread population declines have been reported for diverse Mediterranean butterflies over the last three decades, and have been significantly associated with increased global change impacts. The specific landscape and climatic drivers of these declines remain uncertain for most declining species. Here, we analyse whether plastic phenotypic trait...

We tested the effect of increasing drought conditions in the Mediterranean Basin on isoprenoid emissions for the coming decades by analyzing their effect experimentally on the dominant Mediterranean species Erica multiflora in a Garraf shrubland and Quercus ilex in a Prades forest in Catalonia (Spain). Drought was simulated in Garraf using automati...

Root exudation is an important input of carbon into soils and affects plant and soil communities, but little is known about the effect of climatic factors such as drought on exudation, and its ability to recover. We studied the impact of increasing drought on root exudation and its subsequent recovery in the Mediterranean tree species Quercus ilex...

The increase in aridity, mainly by decreases in precipitation but also by higher temperatures, is likely the main threat to the diversity and survival of Mediterranean forests. Changes in land use, including the abandonment of extensive crop activities, mainly in mountains and remote areas, and the increases in human settlements and demand for more...

Climatic warming and drying are having profound impacts on terrestrial carbon cycling by altering plant physiological traits and photosynthetic processes, particularly for species in the semi-arid Mediterranean ecosystems. More effective methods of remote sensing are needed to accurately assess the physiological responses and seasonal photosyntheti...

The emission of isoprenoids (e.g. isoprene and monoterpenes) by plants plays an important defensive role against biotic and abiotic stresses. Little is known, however, about the functional traits linked to species‐specific variability in the types and rates of isoprenoids emitted and about possible co‐evolution of functional traits with isoprenoid...

β-Ocimene is a very common plant volatile released in important amounts from the leaves and flowers of many plant species. This acyclic monoterpene can play several biological functions in plants, by potentially affecting floral visitors and also by mediating defensive responses to herbivory. The ubiquity and high relative abundance of β-ocimene in...

We quantified springtime ecosystem-scale monoterpene fluxes from two similar Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis Mill.) forests, located in Israel, that differed in the amount of received precipitation: Yatir in the arid south and Birya in the northern part of Israel (291 and 755 mm annual average rainfall, respectively). In addition to the lower water a...

Climate change is increasing temperatures globally and drought in many regions. If climate change continues at its current rate, the resilience of many ecosystems will likely be exceeded, altering their structure and function. A consistent understanding of the impacts, however, remains elusive due to the difficulty of obtaining data of field studie...

Due to their antimicrobial effects and their potential role as carbon sources, plant volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions play significant roles in determining the characteristics of the microbial communities that can establish on plant surfaces. Furthermore, epiphytic microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi, can affect plant VOC emission...

Key message Warmer summer conditions result in increased terpene emissions except under severe drought, in which case they strongly decrease. Abstract Water stress results in a reduction of the metabolism of plants and in a reorganization of their use of resources geared to survival. In the Mediterranean region, periods of drought accompanied by hi...

Biogenic volatile organic compounds in soil. – The soil is a huge reservoir and source of biogenic volatile organic compounds (bVOCs), which are synthesized by underground living organisms and plant roots, or formed from decomposing litter and dead organic material. This article reviews the scarce available data on the exchange of VOCs between s...

Background The phyllospheric microbiota is assumed to play a key role in the metabolism of host plants. Its role in determining the epiphytic and internal plant metabolome, however, remains to be investigated. We analyzed the Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) profiles of the epiphytic and internal metabolomes of the leaves and flowers...

The canker-causing fungus Seiridium cardinale is the major threat to Cupressus sempervirens worldwide. We investigated the production of terpenes by canker-resistant and susceptible cypresses inoculated with S. cardinale, the effect of these terpenes on fungal growth, and the defensive biotransformation of the terpenes conducted by the fungus. All...

We investigated the hypotheses that two different varieties of Arabidopsis thaliana show differences in physiology and terpene production. The two varieties of A. thaliana used in this study were wild-type (WT) and transgenic line (CoxIV-FaNES I) genetically modified to emit nerolidol with linalool/nerolidol synthase (COX). Photosynthetic rate, ele...

In this work we analyzed the degradation of floral scent volatiles from Brassica nigra by reaction with ozone along a distance gradient and the consequences for pollinator attraction. For this purpose we used a reaction system comprising three reaction tubes in which we conducted measurements of floral volatiles using a proton‐transfer‐reaction tim...

The emerging consistency of the relationship between biochemical, optical, and odorous signals emitted by plants and ecosystems offers promising prospects for continuous local and global monitoring of the energetic status of plants and ecosystems, and therefore of their processing of energy and matter. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights rese...

Emissions of volatiles from leaves exhibit temperature dependence on maximums, but the optimum temperatures for the release of floral volatiles and the mechanism(s) of optimising these emissions have not been determined. We hypothesised that flowers have an optimum temperature for the emission of volatiles and, because the period of flowering varie...

