Towards long-term standardised carbon and greenhouse gas observations for monitoring Europe's terrestrial ecosystems : a review

Research infrastructures play a key role in launching a new generation of integrated long-term, geographically distributed observation programmes designed to monitor climate change, better understand its impacts on global ecosystems, and evaluate possible mitigation and adaptation strategies. The pan-European Integrated Carbon Observation System combines carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG; CO2, CH4, N2O, H2O) observations within the atmosphere, terrestrial ecosystems and oceans. High-precision measurements are obtained using standardised methodologies, are centrally processed and openly available in a traceable and verifiable fashion in combination with detailed metadata. The Integrated Carbon Observation System ecosystem station network aims to sample climate and land-cover variability across Europe. In addition to GHG flux measurements, a large set of complementary data (including management practices, vegetation and soil characteristics) is collected to support the interpretation, spatial upscaling and modelling of observed ecosystem carbon and GHG dynamics. The applied sampling design was developed and formulated in protocols by the scientific community, representing a trade-off between an ideal dataset and practical feasibility. The use of open-access, high-quality and multi-level data products by different user communities is crucial for the Integrated Carbon Observation System in order to achieve its scientific potential and societal value.Peer reviewe

Système d'information sur les sols de France

National audienc

Supplementation with a Bioactive Melon Concentrate in Humans and Animals: Prevention of Oxidative Damages and Fatigue in the Context of a Moderate or Eccentric Physical Activity

International audienceExercise is recognized to provide both physical and psychological health benefits. However, oxidative stress can occur and induce muscular damages. SOD B® M is a melon concentrate, well known to counteract oxidative stress and prevent its side effects. The present study aimed to evaluate the potential of the melon concentrate in the context of both a strong and isolated effort associated with deleterious effects, and a moderate and regular physical activity considered as beneficial. First, a preclinical study was set up on rats to evaluate its potential on the prevention of damages induced by an eccentric exercise. Secondly, the combined effect of the melon concentrate and a regular standardized physical training was studied on the overall physical condition of healthy subjects in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), student's t test and Mann-Whitney test were used for statistical analyses. Melon concentrate helped to prevent gastrocnemius damages induced by the eccentric exercise. It allowed a reduction of fibrosis by approximately 38% and a reduction of Tumor Necrosis Factor- α (TNF-α) plasma level by 28%. This supplementation also induced a rearrangement of myosin fibers and an increase in PGC-1α plasma level. In the clinical study, melon concentrate was able to decrease oxidative stress and C-Reactive protein (CRP) plasma level. Besides, magnesium (Mg) plasma level was higher in the context of a regular training performed by healthy subjects supplemented with the melon concentrate. Therefore, the melon concentrate allowed a better adaptation to effort linked to PGC-1α activation: a regulator of energy metabolism. The antioxidant properties of the melon concentrate and its ability to mobilize magnesium also suggest that the supplementation could induce a better resistance to fatigue and recovery during regular physical activity

ABC’Terre : Integrating soil organic carbon variation into cropping systems greenhouse gases balance at a territorial scale

ABC’Terre : Integrating soil organic carbon variation into cropping systems greenhouse gases balance at a territorial scale. Colloque « Sécurité alimentaire et changement climatique. L’initiative 4 pour mille : un nouveau défi concret pour le sol

An assessment of the societal impacts of French soil databases

National audienc

The impacts of CENTURY model initialization scenarios on soil organic carbon dynamics simulation in French long-term experiments

International audienc

A Specific Melon Concentrate Exhibits Photoprotective Effects from Antioxidant Activity in Healthy Adults

Skin is the largest body organ and the first barrier to exogenous threats. This organ is constantly exposed to external factors such as ultraviolet radiation, which induces many adverse effects including sunburn, depigmentation, photo aging, photo immune suppression, and even skin cancer. Antioxidants seem to be good candidates in order to reduce ultraviolet-mediated damages and to prevent the health consequences of ultraviolet exposure. The present investigation aims to further characterize the potential skin photoprotective effects of a food supplementation and a topical administration of a melon concentrate alone or in combination. A clinical study assessing the Minimal Erythema Dose (MED) was first set up to evaluate photoprotection. Afterward, an independent in vitro study was performed on human skin explants from a donor to evaluate the effect of the melon concentrate at different levels including on the sunburn cells formation and on the endogenous antioxidant enzymes and its influence on melanin. Clinical study results demonstrate that melon concentrate application and/or supplementation increased MED. It also increased the endogenous antioxidant enzymes and reduced sunburn cells and melanin level on irradiated skin explants. Therefore, it is suggested that melon concentrate administration (oral and/or topical) could be a useful strategy for photoprotection due to its antioxidant properties

ABC’Terre : Integrating soil organic carbon variation into cropping systems greenhouse gases balance at a territorial scale

ABC’Terre : Integrating soil organic carbon variation into cropping systems greenhouse gases balance at a territorial scale. Colloque « Sécurité alimentaire et changement climatique. L’initiative 4 pour mille : un nouveau défi concret pour le sol

Predicting and Mapping Total Si over the main territory of France

The biogeochemical cycle of Si has become a subject of increasing interest in recent years because of its interconnection with the C cycle and global change. Recent studies have suggested that land use and particularly agriculture can modify the Si cycle. However, the consequences of such a modification for the global Si cycle and for the growth of crops which are Si accumulators (most of the cereals) are still not well constrained. The bioavailable Si fraction is govern by several factors, among which the amount in total Si (Si-tot) that represent the long term weatherable pool. This amount has thus to be quantified at the territory scale. However, its determination is time consuming and costly. It is performed by ICP-AES after mineralization by sodium peroxide and sodium carbonate fusion. We thus propose an alternative estimation of the Si-tot at the French territory scale, within the project BIOSISOL (ANR-14-CE01-002), based on the samples of the French soil monitoring network (RMQS). This network consist in 2130 sites sampled in a regular 16 × 16-km grid. We measured topsoil Si-tot at 630 sites of the RMQS network consisting in one point out of four from this network (that is 450 points) and a set of 150 points selected randomly among the remaining sites. Mid-infrared reflectance and a large set of soil properties were measured at all sites of the RMQS. These soil properties are particle-size distribution, pH water, organic carbon, Total N, soluble and total P contents, calcareous, CEC and exchangeable cations (K, Ca, Mg, Na), Bo and 8 trace elements (Cd, Cr, Cu, Co, Ni, Pb, Tl, Zn). The dataset was then divided in 3 sets: Calibration, validation and test sets. The two formers were defined using a repeated folding step within the 650 sites and the latest corresponded to the 1500 remaining sites. Using a regression rule algorithm called CUBIST, we found that Si-tot was very well predicted by the mid-infrared spectroscopy (validation R ~ 0.98 and test R ~ 0.97) and by conventional pedotransfer functions using soil properties (validation R ~ 0.98). This last model was used to evaluate the MIR model. Based on the MIR predictions, we then mapped the concentration of Sitot across France using digital soil mapping techniques