Résumé
Remote sensing is an invaluable tool for tracking decadal-scale changes in vegetation greenness in response to climate and land use changes. While the Landsat archive has been widely used to explore these trends and their spatial and temporal complexity, its inconsistent sampling frequency over time and space raises concerns about its ability to provide reliable estimates of annual vegetation indices such as the annual maximum normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), commonly used as a proxy of plant productivity. Here we demonstrate for seasonally snow-covered ecosystems, that greening trends derived from annual maximum NDVI can be significantly overestimated because the number of available Landsat observations increases over time, and mostly that the magnitude of the overestimation varies along environmental gradients. Typically, areas with a short growing season and few available observations experience the largest bias in greening trend estimation. We show these conditions are met in late snowmelting habitats in the European Alps, which are known to be particularly sensitive to temperature increases and present conservation challenges. In this critical context, almost 50% of the magnitude of estimated greening can be explained by this bias. Our study calls for greater caution when comparing greening trends magnitudes between habitats with different snow conditions and observations. At a minimum we recommend reporting information on the temporal sampling of the observations, including the number of observations per year, when long-term studies with Landsat observations are undertaken.
Auteurs, date et publication :
Auteurs Arthur Bayle , Simon Gascoin , Logan T. Berner , Philippe Choler
Publication : Ecography
Date : 2025
Volume : 2024
Issue : 12
Pages : e07394
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Up to now, the most widely accepted idea of the periglacial environment is that of treeless ecosystems such as the arctic or the alpine tundra, also called the tabula rasa paradigm. However, several palaeoecological studies have recently challenged this idea, that is, treeless environments in periglacial areas where all organisms would have been exterminated near the glacier formed during the Last Glacial Maximum, notably in the Scandinavian mountains. In the Alps, the issue of glacial refugia of trees remains unanswered. Advances in glacier reconstructions show that ice domes did not cover all upper massifs, but glaciers filled valleys. Here, we used fossils of plant and malacofauna from a travertine formation located in a high mountain region to demonstrate that trees (Pinus, Betula) grew with grasses during the Lateglacial-Holocene transition, while the glacier fronts were 200–300 m lower. The geothermal travertine started to accumulate more than 14,500 years ago, but became progressively more meteogene about 11,500 years ago due to a change in groundwater circulation. With trees, land snails (gastropods) associated to woody or open habitats and aquatic mollusc were also present at the onset of the current interglacial, namely the Holocene. The geothermal spring, due to warm water and soil, probably favoured woody glacial ecosystems. This new finding of early tree growth, combined with other scattered proofs of the tree presence before 11,000 years ago in the western Alps, changes our view of the tree distribution in periglacial environments, supporting the notion of tree refugia on nunataks in an ocean of glaciers. Therefore, the tabula rasa paradigm must be revisited because it has important consequences on the global changes, including postglacial plant migrations and biogeochemical cycles.
Auteurs, date et publication :
Auteurs Christopher Carcaillet , Jean-Louis Latil , Sébastien Abou , Adam Ali , Bassam Ghaleb , Frédéric Magnin , Paul Roiron , Serge Aubert
Publication : Global Change Biology
Date : 2025
Volume : 24
Issue : 6
Pages : 2476-2487
Catégorie(s)
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Local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity are two important characteristics of alpine plants to overcome the threats caused by global changes. Among alpine species, Arabis alpina is characterised by an unusually wide altitudinal amplitude, ranging from 800 to 3,100 m of elevation in the French Alps. Two non-exclusive hypotheses can explain the presence of A. alpina across this broad ecological gradient: adaptive phenotypic plasticity or local adaptation, making this species especially useful to better understand these phenomena in alpine plant species. We carried out common garden experiments at two different elevations with maternal progenies from six sites that differed in altitude. We showed that (1) key phenotypic traits (morphotype, total fruit length, growth, height) display significant signs of local adaptation, (2) most traits studied are characterised by a high phenotypic plasticity between the two experimental gardens and (3) the two populations from the highest elevations lacked morphological plasticity compared to the other populations. By combining two genome scan approaches (detection of selection and association methods), we isolated a candidate gene (Sucrose-Phosphate Synthase 1). This gene was associated with height and local average temperature in our studied populations, consistent with previous studies on this gene in Arabidopsis thaliana. Synthesis. Given the nature of the traits involved in the detected pattern of local adaptation and the relative lack of plasticity of the two most extreme populations, our findings are consistent with a scenario of a locally adaptive stress response syndrome in high elevation populations. Due to a reduced phenotypic plasticity, an overall low intra-population genetic diversity of the adaptive traits and weak gene flow, populations of high altitude might have difficulties to cope with, e.g. a rise of temperature.
Auteurs, date et publication :
Auteurs Pierre de Villemereuil , Médéric Mouterde , Oscar E. Gaggiotti , Irène Till‐Bottraud
Publication : Journal of Ecology
Date : 2025
Volume : 106
Issue : 5
Pages : 1952-1971
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Auteurs Peter Streb , Gabriel Cornic , Cornelius Lütz
Date : 2025
Pages : 75-97
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In subalpine grasslands of the central French Alps, cessation of traditional mowing promotes dominance of Patzkea paniculata (L.) G.H.Loos (Poaceae) tussocks, with high biomass but low fodder quality. Mowing limits P. paniculata abundance through the depletion of its water-soluble carbohydrate (WSC) reserves, which sustain early spring growth initiation. However, the effectiveness of mowing effects is modulated by grassland functional composition, fertilization and climate change, as WSC compounds, and notably fructans, support plant physiological responses to climate stresses such as drought or frost.
