Le « masting » correspond à une dynamique de fructifications, commune chez de nombreuses plantes pérennes, et caractérisée par une production de fruits extrêmement fluctuante d’une année à l’autre et synchronisée à l’échelle populationnelle. Il a un impact important sur la démographie des populations de consommateurs de fruits, et par effet de cascade, sur l’ensemble de la dynamique des écosystèmes forestiers. Notre méconnaissance actuelle des causes proximales du « masting » empêche toute prédiction crédible sur la fréquence et l'intensité des fructifications, et sur leurs conséquences au niveau des écosystèmes forestiers, dans le contexte du changement climatique. Cette thèse vise à tester l’hypothèse selon laquelle le processus de pollinisation pourrait jouer un rôle clé dans le « masting » des chênes de région tempérée (Quercus petraea et Q. robur), ce qui pourrait le rendre extrêmement sensible au changement climatique. En combinant une approche empirique multi-sites à large échelle spatio-temporelle en France et une approche théorique basée sur l’utilisation d’un modèle mécaniste, j’ai montré que (i) la dynamique des fructifications est liée à la disponibilité en pollen pour la reproduction. Le pollen peut être limitant certaines années en raison d’une faible quantité de pollen produite ou de conditions météorologiques défavorables à l’émission et à la diffusion du pollen ; (ii) la phénologie pollinique est un caractère clé du « masting » : l’émission pollinique a lieu au début du printemps, dans des conditions météorologiques souvent défavorables à la pollinisation, ce qui conduit à de fréquents échecs de la fructification et explique le caractère rare et imprévisible des fructifications massives ; (iii) le « masting » deviendrait moins stochastique avec l’augmentation des températures printanières au cours des prochaines décennies, ce qui pourrait avoir des conséquences importantes sur la dynamique des consommateurs de fruits, et par effet de cascade, sur la capacité de régénération des chênaies / “Masting” designates a fruiting dynamics common in many perennial plants and characterized by seed production that is highly variable over the years and strongly synchronized among trees within populations. It is expected to strongly impact the population demography of seed consumers, and by cascade effect, the dynamics of forest ecosystems as a whole. Our lack of knowledge of the proximate causes of “masting” currently prevents any reliable prediction about the frequency and the intensity of fruiting, or about their consequences, under climate change. In this work I aimed to test the hypothesis that the pollination process is playing a key role in “masting” in temperate oak forests (Quercus petraea and Q. robur), which would make masting highly sensitive to climate change. By combining an empirical multi-site approach at large spatio-temporal scale in France and a theoretical approach based on a mechanistic model, I found that (i) fruiting dynamics depends on the annual amount of airborne pollen available for reproduction. This amount could be limited some years due to either low amounts of pollen produced at the population level, or harsh weather conditions affecting pollen release and aerial diffusion; (ii) pollen phenology is a key character of “masting”: pollen release takes place in early spring when weather conditions are typically unfavorable to pollination, which leads to frequent fruiting failure and explains thereby why mast years are rare and unpredictable; (iii) “masting” should become less stochastic in the upcoming decades because of the increase of spring temperatures, which should markedly influence the dynamics of seed consumers, and by cascading effect, oak forest regeneration

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Skyddsvärda träd, speciellt ekar (Quercus spp.), är betydelsefulla både ur ett kulturellt och biologiskt perspektiv. Flera rödlistade arter som finns i Sverige är kopplade till gamla, grova ekar och tyvärr är detta ett habitat som har minskat i Sverige. Fragmentering av ekhabitat har påverkat den biologiska mångfalden hos ek-habitaten negativt. Förändrad markanvändning är en faktor som haft stor betydelse för ekbeståndens förekomst och åldersstruktur. Studier visar att beteshävd främjar utvecklingen av större ekar genom att hålla borta omgivande träd som annars skuggar ekarna. I den här studien har förekomsten av värdefulla ekar i Kalmar kommun återinventerats efter 10-20år. Syftet är att undersöka omsättningen av ekar, och vilka faktorer som påverkar rekryteringen av värdefulla ekar. Värdefulla ekar avser här stora träd med en diameter på minst 1 meter, och deras efterträdare, med en diameter på ³80 cm i brösthöjd. Resultatet visar en nettotillökningen av värdefulla ekar i Kalmar kommun under tidsperioden mellan inventeringarna. Sammanlagt påträffades 133 nya ekar. Av de totalt 222 ekar som noterats i den föregående inventeringen återfanns 215. Av de återfunna hade 24 ekar dött under perioden mellan inventeringarna. En analys av sambandet mellan ljuskonkurrens, mätt som krontäckning, och antalet döda träd visar att dödligheten av ekar ökade med en ökande täckningsgrad i trädskiktet, vilket stödjer att eken är en skuggkänslig art. Dock var ekarnas tillväxt, mätt som ökning av omkretsen, inte störst i de lägsta täckningsgraderna, vilket innebär att fler faktorer har betydelse för trädens tillväxtframgång. / Protected trees, especially oak trees (Quercus spp.), are important from a cultural and biological perspective. Several red listed species found in Sweden are linked to old oaks and unfortunately this is a habitat that has decreased in Sweden. Fragmentation of oak habitat has adversely affected the biodiversity of oak habitat. Changed land use is a factor that has had a major impact on the occurrence and age structure of oak stocks. Studies show that grazing promotes the development of larger oaks by keeping away surrounding trees that might otherwise shade the oaks. In this study, the occurrence of valuable oaks in Kalmar municipality was re-invented after 10-20 years. The purpose is to investigate the turnover of oaks, and what factors affect the recruitment of valuable oaks. Valuable oaks here refer to large trees with a diameter of at least 1 meter, and their successors, with a diameter of ³80 cm in chest height. The result shows a net increase in valuable oaks in the municipality of Kalmar during the time period between the inventories. A total of 133 new oaks were found. Of the total 222 oaks recorded in the previous inventory, 215 were found. Of the recovered, 24 oaks had died during the period between the inventories. An analysis of the relationship between light competition, measured as crown coverage, and the number of dead trees shows that the mortality of oaks increased with an increasing degree of coverage in the tree layer, which supports that the oak is a shade-sensitive species. However, the growth of the oaks, measured as an increase in the perimeter, was not greatest in the lowest coverage ratios, which means that several factors have a bearing on the tree's growth success.

Biological invasions are one of the most important threats to global biodiversity and they were also found to negatively affect some bird species. Despite relatively large number of scientific studies dealing with the impacts of invasive plants on bird communities, their results are inconsistent, especially it is not clear how birds respond to increasing levels of expansion of invasive species in native species stands. Moreover, bird responses to plant invasions seem to depend on the ecological characteristics of individual bird species. This study contributes to elucidation of this problem; I investigated the impacts of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) invasion on bird communities in three types of forest stands with different levels of invasion: in stands containing solely the native oak (Quercus spp.), in partially invaded stands with different proportions of black locust and oak (mixed stands) and in pure black locust stands. Previous studies that examined birds in pure oak and pure black locust stands have found that they differ markedly in vegetation structure, but not in the total number of bird species. However, habitat specialists were associated with the oak stands, while generalists with the black locust stands. Therefore, I predicted that (1) the total species richness will be...

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal