A global increase in the demand for wood products has been observed worldwide during the last decades. This trend is expected to continue in the future as a consequence of population growth. Additionally, the need for wood is augmented by the increasing substitution of fossil energy by wood biomass-based energy to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. This demand will not be satisfied by natural and naturally regenerated forests: they are threatened by high deforestation rates and forest degradation mainly in the tropics and the costs of wood mobilization in the temperate zones is a concern. Forest plantations (FP) are therefore expected to provide a large part of the global wood supply. Their ability to meet wood demand is limited by competing land uses. Higher stand yields must be obtained on soils that may not necessarily support such intensification especially as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) exportations by biomass removal are generally not offset by fertilization. Therefore, FP sustainability is currently a major concern, particularly with regard to serious long-term N and P deficits. Innovative FP management schemes, and attractive to the stakeholders must be then deployed. The Intens&Fix project will deal with the ecological intensification of FP through the association of N2-fixing species (NFS) with the goal to increase stand production as, in particular, a result of better N and P availability in the soil. These systems hould combine positive environmental impacts while ensuring social-economical improvement of livelihood for smallholders or performances for commercial companies. The project will develop an experimental approach on various and complementary FP with associated NFS, both in France (Juglans sp. and Alnus cordata or herbaceous NFS in Languedoc, Populus sp + Robinia pseudoacacia. in North-Est of France) and in the Tropics (mixed-species plantations of Eucalyptus grandis and Acacia mangium in Brazil and Congo). An integrated biophysical model will be developed for the simulation of mixed species in FP. Outputs of virtual experiments performed with the biophysical model will feed a plantation-level model allowing to assess the economical feasibility and to test decision rules for the management of FP with NFS. Crossing models outputs and a survey of stakeholders’ innovation process concerning the use of NFS will entitle us to assess the potential development of these systems. The approach will be multidisciplinary and involve scientists working in ecophysiology, biogeochemistry, soil science, microbiology, silviculture, socio-economics, and modelling. This project will contribute to the production of innovative results i.e. refined methodological techniques for estimation of N transfer, documentation of mechanisms of competition/ facilitation for N and P bioavailability, model coupling water, N and C functioning adapted to mixed-species forests and practices (species, density…) to manage NFS in FP, and socio-economical assessment of these new management schemes. The results will be valorised through publications in high level scientific journals, as well as in R/D journals and participation to international conferences. More generally the involvement of a top resource partner in farm forestry and agroforestry, the participative approach deployed, and the strong partnership developed with producer organisations in France, Brazil and Congo will warrant a large and efficient dissemination of the Intens&Fix results. From an operational view point, the Intens&Fix project will provide tools of ecological intensification to significantly improve FP management with specific targets in eucalyptus plantations in Congo and Brazil (several millions ha), Very Short Rotation Coppices, and high value timber in agroforestry systems (potential of several millions ha in Europe).

Despite their ecological and economical importance, we are just beginning to learn about the fundamental molecular mechanisms that underpin the growth and survival of trees. An understanding of these mechanisms will guide efforts aimed at ensuring the long-term maintenance of forest health, and the enhancement of forest productivity, including domesticated trees for bioenergy production. Poplar is a model tree widely used in the tree research community that also presents benefits at the economical levels. However, european poplar plantations are severely damaged each year by severe rust disease epidemy caused by the basidiomycete fungus Melampsora larici-populina. Recently, remarkable progress has been made in the understanding of the molecular mechanisms that control the interactions with fungal pathogens in annual plants using genomics. The proposed project will mine the genome of the leaf rust M. larici-populina to uncover those loci coding for the arsenal developed by the fungus to penetrate and exploit its host. This project will build on the Melampsora genomic tool kit, i.e., genomic sequencing, RNASeq-based transcriptomic, genotyping and production of recombinant proteins, and will be used alongside existing resources to characterise (i) master virulence factors genes involved in plant invasion, (ii) the natural sequence variation of genetic determinants that condition the pathogen virulence, and (iii) the resistance/avirulence poplar-rust R-AVR proteins interactions.

ORACLE aims at providing spatially-gridded assessments of potential future changes in a) the functioning of agro-ecosystems, b) land uses in France at rather high resolution (8 x 8 km2) and in Europe at medium resolution (50 x 50 km2). These assessments involve the production of tools and data to study the relationships between climate change and possible changes in land use, together with the impacts of changing policies. We will focus our analysis and modeling on the main components of the non-urban land use, namely crops, grasslands and forests. We will study their production as well as their environmental functionalities (GHG emission, hydrology, soil carbon storage) and develop a small set of relevant indicators. Climate-induced changes in those indicators will be analyzed and, wherever possible, their upper and lower limits will be defined. This will allow us to assess, per grid-cell, risks of dis-functioning of specific systems, potential disappearance of present-day land-uses, and potentialities of appearance of new ones. We will also try to combine the indicators with water availability to identify potential future hot-spots in France and Europe, i.e., grid-cells or regions that may experience drastic land-use changes. Insights on land-use change will be obtained following two parallel methodologies. First, we will use the climatically-induced variations of the above-mentioned indicators to explore reshaping of farming systems, optimizing opportunities and minimizing constraints, without accounting for changes in socio-economic drivers. The propositions will rely on a) meta-analysis of published data on agronomic performances and environmental impacts of cultivation systems, and b) expert knowledge. In the second methodology, we will jointly evaluate the impacts of changes in climatic and socio-economic drivers on anthropogenic land-uses. We will rank those impacts and identify areas where the impacts of climate change on land-uses may overrule those resulting from socio-economic changes. We will also attempt to estimate land-use change between agriculture and forest when both climatic and economic drivers change. Results will be obtained i) at three spatial scales, namely Europe, France and hydrological basin (Seine and Rhine basins), ii) for two time horizons (2020-2050 and 2070-2100) in reference to the 1970-2000 period. Both prospective uncertainty (socio-economic scenarios, crop or forest management) and epistemic uncertainty (due to imperfect knowledge within models) will be analyzed at various levels through multi-model and multi-scenario approaches and appropriate statistical analysis. Results of the uncertainty analysis will be used as an input for modeling anticipative adaptation decisions in the economic models. In terms of methodology, the main idea of the project is to rely on well-known models (global vegetation models, agronomic and forest models, economic models) and on published experimental data, and profit from existing methods (climate downscaling, meta-analysis, indicator reckoning…) and databases developed within the framework of previous projects on climate change impacts, in an integrated and coordinated way. ORACLE is a true multi-disciplinary project that brings together climatologists, crop and forest scientists, economists, hydrologists and statisticians who have an experience in climate change issues at various scales. Many of the partners involved have already worked together on shared scientific objectives (national and European programs), and this makes us confident that our collaboration in ORACLE will be efficient. It is expected to deliver valuable information to the 5th assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (WG II & III).