Auteurs, date et publication :
Auteurs L. Bernard , M.‐L. Decau , A. Morvan‐Bertrand , S. Lavorel , J.‐C. Clément , F. Loreto
Publication : Plant Biology
Date : 2020
Pages : plb.13081
Catégorie(s)
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Whether the success of alien species can be explained by their functional or phylogenetic characteristics remains unresolved because of data limitations, scale issues and weak quantifications of success. Using permanent grasslands across France (50 000 vegetation plots, 2000 species, 130 aliens) and building on the Rabinowitz’s classification to quantify spread, we showed that phylogenetic and functional similarities to natives were the most important correlates of invasion success compared to intrinsic functional characteristics and introduction history. Results contrasted between spatial scales and components of invasion success. Widespread and common aliens were similar to co-occurring natives at coarse scales (indicating environmental filtering), but dissimilar at finer scales (indicating local competition). In contrast, regionally widespread but locally rare aliens showed patterns of competitive exclusion already at coarse scale. Quantifying trait differences between aliens and natives and distinguishing the components of invasion success improved our ability to understand and potentially predict alien spread at multiple scales.
Auteurs, date et publication :
Auteurs Marta Carboni , Tamara Münkemüller , Sébastien Lavergne , Philippe Choler , Benjamin Borgy , Cyrille Violle , Franz Essl , Cristina Roquet , François Munoz , DivGrass Consortium , Wilfried Thuiller , Elsa Cleland
Publication : Ecology Letters
Date : 2025
Volume : 19
Issue : 3
Pages : 219-229
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The topographical heterogeneity of mountain landscapes and the associated species turnover over short distances should prompt us to examine the relationships between climate and mountain plant distribution at a much finer scale than is commonly done. Here, I focused on the root zone temperature experienced by lowstature perennial-dominated plant communities of temperate mountains, which are seasonally covered by snow. Based on the analysis of multi-annual recordings of ground temperatures across a broad spectrum of plant communities, I propose a habitat template using Growing Degree Days (GDD) and Freezing Degree Days (FDD). These two indices summarize soil thermal conditions experienced during the favorable and the unfavorable period for growth. This heuristic framework allows refining our working hypotheses on the range shifts of mountain plants in response to recent and future climate change. Regional trends in climate variables controlling GDD and FDD indicate that the combination of earlier snow melt-out and higher summer temperatures have led to an overall increase in GDD over the last decades. However the persistence of cold episodes in spring and in fall along with the shorter snow coverage suggest that the positive effect of an extended growing season might be counteracted by the detrimental effects of increasing FDD. I thus hypothesize (i) a local-scale, downward shift of plant species along mesotopographical gradients, with marked species infilling in sparsely vegetated, longlasting snow patches that contain vacant niches and (ii) a watershed-scale upward shift of subalpine species inhabiting south-exposed grasslands and able to cope with moderate FDD. This perspective challenges the simplistic view of an overall range shift of mountain plants along elevational gradients and calls for the improvement of models of snow cover dynamics and root zone temperature to draw up realistic scenarios of mountain vegetation changes under a warmer climate.
Auteurs, date et publication :
Auteurs P. Choler
Publication : Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics
Date : 2025
Volume : 30
Pages : 6-15
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Auteurs Adeline Francois , Juliette Rousset , Marie Didier , André Evette
Date : 2024
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Auteurs Bradley Z. Carlson , Christophe F. Randin , Isabelle Boulangeat , Sébastien Lavergne , Wilfried Thuiller , Philippe Choler
Publication : Alpine Botany
Date : 2025
Volume : 123
Issue : 2
Pages : 41-53
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Despite several studies on the Ajuga L. genus, the chemical composition of Ajuga pyramidalis, an alpine endemic species, is still largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to therefore deeper describe it, particularly from the phytochemistry and bioactivity perspectives. In that respect, A. pyramidalis was investigated and 95% of the extracted mass of the plant was characterized by chromatography and mass spectrometry. Apart from the already determined chemical compounds, namely, harpagide and 8-O-acetylharpagide, two iridoids, and neoajugapyrin A, a neo-clerodane diterpene, and three polyphenols (echinacoside, verbascoside and teupoloside) were identified for the first time in A. pyramidalis. Incidentally, the first RX structure of a harpagoside derivative is also described in this paper. The extracts and isolated compounds were then evaluated for various biochemical or biological activities; notably a targeted action on the renewal of the epidermis was highlighted with potential applications in the cosmetic field for anti-aging.
Auteurs, date et publication :
Auteurs Anthonin Gori , Benjamin Boucherle , Aurélien Rey , Maxime Rome , Caroline Barette , Emmanuelle Soleilhac , Christian Philouze , Marie-Odile Fauvarque , Nicola Fuzzati , Marine Peuchmaur
Publication : Metabolites
Date : 2023
Volume : 13
Issue : 1
Pages : 128