• Refine Query
  • Source
  • Publication year
  • to
  • Language
  • 10
  • 3
  • 2
  • 2
  • 1
  • Tagged with
  • 19
  • 19
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 3
  • 3
  • 3
  • 3
  • 3
  • 3
  • 3
  • 2
  • 2
  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
11

Quantification des flux d’azote induits par les cultures de légumineuses et étude de leurs déterminants : comparaison de 10 espèces de légumineuses à graines / Quantification of nitrogen fluxes induced by legume crops and assessment of their determinants : comparison of ten grain legumes species

Guinet, Maé 19 March 2019 (has links)
Dans le contexte de la transition agroécologique en faveur de systèmes de culture plus économes en intrants azotés, la réintroduction des légumineuses a un rôle majeur à jouer pour atteindre la durabilité de ces systèmes. Peu de références sont actuellement disponibles sur les intérêts agronomiques et écologiques des différentes espèces, notamment à l’échelle de la rotation. Dans ce cadre, notre objectif principal consiste à mieux quantifier les flux d’azote impliqués au cours et après culture de légumineuses, et ce pour une gamme élargie d’espèces. Notre travail expérimental porte donc sur la caractérisation des flux d’azote induits dans le sol et dans les cultures de légumineuses aux caractéristiques morphologiques contrastées en parallèle de la mesure des déterminants de ces flux. Les objectifs spécifiques consistent à : i) quantifier la fixation symbiotique en fonction du niveau du stock d’azote minéral du sol, la minéralisation de l’azote des résidus de légumineuses après enfouissement et les pertes d’azote en dehors du système sol-plante (lixiviation, émission de protoxyde d’azote), ii) identifier les « traits de plantes » explicatifs des fonctions liées à ces flux d’azote. Pour atteindre ces objectifs, les différents flux d’azote ont été quantifiés au cours d’une expérimentation au champ avec implantation d’une culture de légumineuses en première année suivie par une culture de blé en année 2 qui a été menée en 2014-2015 et reconduite sur la campagne 2016-2017. En parallèle, les traits des plantes, notamment racinaires, ont été caractérisés plus finement au cours d’expérimentations conduites en conditions contrôlées / In the context of agroecological transition, the reintroduction of legume crops should play a key role in cropping system sustainability by allowing a reduction of nitrogen (N) inputs. But few references are available concerning the agronomical and ecological services provided by a wide range of legume crops, particularly within crops succession scale. Thus, the main objective of our study is to quantify the N fluxes during and after the legume crops taking into account 10 legume crops (peas, lupin, faba bean, soybean...). Our experiment consists in i) quantifying symbiotic N fixation depending on the amount of soil inorganic N, the mineralisation of N present in legume crop residues after soil incorporation and N losses outside of the soil-plant system (leaching, emission of nitrous oxide), ii) identifying plant biological traits associated to N fluxes. Thus, different N fluxes were quantified during a two-year field experiment, i.e. the first year (2014) legume crops were implanted and followed by wheat the second year (14-15) after incorportation of legume residues. This experiment was repeated in 2016-2017.In parallel, plant root traits were characterised during greenhouse hydroponic experiments
12

Efeitos diretos e indiretos de características de plantas sobre a similaridade na composição de insetos herbívoros e parasitoides associados à Asteraceae / Direct and indirect effects of plant characteristics on the herbivores and parasitoids compositional similarities associated with Asteraceae

