Renewable Energy Cooperatives and The Decentralization of Electricity Production

Scientific conference (2013, June 06)

Life history traits related to hydraulic functioning in 211 African tropical woody species

Poster (2013, June 06)

In the context of global change understanding the interactions between plant ecology and plant physiology remains a crucial issue. In this study we aimed at analyzing the vascular characteristics involved ... [more ▼]

In the context of global change understanding the interactions between plant ecology and plant physiology remains a crucial issue. In this study we aimed at analyzing the vascular characteristics involved in the ecological traits of woody species from the northern Congo Basin. We crosschecked three databases: the botanical inventories (857 spp.) and the database of life history traits (464 spp.) produced during the CoForChange project, and the anatomical database Inside Wood (761 spp. and genera for tropical Africa). A total of 211 shared species was obtained. We performed correspondence analyses between the tangential diameter of the vessel lumina (40-43), the number of vessels per mm² (46-50) and five life history traits: leaf phenology, light requirement, seed dispersal, tree size and wood density. Species were distributed along a gradient from species with numerous small vessels to species with few large vessels. This distribution was correlated to a gradient in leaf phenology and light requirement: from evergreen shade-tolerant species to deciduous non-pioneer and pioneer light-demanding species. Dispersal followed this distribution in a lesser extent: from zoochoria to autochoria via anemochoria. Finally, a gradient in size was observed, from small shrubs to tall trees, as well as a gradient in wood density, from dense to light woods. We conclude that the ecological traits of the African tropical woody species are closely related to their hydraulic functioning. The strategies adopted by plants regarding light and water availability can thus be deduced from their vascular characteristics. On this basis we anticipate that climate change will foster light-demanding tree species as better competitors than shade-tolerant species, especially as drought stress is concerned. Further research is needed to increase the input of wood anatomy in explaining the life history traits in African tropical species. [less ▲]

Ice-sheet mass balance and climate change

in Nature (2013), 498

Since the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report, new observations of ice-sheet mass balance and improved computer simulations of ice-sheet response to continuing climate ... [more ▼]

Since the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fourth Assessment Report, new observations of ice-sheet mass balance and improved computer simulations of ice-sheet response to continuing climate change have been published. Whereas Greenland is losing ice mass at an increasing pace, current Antarctic ice loss is likely to be less than some recently published estimates. It remains unclear whether East Antarctica has been gaining or losing ice mass over the past 20 years, and uncertainties in ice-mass change for West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula remain large. We discuss the past six years of progress and examine the key problems that remain. [less ▲]

Temperature profiles at low, medium and high latitudes derived from Saturn's solar occultations

Conference (2013, June 05)

Validation d'une méthode d'analyse quantitative de l'équol dans le lait par UPLC-MSMS

Poster (2013, June 04)

Bandgap Measurement by Spectroscopic Ellipsometry for Strained Ge1-xSnx

Conference (2013, June 04)

Composition and Thickness Dependence of GeSn Growth by Chemical Vapor Deposition

Conference (2013, June 04)

De la suspicion à la confirmation de l’acétonémie de la vache laitière : - quels outils diagnostics ? - quelles actions correctrices et préventives ?

Conference given outside the academic context (2013)

Valorisation de l'énergie à l'échappement pour un moteur thermique

Diverse speeche and writing (2013)

A PML for convex truncated domains in time-dependent acoustics with a DG-FE discretization

in Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Mathematical and Numerical Aspects of Waves (Waves 2013) (2013, June 03)

A new perfectly matched layer (PML) is proposed for convex truncated domains in the context of time-dependent acoustics. With this formulation, the size of the computational domain can be reduced when ... [more ▼]

A new perfectly matched layer (PML) is proposed for convex truncated domains in the context of time-dependent acoustics. With this formulation, the size of the computational domain can be reduced when classical shapes of truncated domains are less appropriate. A numerical discretization based on the discontinuous Galerkin method is then described and validated. An example of realistic three-dimensional application is finally proposed. [less ▲]