Restoring soil functionality in degraded areas of organic vineyards - Preliminary results of the ReSolVe project in the French vineyards

Degraded soil areas in vineyards are associated with problems in vine health, grape production and quality. Different causes for soil degradation are possible such as poor organic matter content, lower plant nutrient availability, pH, water deficiency, soil compaction / lower oxygenation… The aim of this preliminary study is to assess soil functionality (OM decomposition), biodiversity through mesofauna diversity and consequences for vine growth and quality

Larvae of Alaus myops, A. oculatus, Chalcolepidius porcatus, Hemirhipus apicalis and generic larval characterization (Elateridae, Agrypninae, Hemirhipini)

Chapitre 5International audienceLe massif des Vosges est un massif montagneux où la densité de population est élevée et qui est fréquenté par de nombreux touristes du fait de fortes concentrations urbaines dans un rayon de quelques centaines de kilomètres. Au cours des dernières décennies, l’activité agricole y a fortement régressé en matière d’emplois. Pour autant, l’emprise de la forêt et des friches, en particulier dans le sud du massif, est contenue et, de ce fait, les paysages sont restés relativement ouverts, ce que les résidents et les touristes apprécient. Le maintien de cette ouverture des paysages est évidemment singulier. Le groupe des agronomes « Pays, paysans, paysages » en analyse ici les raisons

Modelling and simulating change in reforesting mountain landscapes using a social-ecological framework

Natural reforestation of European mountain landscapes raises major environmental and societal issues. With local stakeholders in the Pyrenees National Park area (France), we studied agricultural landscape colonisation by ash (Fraxinus excelsior) to enlighten its impacts on biodiversity and other landscape functions of importance for the valley socio-economics. The study comprised an integrated assessment of land-use and land-cover change (LUCC) since the 1950s, and a scenario analysis of alternative future policy. We combined knowledge and methods from landscape ecology, land change and agricultural sciences, and a set of coordinated field studies to capture interactions and feedback in the local landscape/land-use system. Our results elicited the hierarchically-nested relationships between social and ecological processes. Agricultural change played a preeminent role in the spatial and temporal patterns of LUCC. Landscape colonisation by ash at the parcel level of organisation was merely controlled by grassland management, and in fact depended on the farmer's land management at the whole-farm level. LUCC patterns at the landscape level depended to a great extent on interactions between farm household behaviours and the spatial arrangement of landholdings within the landscape mosaic. Our results stressed the need to represent the local SES function at a fine scale to adequately capture scenarios of change in landscape functions. These findings orientated our modelling choices in the building an agent-based model for LUCC simulation (SMASH - Spatialized Multi-Agent System of landscape colonization by ASH). We discuss our method and results with reference to topical issues in interdisciplinary research into the sustainability of multifunctional landscapes

Linking Taiwan's subcritical Hsuehshan Range topography and foreland basin architecture

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95204/1/tect2249.pd

Disentangling the complexity of groundwater dependent social-ecological systems

Groundwater resources are part of larger social-ecological systems. In this chapter, we review the various dimensions of these complex systems in order to uncover the diversity of elements at stake in the evolution of an aquifer and the loci for possible actions to control its dynamics. Two case studies illustrate how the state of an aquifer is embedded in a web of biophysical and sociopolitical processes. We propose here a holistic view through an IGM-scape that describes the various possible pathways of evolution for a groundwater related social-ecological system. Then we describe the elements of this IGM-scape starting with physical entities and processes, including relations with surface water and quality issues. Interactions with society bring an additional layer of considerations, including decisions on groundwater abstraction, land use changes and even energy related choices. Finally we point out the policy levers for groundwater management and their possible consequences for an aquifer, taking into account the complexity of pathways opened by these levers