Alvarenga, Vinícius Silva de 15 March 2018 (has links)
Submitted by Franciele Moreira (francielemoreyra@gmail.com) on 2018-04-12T12:45:11Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Vinícius Silva de Alvarenga - 2018.pdf: 1904835 bytes, checksum: bbe0e840d010a67f148c91a849dbbf10 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-04-13T11:08:09Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Vinícius Silva de Alvarenga - 2018.pdf: 1904835 bytes, checksum: bbe0e840d010a67f148c91a849dbbf10 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-04-13T11:08:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Vinícius Silva de Alvarenga - 2018.pdf: 1904835 bytes, checksum: bbe0e840d010a67f148c91a849dbbf10 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-03-15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Understanding how interactions between trophic levels structure species composition is one of the main goals of ecological studies. Mechanisms that explain the compositional structure of parasitoid insects usually neglect the direct and indirect effects of plants’ characteristics, which can also determine the compositional structure of their host herbivore insects. In this context, our goal was to evaluate how plants’ characteristics (abundance, floral phenology, and phylogenetic distance) and herbivores’ compositional similarity determine parasitoids’ compositional similarity. As study system, we used Asteraceae species, flower-head feeding insects, and parasitoids. Using path analysis, we considered parasitoids and herbivores’ similarities, in qualitative (Sørensen similarity), quantitative (Bray-Curtis similarity), and phylogenetic proximity (taxonomic Sørensen similarity) terms. In general, we demonstrated that herbivores’ similarity is the major predictor of parasitoids’ similarity. Even though the effects of plants’ characteristics explained the smallest part of the variation in parasitoids’ similarity, these characteristics had inconsistent relative importance among the similarity indexes used here. Thus, our results indicate that although plant species constitute a potential additional barrier for the parasitoids of endophagous herbivores to find their insect hosts, herbivore parasitoids in flower heads of Asteraceae do not see the plant species in this way. The parasitoids respond mainly to the compositional variation of their insect hosts in the plant species that the latter consume. Therefore, we show how the composition of the upper trophic levels in this tri-trophic system is structured directly and indirectly by antagonistic interactions. / Entender quais fatores influenciam a variação na composição de espécies em sistemas multitróficos é um objetivo fundamental em ecologia. Entretanto, estudos sobre a composição local de insetos parasitoides geralmente negligenciam a importância relativa das características de plantas consumidas por seus insetos herbívoros hospedeiros. Neste contexto, nosso objetivo foi avaliar os efeitos diretos e indiretos, mediados pela similaridade de herbívoros, da distância filogenética, da sincronia do período de floração e da similaridade de abundância das plantas sobre a similaridade de parasitoides. Como sistema de estudo, usamos espécies de Asteraceae, herbívoros endófagos de capítulos e insetos parasitoides. Usando análises de rotas, consideramos as similaridades de herbívoros e parasitoides entre pares de espécies de plantas em termos qualitativos (similaridade de Sørensen), quantitativos (similaridade de Bray-Curtis) e filogenéticos (similaridade de Sørensen taxonômica). Em geral, demonstramos que a similaridade de herbívoros é o principal determinante da similaridade de parasitoides. Mesmo que as características das plantas tenham explicado a menor parte da variação na similaridade de parasitoides, essas características tiveram importâncias relativas inconsistentes entre os índices de similaridade usados. Dessa forma, nossos resultados indicam que, apesar das espécies de plantas constituírem uma barreira adicional potencial para os parasitoides de herbívoros endófagos encontrarem os seus hospedeiros, os parasitoides de herbívoros em capítulos de Asteraceae não as enxergam dessa forma. Estes parasitoides respondem principalmente à variação composicional dos seus hospedeiros nas plantas que estes últimos consumem. Logo, demonstramos como as composições dos níveis tróficos superiores nesse sistema tri-trófico é estruturado diretamente e indiretamente por interações antagônicas.
13

Interactions between habitat fragmentation and invasions: factors driving exotic plant invasions in native forest remnants, West Coast, New Zealand.

