Study of soil\u2013vegetation relationships on the Butte Montceau in Fontainebleau, France: Pedagogical exercise and training report

This article illustrates a short training course for students at the Master's level, which explores relationships between plants and soil. It takes place in the Forest of Fontainebleau (France), where a reception centre with a large room (30 m2) is located containing a Berlese equipment, and many microscopes. On the first day, students are accompanied by their professors in the field and visit the four sites which are located along an ecological transect. Vegetation and soils at each site are presented to them by specialists. In the laboratory, indications are written on a black board, explaining how to use relatively simple tools for biological investigations (microscopes, GPS, Berlese funnel, photometer, flora and fauna guides...). Students are then divided into 4 groups of 4\u20136 students. Each group is assigned a site which is then described and analysed. At the end, each group produces a written report. Are the measured parameters interrelated within each site? Are there functioning principles that may distinguish the four stations? Three professors are always present and accompany the students in the field or in the laboratory so as to provide help when necessary. After a brief moment of uncertainty, students are able to quickly organise themselves and after three days identify the essential elements of these ecosystems. They also learn how a real biologist observes a forest ecosystem. They discover that plants, soil and animals are inter- connected and form a natural functioning system. Students thus learn that nonetheless, it is difficult to have clearly identified boundaries between the investigated forest stations, because the gradient between them is gradual and ecologically indefinite

The Anemos Project : Next Generation forecasting of Wind power

International audienceThis paper presents the objectives and the research work carried out in the frame of the ANEMOS project on short-term wind power forecasting. The aim of the project is to develop accurate models that substantially outperform current state-of-the-art methods, for onshore and offshore wind power forecasting, exploiting both statistical and physical modeling approaches. The project focus on prediction horizons up to 48 hours ahead and investigates predictability of wind for higher horizons up to 7 days ahead useful i.e. for maintenance scheduling. Emphasis is given on the integration of high-resolution meteorological forecasts. For the offshore case, marine meteorology is considered as well as information by satellite-radar images. Specific modules are also developed for on-line uncertainty and prediction risk estimation. An integrated software platform, 'ANEMOS', is developed to host the various models. This system will be installed by several end-users for on-line operation at onshore and offshore wind farms for prediction at a local, regional and national scale. The applications include different terrain types and wind climates, on- and offshore cases, and interconnected or island grids. The on-line operation by the utilities will allow validation of the models and an analysis of the value of wind prediction for a competitive integration of wind energy in the developing liberalized electricity markets