Towards an agroecological viticulture: advances and challenges

To improve its sustainability, viticulture should increase the provision of ecosystem services to decrease its use of inputs and the resulting environmental impact while maintaining high socio-economic performance. Soil functions in relation with their physical, chemical and biological properties can be regulated by proper soil surface management. Cover crops deliver ecosystem services such as protection of soils, better water infiltration and nitrogen fixation. Yet to avoid trade-off between provision of services and production of grapes, the management of cover crops should adapt to climate variations and to the yield objective. Pest and diseases can be regulated by various technical levers, including the control of the grape vegetative development. The assessment of damages due to pests and disease and of their consequences on yield losses is a key component of the design of alternative strategies of crop protection. This knowledge provides clues for designing management strategies with low pesticide use and high agro-ecological performance. A French national network of experiments has quantified the reduction of pesticide use with decision support systems, biocontrol or resistant varieties. To go further the challenge is now to design agroecological vineyards that combine innovations in management, and also in spatial organization at field, farm and landscape scales

Evaluation and design of multispecies cropping systems with perennials: are current methods applicable?

Daily newspaper from Sapulpa, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising

Gouvernance et développement durable : le cas de la responsabilité élargie du producteur dans la filière de gestion des déchets des équipements électriques et électroniques

This doctoral research focuses on the study of the governance of the electrical and electronic equipment waste (WEEE) stream, a sector governed by the principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR). EPR is an environmental management strategy in place to deal with environmental, health and economic issues created by the growing production of WEEE. We envisage EPR as a strategy for change towards a system that is more consistent with the principles of sustainable development. This transition is notably possible if the WEEE management regime is considered as a resource regime. As a system of rules and socially constructed set of norms, the EPR is also an institution. As such, it has similarities with the institutions of common resources management, including the importance of governance. In our case study, governance has two levels that embody the temporal character of sustainable development: an operational level, involved in daily management, and strategic level dedicated to a more long term vision.Ce travail doctoral porte sur l'étude de la gouvernance de la filière des déchets des équipements électriques et électroniques (DEEE), filière régie par le principe de responsabilité élargie du producteur (REP). La REP est une stratégie de gestion environnementale mise en place pour faire face aux enjeux environnementaux, sanitaires et économiques qu'engendre la production croissante de DEEE. Nous envisageons la REP comme une stratégie de changement vers un système plus conforme aux principes du développement durable. Cette transition est notamment possible si le régime de gestion des DEEE s'envisage en tant que régime de ressources. En tant que système de règles et de normes socialement construites, la REP est également une institution. A ce titre, elle présente des similarités avec les institutions de gestion des ressources communes, notamment l'importance de la gouvernance. Dans notre cas d'étude, la gouvernance possède deux niveaux qui incarnent le caractère temporel du développement durable : un niveau opérationnel, concernée par une gestion quotidienne, et un niveau stratégique dédié à une vision de plus long terme

Governance and sustainable development : the case of the extended producer responsibility of the electrical and electronic equipment waste management system

Ce travail doctoral porte sur l'étude de la gouvernance de la filière des déchets des équipements électriques et électroniques (DEEE), filière régie par le principe de responsabilité élargie du producteur (REP). La REP est une stratégie de gestion environnementale mise en place pour faire face aux enjeux environnementaux, sanitaires et économiques qu'engendre la production croissante de DEEE. Nous envisageons la REP comme une stratégie de changement vers un système plus conforme aux principes du développement durable. Cette transition est notamment possible si le régime de gestion des DEEE s'envisage en tant que régime de ressources. En tant que système de règles et de normes socialement construites, la REP est également une institution. A ce titre, elle présente des similarités avec les institutions de gestion des ressources communes, notamment l'importance de la gouvernance. Dans notre cas d'étude, la gouvernance possède deux niveaux qui incarnent le caractère temporel du développement durable : un niveau opérationnel, concernée par une gestion quotidienne, et un niveau stratégique dédié à une vision de plus long terme.This doctoral research focuses on the study of the governance of the electrical and electronic equipment waste (WEEE) stream, a sector governed by the principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR). EPR is an environmental management strategy in place to deal with environmental, health and economic issues created by the growing production of WEEE. We envisage EPR as a strategy for change towards a system that is more consistent with the principles of sustainable development. This transition is notably possible if the WEEE management regime is considered as a resource regime. As a system of rules and socially constructed set of norms, the EPR is also an institution. As such, it has similarities with the institutions of common resources management, including the importance of governance. In our case study, governance has two levels that embody the temporal character of sustainable development: an operational level, involved in daily management, and strategic level dedicated to a more long term vision

Mouse models of SCN5A-related cardiac arrhythmias.

International audienceBoth gain- and loss-of-function mutations in the SCN5A gene, which encodes the alpha-subunit of the cardiac voltage-gated Na(+) channel Na(v)1.5, are well established to underlie hereditary arrhythmic syndromes (cardiac channelopathies) such as the type 3 long QT syndrome, cardiac conduction diseases, Brugada syndrome, sick sinus syndrome, atrial standstill and numerous overlap syndromes. Although patch-clamp studies in heterologous expression systems have provided important information to understand the genotype-phenotype relationships of these diseases, they could not clarify how mutations can be responsible for such a large spectrum of diseases, the late age of onset or the progressiveness of some of them, and for the overlapping syndromes. Genetically modified mice rapidly appeared as promising tools for understanding the pathophysiological sequence of cardiac SCN5A-related channelopathies and several mouse models have been established. Here, we review the results obtained on these models that, for most of them, convincingly recapitulate the clinical phenotypes of the patients but that also have their own limitations. Mouse models turn out to be powerful tools to elucidate the pathophysiological mechanisms of SCN5A-related diseases and offer the opportunity to investigate the cellular consequences of SCN5A mutations such as the remodelling of other gene expression that might participate in the overall phenotype and explain some of the differences among patients. Finally, they also constitute useful tools for future studies addressing as yet unanswered questions, such as the role of genetic and environmental modifiers on cardiac conduction and repolarisation

Variability of nutrient and particulate matter fluxes between the sea and a polder after partial tidal

This paper aims to investigate the patterns of exchanges of nutrients and suspended sediments between the sea and a polder, after partial tidal restoration, and to assess if these are comparable to those observed in natural salt marshes. The study site, situated in the Bay of Veys, in Northwestern France, was embanked in the 1870s and accidentally reconnected to the sea in 1990. Water now flows in and out of the polder by a single communication point with the sea, which facilitated water sampling and flux calculation for dissolved and particulate elements. The study was carried out for two years, from May 2002 to April 2004. Results showed that for all the months studied the water flowing out of the polder had lower concentrations of nitrates and suspended sediments, which lead to a retention of these elements throughout the year. Nitrates uptakes in the polder were much higher in winter (up to 473.9 g N ha(-1) tide(-1)) than in summer where they were close to zero. The retention of suspended sediment could be over 80% of the import and was mainly composed of organic matter. Finally, the concentrations of dissolved organic carbon were higher in outflow than inflow water, but due to unbalanced water budgets this lead to low quantities imported in summer and higher amounts exported for all other seasons. No interpretable pattern was observed for ammonium. The nature of these fluxes, according to literature, is close to those observed in immature salt marshes, so as far as restoration is concerned, it has been shown that partial tidal restoration can allow the restitution of the salt marsh exchange functions that were studied. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Investigating structural variant, indel and single nucleotide polymorphism differentiation between locally adapted Atlantic salmon populations