Hutchison, Melissa Alice Sarah January 2009 (has links)
Habitat fragmentation and biological invasions are widely considered to be the most significant threats to global biodiversity, and synergistic interactions between these processes have the potential to cause even greater biodiversity loss than either acting alone. The objective of my study was to investigate the effects of fragmentation on plant communities in native forest fragments, and to examine potential interactions between these effects and invasions by exotic plants at multiple spatial scales. I examined edge, area and landscape effects on plant invasions using empirical data from fragmented landscapes on the West Coast of New Zealand. My research revealed significant interactions between the amount of native forest cover in the landscape and the strength of edge and area effects on plant communities in forest fragments. The dominance of exotic plants in the community was highest at forest edges and decreased towards fragment interiors, however the interiors of very small fragments were relatively more invaded by exotic plants than those in larger fragments, reflecting a significant interaction between edge and area effects. Similarly, exotic dominance increased in more heavily deforested landscapes, but this effect was only apparent in very small fragments (<2 ha). The combined effects of small fragment size and low forest cover in the landscape appear to have promoted invasions of exotic plants in very small remnants. I explored the mechanisms underlying edge-mediated invasions in forest fragments and examined whether propagule availability and/or habitat suitability may be limiting invasions into fragments. Experimental addition of exotic plant propagules revealed that landscape forest cover interacted with edge effects on germination, growth and flowering rates of two short-lived, herbaceous species, and this appeared to be driven by elevated light and soil phosphorus levels at edges in heavily deforested landscapes. I also examined the role of traits in influencing plant responses to forest fragmentation. Different traits were associated with exotic invasiveness in edge and interior habitats of forest fragments, indicating that the traits promoting invasiveness were context dependent. Traits also had a major influence on responses of native plants to forest fragmentation, with generalist species appearing to benefit from fragmentation, as they can utilise both forest and open habitats, whereas native forest specialists have been negatively impacted by fragmentation.
14

Interactions between habitat fragmentation and invasions: factors driving exotic plant invasions in native forest remnants, West Coast, New Zealand.

Hutchison, Melissa Alice Sarah January 2009 (has links)
Habitat fragmentation and biological invasions are widely considered to be the most significant threats to global biodiversity, and synergistic interactions between these processes have the potential to cause even greater biodiversity loss than either acting alone. The objective of my study was to investigate the effects of fragmentation on plant communities in native forest fragments, and to examine potential interactions between these effects and invasions by exotic plants at multiple spatial scales. I examined edge, area and landscape effects on plant invasions using empirical data from fragmented landscapes on the West Coast of New Zealand. My research revealed significant interactions between the amount of native forest cover in the landscape and the strength of edge and area effects on plant communities in forest fragments. The dominance of exotic plants in the community was highest at forest edges and decreased towards fragment interiors, however the interiors of very small fragments were relatively more invaded by exotic plants than those in larger fragments, reflecting a significant interaction between edge and area effects. Similarly, exotic dominance increased in more heavily deforested landscapes, but this effect was only apparent in very small fragments (<2 ha). The combined effects of small fragment size and low forest cover in the landscape appear to have promoted invasions of exotic plants in very small remnants. I explored the mechanisms underlying edge-mediated invasions in forest fragments and examined whether propagule availability and/or habitat suitability may be limiting invasions into fragments. Experimental addition of exotic plant propagules revealed that landscape forest cover interacted with edge effects on germination, growth and flowering rates of two short-lived, herbaceous species, and this appeared to be driven by elevated light and soil phosphorus levels at edges in heavily deforested landscapes. I also examined the role of traits in influencing plant responses to forest fragmentation. Different traits were associated with exotic invasiveness in edge and interior habitats of forest fragments, indicating that the traits promoting invasiveness were context dependent. Traits also had a major influence on responses of native plants to forest fragmentation, with generalist species appearing to benefit from fragmentation, as they can utilise both forest and open habitats, whereas native forest specialists have been negatively impacted by fragmentation.
15

Restoration of plant diversity and ecosystem functioning: effects of species richness, phylogenetic distance, functional diversity and invasive plants