Seiridium cardinale, the main fungal pathogen responsible for cypress bark canker, is the largest threat to cypresses worldwide. The terpene response of canker-resistant clones of Italian cypress, Cupressus sempervirens, to two differently aggressive isolates of S. cardinale was studied. Phloem terpene concentrations, foliar terpene concentrations,...

Terpenes confer advantage in plant protection against abiotic stresses such as heat and drought and biotic stresses such as herbivore and pathogen attack. We conducted a screening of leaf mono-and sesquiterpene concentrations in 75 common woody plant species in the rainforest of Danum Valley (Borneo). Terpene compounds were found in 73 out of the 7...

The emission of floral terpenes plays a key role in pollination in many plant species. We hypothesized that the floral phyllospheric microbiota could significantly influence these floral terpene emissions because microorganisms also produce and emit terpenes. We tested this hypothesis by analyzing the effect of removing the microbiota from flowers....

Aim Mediterranean terrestrial ecosystems serve as reference laboratories for the investigation of global change because of their transitional climate, the high spatiotemporal variability of their environmental conditions, a rich and unique biodiversity and a wide range of socio‐economic conditions. As scientific development and environmental pressu...

Landscape-scale fluxes of biogenic gases were surveyed by deploying a 100 m Teflon tube attached to a tethered balloon as a sampling inlet for a fast-response proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer (PTRMS). Along with meteorological instruments deployed on the tethered balloon and a 3 m tripod and outputs from a regional weather model, these ob...

We addressed the potential effects of changes in ambient temperature on the profiles of volatile emissions from flowers and tested whether warming could induce significant quantitative and qualitative changes in floral emissions, which would potentially interfere with plant-pollinator chemical communication. We measured the temperature responses of...

Climate change projections forecast a warming and an associated change in the distribution and intensity of rainfalls. In the case of the Mediterranean area, this will be reflected in more frequent and severe drought periods in the future. Within a long-term (9 years) manipulation experiment, we aimed to study the effect of the soil drought project...

We have conducted a screening study of leaf terpene emissions for 43 rainforest woody species of Borneo. To the best of our knowledge, this study reports for first time the terpene emission capacity of 43 species belonging to 22 genera of rainforest woody plant species. We have used a general lineal model with phylogenetic control by the phylogenet...

We present a unifying model for isoprene emission by photosynthesizing leaves based on the hypothesis that isoprene biosynthesis depends on a balance between the supply of photosynthetic reducing power and the demands of carbon fixation. We compared the predictions from our model, as well as from two other widely used models, with measurements of i...

To survey landscape-scale fluxes of biogenic gases, a 100 m Teflon tube was attached to a tethered balloon as a sampling inlet for a fast response Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometer (PTRMS). Along with meteorological instruments deployed on the tethered balloon and at 3 m and outputs from a regional weather model, these observations were us...

The availability of carbon from rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and of nitrogen from various human-induced inputs to ecosystems is continuously increasing; however, these increases are not paralleled by a similar increase in phosphorus inputs. The inexorable change in the stoichiometry of carbon and nitrogen relative to phosphorus has no e...

Plant-pollinator systems may be considered as biological markets in which pollinators choose between different flowers that advertise their nectar/pollen rewards. Although expected to play a major role in structuring plant-pollinator interactions, community-wide patterns of flower scent signals remain largely unexplored. Here we show for the first...

Terrestrial plants re-emit around 1-2% of the carbon they fix as isoprene and monoterpenes. These emissions have major roles in the ecological relationships among living organisms and in atmospheric chemistry and climate, and yet their actual quantification at the ecosystem level in different regions is far from being resolved with available models...

Mediterranean pine forests are often attacked by caterpillars of Thaumetopoea pityocampa (Lep., Thaumetopoidae), one of the most important defoliators in the Mediterranean region causing large economic losses and ecological effects. The needle terpene concentrations and emissions may play a key role in the defense of pines. We studied two subspecie...

Background: Few studies have investigated the chemical, morphological and physiological foliar traits and the intensity of standing folivory in a representative set of species of tropical rainforests including species of different successional stages. Aims: (i) To quantify leaf elemental composition, leaf phenolics and tannin concentrations, physic...

•We present a multidisciplinary biosphere-atmosphere field campaign.•We measured a gradient from semi-desertic shrublands to wet temperate forests.•A wide range of instruments and vertical platforms were used.•Land cover strongly influenced emissions of BVOCs and gas, energy and water exchange.•Vegetation has strong potential for feed-back to atmos...

Atmospheric volatile organic compounds (VOCs) have key environmental and biological roles, but little is known about the daily VOC mixing ratios in Mediterranean urban and natural environments. We measured VOC mixing ratios concurrently at an urban and a rural site during the winter DAURE campaign in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula, by means of...