Gaëlle Damour

Vineyard soils face various agronomic issues such as poor organic carbon levels, erosion, fertility losses, and numerous studies have highlighted the ability of service crops to address these issues. Because biodiversity enhances the multifunctionality of managed ecosystems, service crop mixtures that increase functional diversity represent a promising option to improve vineyard sustainability. Plant functional traits play a crucial role in understanding ecosystem functions, serving as drivers for ecosystem processes and influencing ecosystem services, but the relationship between plant functional traits and ecosystem services is also complex. This study aimed to identify the links between the functional structure of the service crops associated with grapevines, the function they deliver and ecosystem function multifunctionality (EFM), in a Mediterranean vineyard. Thirteen different monocultures of service crop species were sown in the inter-rows of plots of 30 m length that covered one row and the two adjacent inter-rows, at random locations. We then studied 38 plant communities each composed of one of the sown service crop and the spontaneous vegetation that developed with it. At vine budburst, we simultaneously measured five indicators of ecosystem functions (runoff reduction, soil stabilization, soil mineral nitrogen supply for the vine, soil water supply for the vine, and community biomass production), along with 12 above- and below-ground functional markers of the community associated with these functions, in each plant community. Relationships between ecosystem functions and functional markers were analyzed by combining PCA, correlations and multiple linear regressions. We showed that traits upscaled at the community level (CWM) explained part of the targeted functions: significant correlations between traits and functions ranged from 0.33 to 0.6; the R ² values of the linear regression models between functional indicators and the PCA axes derived from the traits ranged from 0.16 to 0.56. Additionally, we identified tradeoffs between functions, and observed that the biomass production was a major driver of soil-based ecosystem functions. In conclusion, functionally different communities provided different levels of functions and EFM. Designing service crops communities with complementary plant traits may be particularly relevant for increasing multifunctionality and agrosystem sustainability.

Carbon allocation is an essential aspect of a plant’s survival and reproduction strategy, with perennial species exhibiting complex cycles of storage and remobilization. While extensively studied in trees, little attention has been given to perennial monocots like banana (Musa sp.), a major crop and a complex genet. In this review, we examine the current understanding of carbon allocation and source–sink dynamics in banana. We discuss the evolution of its main sources and sinks throughout the plant growth cycle with a particular focus on vegetative reproductive organs (suckers) and presumed storage organs (the rhizome and pseudostem). We examine the direct effects of source/sink imbalances, as well as more complex feedback regulations and the impact of the environment. Our review reveals that many widely-held beliefs of carbon allocation in banana are not supported by extensive evidence and are in fact hypotheses. We propose a research agenda addressing these gaps, emphasizing the need to study environmental effects on carbon allocation in the context of climate change and agroecology. Considering the key role of the storage organs in buffering carbon supply and demand, their functioning should be verified. Finally, future research should look beyond the Cavendish cultivar, while accounting for associated management practices.

Aim Agriculture depends heavily on biodiversity, yet unsustainable management practices continue to affect a wide range of organisms and ecosystems at unprecedented levels worldwide. Addressing the global challenge of biodiversity loss requires access to consolidated knowledge across management practices, spatial levels, and taxonomic groups. Location Global Time period 1994 to 2022 Major taxa studied Animals, microorganisms, plants. Methods We conducted a comprehensive literature review synthesising data from all meta-analyses about the impacts of agricultural management practices on biodiversity in croplands, covering field, farm, and landscape levels. From 200 retained meta-analyses, we extracted 1,885 mean effect sizes (from 69,850 comparisons between a control and treatment) assessing the impact of management practices on biodiversity, alongside characterising over 9,000 primary papers. Results Seven high-income countries, notably the USA, China, and Brazil dominate agricultural impact studies with fertiliser use, phytosanitary interventions and crop diversification receiving widespread attention. The focus on individual practices overshadows research at the farm and landscape level. Taxonomically, Animalia, especially arthropods, are heavily studied while taxa such as annelids and plants receive comparatively less attention. Effect sizes are predominantly calculated from averaged abundance data. Significant gaps persist in terms of studies on the effects of agricultural interventions on specific taxonomic groups (e.g. annelids, mammals) and studies analysing functional traits. Main conclusions Our study highlights the importance of analysing the effects of combined practices to accurately reflect real-world farming contexts. While abundance metrics are common, reflecting several biodiversity facets and adopting a more balanced research approach across taxa are crucial for understanding biodiversity responses to agricultural changes and informing conservation strategies. Given the unbalanced evidence on impacts of agricultural practices on biodiversity, caution is required when utilising meta-analytical findings for informing public policies or integrating them into global assessment models like life-cycle assessments or global flux models.

Summary: A highly diverse range of plantain varieties are cropped in West and Central Africa, and it is essential to enhance knowledge on this diversity to support farmers in their varietal choices. This study aims at proposing a new way to describe a panel of plantain varieties, based on their agronomic and usage potential. The agronomic trait values of nine plantain varieties, including five traditional varieties (Batard, Big Ebanga, Essong, French Clair and Mbouroukou n°3) representative of the diversity of the plantain group, and four plantain-like hybrids (CRBP39, D248, D535 and FHIA21) were recorded at flowering and harvest. The findings revealed very marked inter-varietal variations, in line with the features of plantain morphotaxonomic subgroups, as well as very high intra-varietal variations, especially for the Essong variety. This extent of intra-varietal variation suggests that traditional plantain multiplication methods could favour the emergence of mutations in plantain varieties and hence of high intra-varietal variability. Finally, the monitored agronomic traits were integrated as agronomic and usage potential indicators per variety and morphotaxonomic subgroup, which could support decision-making on plantain varieties.

The trait‐based approach can address questions in order to understand how the functioning of organisms scales up to that of ecosystems and controls some of the services they deliver to humans, including in agriculture. However, the importance of interspecific vs the intraspecific trait variability (ITV) for classifying species according to their traits in agrosystems on a large diversity of pedoclimatic situations and cropping systems remains still open. Here, we addressed three questions: How do measured traits vary across years and seasons? Are species rankings conserved across years and season? And which traits and species are the more stable and repeatable for sown and spontaneous species? We conducted a two‐year experiment in a vineyard, and we measured four leaf and plant functional traits of 14 sown species and 43 spontaneous species that grew among sown species. Traits were measured at two key phenological stages for grapevine: budburst and flowering during two successive years with contrasted rainfall (2017 and 2018). We studied seasonal and interannual trait variations, rankings between species, and variance partitioning. The species factor explained the greatest part of trait variations across years and seasons. Sown and spontaneous species traits varied in the same way, and traits related to plant dry matter contents were the more stable across periods. Moreover, species rankings were conserved across years and seasons for all traits except plant height. Sown species showed better ranking conservation than spontaneous species overall. The trait‐based approach seems promising for the comparison of various cropping systems involving sown and spontaneous species, and may help identifying service crop species related to specific agroecosystem services. Further research is needed to bring more knowledge on trait variations under a diversity of agrosystems, and to improve theoretical frameworks that would help the design of sustainable agrosystems that provide multiple ecosystem services.