Pinto, Leonardo Henrique Teixeira 24 May 2017 (has links)
Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2017-09-19T21:47:36Z No. of bitstreams: 1 LeonardoHenriqueTeixeiraPinto_TESE.pdf: 6347370 bytes, checksum: 7e4c7fd1b6d9c592bdf652c6591c248c (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-09-22T19:20:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 LeonardoHenriqueTeixeiraPinto_TESE.pdf: 6347370 bytes, checksum: 7e4c7fd1b6d9c592bdf652c6591c248c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-22T19:20:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LeonardoHenriqueTeixeiraPinto_TESE.pdf: 6347370 bytes, checksum: 7e4c7fd1b6d9c592bdf652c6591c248c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-24 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior (CAPES) / A biodiversidade afeta positivamente diversas fun??es ecossist?micas. No entanto, os mecanismos pelos quais a biodiversidade afeta os ecossistemas ainda s?o pouco compreendidos e requerem novos estudos experimentais destinados a identificar seus componentes. Estudos anteriores sugeriram que comunidades de plantas mais diversas podem proporcionar mais estabilidade aos ecossistemas, devido aos efeitos de complementaridade e redund?ncia. A diversidade das esp?cies de plantas pode atuar em diferentes n?veis das propriedades de um ecossistema. Um exemplo claro ? o efeito da diversidade de plantas sobre a din?mica de nutrientes nos ecossistemas terrestres. A diversidade de plants pode alterar as taxas de ac?mulo de nutrientes no solo e, tamb?m, a carga de nutrientes para os sistemas aqu?ticos. No entanto, os impactos antr?picos nos ecossistemas t?m causado a perda de habitats e, tamb?m, de biodiversidade. Tais perdas acabar?o por comprometer as fun??es dos ecossistemas e seus servi?os associados, que s?o vitais para o bem-estar humano. Portanto, o desenvolvimento de projetos de restaura??o ? fundamental para mitigar os impactos antr?picos e para a conserva??o da biodiversidade. Projetos de restaura??o oferecem a possibilidade de desenvolver um conhecimento s?lido sobre o funcionamento dos ecossistemas diante diferentes tipos de perturba??es. Para alcan?ar esse conhecimento, precisamos realizar experimentos de restaura??o baseados no conhecimento cient?fico para avaliar a variabilidade, a previsibilidade e a confiabilidade do funcionamento dos ecossistemas restaurados. Neste contexto, esta tese de doutorado ? baseada em tr?s experimentos que testaram como a diversidade de plantas e suas caracter?sticas funcionais poderiam influenciar o funcionamento dos ecossistemas restaurados. Os objetivos dessa tese foram: (i) investigar quais esp?cies de plantas e caracter?sticas funcionais s?o mais eficientes paraa reten??o de nutrientes no solo, reduzindo assim as perdas por lixivia??o e seu consequente impacto nos ecossistemas aqu?ticos; (ii) testar os efeitos da riqueza de esp?cies vegetais e da diversidade filogen?tica para o sucesso da restaura??o de uma floresta rip?ria rec?m restaurada (i.e. o sucesso foi medido como produ??o de biomassa e sobreviv?ncia das plantas); e (iii) avaliar a influ?ncia de uma esp?cie de planta invasora sobre as din?micas de nutrientes no solo e na ?gua do solo em comunidades de pastagem com diferentes n?veis de diversidade funcional. Os experimentos realizados para esta tese est?o de acordo com estudos recentes que investigam como diferentes medidas de biodiversidade e, tamb?m, diferentes fontes de estresse podem afetar o funcionamento dos ecossistemas. Os principais resultados desta tese revelam que (i) apenas uma esp?cie de planta (Mimosa tenuiflora) influenciou a limpeza da ?gua e a reten??o de nutrientes do solo. Al?m disso, tra?os funcionais relacionados ao conte?do de mat?ria seca da parte a?rea (SDMC) e ao teor de ?gua da raiz (RWC) foram mais importantes para o controle de fun??es ecossist?micas individuais relacionadas ? reten??o de ?gua e nutrientes no solo. De outro modo, somente tra?os funcionais relacionados ? produ??o de biomassa nas plantas afetaram a multifuncionalidade do ecossistema; (ii) o uso de esp?cies filogeneticamente distantes pode aumentar o sucesso da restaura??o afetando positivamente a produ??o de biomassa nas plantas; e (iii) a diversidade funcional das plantas promoveu, parcialmente, a limpeza da ?gua e, tamb?m, a fertilidade do solo em pastagens restaurados, mas n?o impediu a invas?o. Esp?cies invasoras, por sua vez, comprometem a influ?ncia da diversidade de plantas nativas na din?mica de nutrientes no solo, uma vez que afetam negativamente a produ??o de biomassa das plantas nativas. Esse efeito tem o potencial para criar um feedback positivo para novas invas?es. Tais resultados podem servir de suporte para o desenvolvimento de futuros projetos de restaura??o com ?nfase no controle de esp?cies invasoras e na restaura??o do funcionamento dos ecossistemas, uma vez que pode indicar quais esp?cies s?o mais adequadas para maximizar a fertilidade do solo e, tamb?m, a qualidade da ?gua do solo. Por fim, esta tese oferece uma contribui??o para o aprofundarmos o entendimento a respeito dos feedbacks entre plantas e solos. / Biodiversity positively affects several ecosystem functions. Nevertheless, the mechanisms by which biodiversity affects ecosystems are still poorly understood and call for new experimental studies designed to identify its underlying components. Previous studies have suggested that more diverse plant communities can provide more ecosystem stability due to complementarity and redundancy effects. Plant species diversity can act on different levels of the ecosystem properties. A clear example is the effect of plant diversity on nutrient dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems. Plant diversity can alter rates of soil nutrient accumulation and nutrient loading in aquatic systems. However, human impacts on natural ecosystems are leading to habitat and biodiversity loss. Such losses will ultimately jeopardize ecosystem functions and its associated services that are vital for human well-being. Therefore, the development of adequate restoration projects is paramount to mitigate anthropogenic impacts, while contributing to the conservation of biodiversity. Restoration projects offer the possibility to develop a solid knowledge on the functioning of ecosystems facing disturbance. For achieving this knowledge, we need to conduct theory-based restoration experiments in order to assess the variability, predictability and reliability of functioning from restored ecosystems. In this context, this PhD thesis is based on three experiments testing how plant diversity and functional traits would influence the functioning of restored ecosystems. The objectives are to investigate (i) the plant species and traits that are most efficient for retaining nutrients in the soil, thus reducing nutrient leaching losses and its consequent impact on aquatic systems; (ii) the effects of plant species richness and phylogenetic diversity on restoration success (measured as biomass production and plant survival) in a recently restored riparian forest; and (iii) the influence of an invasive alien plant species on soil and soil water nutrients in communities with different levels of functional diversity. The experiments conducted during this thesis are in accordance with recent studies that investigate how different measures of biodiversity and sources of stress could affect ecosystem functioning. The main results of this thesis reveal that (i) only one species (Mimosa tenuiflora) could influence water cleaning and soil nutrient content. Additionally, plant traits related to shoot dry matter content (SDMC) and root water content (RWC) are more important for controlling individual functions related to water and nutrient retention in the soil, while only traits related to biomass production affected ecosystem multifunctionality; (ii) the use of phylogenetically distant species can increase restoration success by positively affecting plant biomass production; and (iii) plant functional diversity partially promotes water cleaning and soil fertility in restored systems, nevertheless did not prevent invasion. In turn, invasive species disrupts the influence of plant diversity on soil nutrient dynamics by jeopardizing native plant biomass production thus, potentially, creating a positive feedback for further invasions. These results support future restoration projects focusing on invasive species control and ecosystem functions, indicating which species are most suitable for restoration to maximizing soil fertility and soil water quality. Finally, this thesis offers a contribution to the knowledge of plant-soil feedbacks.
16

