Patterns of ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) colonization in mountain grasslands: the importance of management practices

International audienceWoody colonization of grasslands is often associated with changes in abiotic or biotic conditions or a combination of both. Widely used as fodder and litter in the past traditional agro-pastoral system, ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.) has now become a colonizing species of mountain grasslands in the French Pyrenees. Its present distribution is dependent on past human activities and it is locally controlled by propagule pressure and abiotic conditions. However, even when all favourable conditions are met, all the potentially colonizable grasslands are not invaded. We hypothesize that management practices should play a crucial role in the control of ash colonization. From empirical field surveys we have compared the botanical composition of a set of grasslands (present and former) differing in management practices and level of ash colonization. We have displayed a kind of successional gradient positively linked to both ash cover and height but not to the age of trees. We have tested the relationships between ash presence in grassland and management types i.e. cutting and/or grazing, management intensity and some grassland communities' features i.e. total and local specific richness and species heterogeneity. Mixed use (cutting and grazing) is negatively linked to ash presence in grassland whereas grazing alone positively. Mixed use and high grazing intensity are directly preventing ash seedlings establishment, when low grazing intensity is allowing ash seedlings establishment indirectly through herbaceous vegetation neglected by livestock. Our results show the existence of a limit between grasslands with and without established ashes corresponding to a threshold in the intensity of use. Under this threshold, when ash is established, the colonization process seems to become irreversible. Ash possesses the ability of compensatory growth and therefore under a high grazing intensity develops a subterranean vegetative reproduction. However the question remains at which stage of seedling development and grazing intensity these strategies could occur

Introductions de macrophytes aquatiques et riverains dans les hydrosystèmes français métropolitains : essai de bilan

Introductions of aquatic and riparian macrophytes into Continental France are difficult to evaluate because agents are numerous and the outcome of thes e introductions is highly variable. Nevertheless, a preliminary evaluation is presented here for aquatic species. All categories of hydrosystems and most biological types of macrophytes, from algae to trees, are potentially concerned by such introductions. The ecological processes that are responsible for large proliferations of introduced macrophytes are discussed in connection with the biological characteristics of the species and the ecological features of the receiving ecosystems. The lack of administrative rules adapted to these environmental risks is obvious. It concurs to a deficiency in general ecosystem investigation and to our limited means of checking proliferation, thus making management highly uncertain. / Les introductions de macrophytes aquatiques et riverains sur le territoire métropolitain restent difficiles à évaluer, dans la mesure où les agents d'introduction sont multiples. Le devenir de ces introductions reste extrêmement variable. Un premier bilan est néanmoins présenté pour les espèces aquatiques. Tous les types de milieux aquatiques sont concernés. La plupart des types biologiques végétaux, des algues aux arbres, sont susceptibles d'être introduits. Les facteurs potentiellement responsables lors d'expansions importantes de macrophytes sont discutés en regard de leurs caractéristiques biologiques et des hydrosystèmes récepteurs. L'absence de réglementation adaptée aux risques environnementaux encourus est patente. Elle s'ajoute à un manque d'analyse globale des systèmes, à la méconnaissance et à l'imperfection des moyens adéquats permettant de limiter les risques environnementaux induits par ces introductions