International audienceGenomic structural variants (SVs) are now recognized as an integral component of intraspecific polymorphism and are known to contribute to evolutionary processes in various organisms. However, they are inherently difficult to detect and genotype from readily available short-read sequencing data, and therefore remain poorly documented in wild populations. Salmonid species displaying strong interpopulation variability in both life history traits and habitat characteristics, such as Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), offer a prime context for studying adaptive polymorphism, but the contribution of SVs to fine-scale local adaptation has yet to be explored. Here, we performed a comparative analysis of SVs, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and small indels (<50 bp) segregating in the Romaine and Puyjalon salmon, two putatively locally adapted populations inhabiting neighboring rivers (Québec, Canada) and showing pronounced variation in life history traits, namely growth, fecundity, and age at maturity and smoltification. We first catalogued polymorphism using a hybrid SV characterization approach pairing both short- (16X) and long-read sequencing (20X) for variant discovery with graph-based genotyping of SVs across 60 salmon genomes, along with characterization of SNPs and small indels from short reads. We thus identified 115,907 SVs, 8,777,832 SNPs and 1,089,321 short indels, with SVs covering 4.8 times more base pairs than SNPs. All three variant types revealed a highly congruent population structure and similar patterns of F (ST) and density variation along the genome. Finally, we performed outlier detection and redundancy analysis (RDA) to identify variants of interest in the putative local adaptation of Romaine and Puyjalon salmon. Genes located near these variants were enriched for biological processes related to nervous system function, suggesting that observed variation in traits such as age at smoltification could arise from differences in neural development. This study therefore demonstrates the feasibility of large-scale SV characterization and highlights its relevance for salmonid population genomics

Effect of climate, intra and inter-annual variability, on nutrients emission (C,N, P) in stream water: lessons from an agricultural long term observatory of the temperate zone

International audienceAgriculture greatly contributes to modify C, N and P cycles, particularly in animal breeding regions due to highinputs. Climatic conditions, intra and inter-annual variabilities, modify nutrient stream water emissions, acting intime on transfer and transformation, accumulation and mobilization processes, connecting and disconnecting intime different compartments (soil, riparian areas, groundwater). In agricultural catchments, nutrient perturbationsare dominated by agricultural land use, and decoupling human activities and climate effects is far from easy.Climate change generally appears as a secondary driver compared to land use. If studied, generally only onenutrient is considered. Only long term, high frequency and multiple element data series can decouple these twodrivers.The Kervidy-Naizin watershed belongs to the AgrHyS environmental research observatory(http://www6.inra.fr/ore_agrhys_eng), itself included in RBV (French catchment network of the CZO). Onthis catchment, 6 years of daily data on DOC, NO3, SRP, TP concentrations allow us to analyze the effect ofseasonal and inter-annual climatic variabilities on water quality (C, N, P). Different papers have been publishedon the effect of climate on nitrate (Molenat et al, 2008), SRP and TP (Dupas et al, 2015) and DOC (Humbert et al,2015). We will present first results comparing the effect of climate on these three major solute forms of C, N andP. While C and P dynamics are very close and controlled by fluctuation of water table downslope, i.e. in riparianareas, mobilizing C and P in time, nitrate dynamics is controlled by GW dynamics upslope acting as the major Nreservoir. As example, the dryness conditions in summer appears a key factor of the C and P emissions in autumn.All the three solute forms interact when anoxic conditions are observed in riparian zones. These basic processesexplain how climatic variability can influence and explain interactions between C, N and P emissions in streamwater.These results underline three major lack in most of our observatories: high frequency data as flood event areimportant for C and P emissions; multiple element approach, as very few observatories have currently C, N andP, their solute and particulate forms; climate but also soil wetness, GW fluctuations explaining biotransformationand connection between reservoirs on catchments, so that linking hydrological and biogeochimical condition isnecessary to explain export. These lacks of observations is a barrier to develop process based models assessingand predicting the effect of climate on water quality.ReferencesDupas R., Gruau G., Sen Gu, Humbert G., Jaffrezic A., Gascuel-Odoux C., 2015. Groundwater control ofbiogeochemical processes causing phosphorus release from riparian wetlands. Water Research 84, 307-314Humbert G., Jaffrezic A., Fovet O., Gruau G., Durand P., 2015. Dry-season length and runoff control annualvariability in stream DOC dynamics in a small, shallow groundwater-dominated agricultural watershed. WaterResources Research.Molenat J., Gascuel-Odoux C., Ruiz L., Gruau G., 2008. Role of water table dynamics on stream nitrate exportand concentration in agricultural headwater. Journal of Hydrology 348, 363– 37