Vnitrodruhová zpětná vazba mezi rostlinou a půdou jako mechanismus invazivnosti neofytů České republiky / Intraspecific plant-soil feedback as a mechanism underlying invasiveness of neophytes of the Czech Republic

Knobová, Pavlína January 2017 (has links)
Intraspecific plant-soil feedback is a relationship in which plant affects the composition of the soil and such modified soil affects growth of the same plant species. This relationship and its intensity may be linked with plant dominance and invasiveness. Dominant species can alter the composition of the soil in their favor and thus show positive intraspecific plant-soil feedback. As the invasive species are commonly being dominant in their new environment, it can be expected that intraspecific positive plant-soil feedback could be an important factor allowing the invasive species to achieve their dominant position and become invasive. To test if the existence of positive intraspecific feedback could be a general mechanism underlying plant invasiveness I compared intraspecific plant-soil feedback in a group of invasive and introduced, but non-invasive, plants in the Czech Republic. I did this using a preselected set of 34 species - 17 invasive and 17 non-invasive. For realization of the project I used the method of two-phase experiment. The first phase is called soil conditioning - influencing of soil by the plant. In the second phase the same plant species are planted in conditioned soil from the first phase and in control (unconditioned) soil. Then I compared plant biomass from conditioned and...
17

Lianenverjüngung in Primär- und Sekundärwäldern Zentralamazoniens / Liana regeneration in secondary and primary forests of Central Amazonia

Roeder, Mareike 18 May 2010 (has links)
No description available.
18

Remote Sensing Tools for Monitoring Grassland Plant Leaf Traits and Biodiversity

Imran, Hafiz Ali 03 February 2022 (has links)
Grasslands are one of the most important ecosystems on Earth, covering approximately one-third of the Earth’s surface. Grassland biodiversity is important as many services provided by such ecosystems are crucial for the human economy and well-being. Given the importance of grasslands ecosystems, in recent years research has been carried out on the potential to monitor them with novel remote sensing techniques. Improved detectors technology and novel sensors providing fine-scale hyperspectral imagery have been enabling new methods to monitor plant traits (PTs) and biodiversity. The aims of the work were to study different approaches to monitor key grassland PTs such as Leaf Area Index (LAI) and biodiversity-related traits. The thesis consists of 3 parts: 1) Evaluating the performance of remote sensing methods to estimate LAI in grassland ecosystems, 2) Estimating plant biodiversity by using the optical diversity approach in grassland ecosystems, and 3) Investigating the relationship between PTs variability with alpha and beta diversity for the applicability of the optical diversity approach in a subalpine grassland of the Italian Alps To evaluate the performance of remote sensing methods to estimate LAI, temporal and spatial observations of hyperspectral reflectance and LAI were analyzed at a grassland site in Monte Bondone, Italy (IT-MBo). In 2018, ground temporal observations of hyperspectral reflectance and LAI were carried out at a grassland site in Neustift, Austria (AT-NEU). To estimate biodiversity, in 2018 and 2019 a floristics survey was conducted to determine species composition and hyperspectral data were acquired at two grassland sites: IT-MBo and University of Padova’s Experimental Farm, Legnaro, Padua, Italy (IT-PD) respectively. Furthermore, in 2018, biochemistry analysis of the biomass samples collected from the grassland site IT-MBo was carried out to determine the foliar biochemical PTs variability. The results of the thesis demonstrated that the grassland spectral response across different spectral regions (Visible: VIS, red-edge: RE, Near-infrared: NIR) showed to be both site-specific and scale-dependent. In the first part of the thesis, the performance of spectral vegetation indices (SVIs) based on visible, red-edge (RE), and NIR bands alongside SVIs solely based or NIR-shoulder bands (wavelengths 750 - 900 nm) was evaluated. A strong correlation (R2 &gt; 0.8) was observed between grassland LAI and both RE and NIR-shoulder SVIs on a temporal basis, but not on a spatial basis. Using the PROSAIL Radiative Transfer Model (RTM), it was demonstrated that grassland structural heterogeneity strongly affects the ability to retrieve LAI, with high uncertainties due to structural and biochemical PTs co-variation. In the second part, the applicability of the spectral variability hypothesis (SVH) was questioned and highlighted the challenges to use high-resolution hyperspectral images to estimate biodiversity in complex grassland ecosystems. It was reported that the relationship between biodiversity (Shannon, Richness, Simpson, and Evenness) and optical diversity metrics (Coefficient of variation (CV) and Standard deviation (SD)) is not consistent across plant communities. The results of the second part suggested that biodiversity in terms of species richness could be estimated by optical diversity metrics with an R2 = 0.4 at the IT-PD site where the grassland plots were artificially established and are showing a lower structure and complexity from the natural grassland plant communities. On the other hand, in the natural ecosystems at IT-MBo, it was more difficult to estimate biodiversity indices, probably due to structural and biochemical PTs co-variation. The effects of canopy non-vegetative elements (flowers and dead material), shadow pixels, and overexposed pixels on the relationship between optical diversity metrics and biodiversity indices were highlighted. In the third part, we examined the relationship between PTs variability (at both local and community scales, measured by standard deviation and by the Euclidean distances of the biochemical and biophysical PTs respectively) and taxonomic diversity (both α-diversity and β-diversity, measured by Shannon’s index and by Jaccard dissimilarity index of the species, families, and functional groups percent cover respectively) in Monte Bondone, Trentino province, Italy. The results of the study showed that the PTs variability metrics at alpha scale were not correlated with α-diversity. However, the results at the community scale (β-diversity) showed that some of the investigated biochemical and biophysical PTs variations metrics were associated with β-diversity. The SVH approach was also tested to estimate β-diversity and we found that spectral diversity calculated by spectral angular mapper (SAM) showed to be a better proxy of biodiversity in the same ecosystem where the spectral diversity failed to estimate alpha diversity, this leading to the conclusion that the link between functional and species diversity may be an indicator of the applicability of optical sampling methods to estimate biodiversity. The findings of the thesis highlighted that grassland structural heterogeneity strongly affects the ability to retrieve both LAI and biodiversity, with high uncertainties due to structural and biochemical PTs co-variation at complex grassland ecosystems. In this context, the uncertainties of satellite-based products (e.g., LAI) in monitoring grassland canopies characterized by either spatially or temporally varying structure need to be carefully taken into account. The results of the study highlighted that the poor performance of optical diversity proxies in estimating biodiversity in structurally heterogeneous grasslands might be due to the complex relationships between functional diversity and biodiversity, rather than the impossibility to detect functional diversity with spectral proxies.
19

Pression d'herbivorie et dynamique des communautés végétales : influence à court et moyen termes des populations de cervidés sur la diversité des communautés végétales en forêt / Herbivory pressure and vegetation community dynamics : short- and mid-term impacts of deer populations on the diversity of forest vegetation communities

Boulanger, Vincent 27 April 2010 (has links)
Les cervidés, animaux mobiles et herbivores, peuvent influencer les distributions, assemblages et dynamiques d'espèces végétales. L'objectif de cette thèse est d'évaluer le rôle joué par les cervidés sur la composition, stratification et dynamique de la végétation forestière. Le ré-échantillonnage de relevés couplant composition et abroutissement de la flore, implantés en 1976 en Forêt d'Arc-en-Barrois (52) a permis d'identifier (i) des espèces ligneuses préférées (Cornus sp., Rosa arvensis) ou au contraire évitées par les cervidés qui sélectionnent les espèces arbustives et à bois dense et (ii) le niveau trophique et la pression d'abroutissement comme gradients structurant la végétation et déterminant les dynamiques des espèces et des communautés. Nous analysons plus précisément le rôle des cervidés dans la progression spectaculaire de Cynoglossum germanicum, espèce rare, épizoochore et toxique.A partir d'un réseau national d'enclos/exclos suivis sur 10 ans, nous montrons que les cervidés limitent la croissance des arbustes et des espèces compétitrices, ce qui profite à la richesse spécifique de la strate herbacée. La valeur écologique et patrimoniale des espèces en progression est discutée. A l'aide de données de chasse, nous tentons d'isoler les rôles des différentes espèces d'ongulés dans ces dynamiques.Ces résultats exposent la complexité et la diversité des effets des cervidés sur la végétation forestière. Enfin, ce travail met l'accent sur la nécessité des suivis temporels intégrant toutes les composantes de l'écosystème forestier pour mieux appréhender les changements en cours. / This thesis aims at assessing the impacts of deer on forest vegetation composition, stratification and dynamics.We resampled a network of relevés coupling vegetation and browsing surveys, settled in 1976 in the national forest of Arc-en-Barrois. We identified (i) ligneous species that are either preferred (Cornus sp., Rosa arvensis) or avoided by deer, which tend to select shrubs species with dense wood and (ii) trophic level and browsing pressure as gradients that determine plant communities structures and dynamics. Then, we highlight the roles of deer in the spectacular expansion of Cynoglossum germanicum, a rare, epizoochorous and toxic species. According to a national network of exclosures, monitored for over 10 years, we show that deer limit shrubs and competing species growth, which in turn benefits to the herbaceous species richness probably through an increased light availability. Ecological and patrimonial value of the benefitting species is discussed. Using hunting statistics, we try to isolate the role of the various ungulate species in these dynamics.These results provide evidence for the diversity and complexity of deer impacts on forest vegetation. Finally, we demonstrate the need for long term monitoring programs, including all the forest ecosystem components so that we could better appreciate the forces driving the current changes

Page generated in 0.0742 seconds