EcoFun

ECOFUN team | ECOsystem FUNctioning across scales

In 2013 the EcoFun team was created within the unit ISPA and has steadily grown over the past years into a very lively and dynamic group of young researchers bringing their talents to Bordeaux to conduct great research in ecosystem function and contributing to the educational program of future forest engineers.

Some members of the team attending a pre-lunch glasshouse experiment visit from front to back: Jérome Ogée, Steve Wohl, Camille Delvigne, Lisa Wingate, Laura Clavé, Teresa Gimeno, Yann Cochet, Adria Barbeta, Julia Cooke (visitor), Bastien Frejaville, Ludovic Lacombe, Nicolas Cornette & Sam Jones.

The EcoFun team gathers competences in functional ecology, stable isotope geochemistry, eco-hydrology, forestry and agronomy. Our research aims are to understand better the physiological responses and short- and long-term adaptation of terrestrial ecosystems to environmental changes, management practices and extreme climatic events. We are also interested in understanding what the repercussions of management and environmental change will have on plant productivity as well as the water, CO₂ and energy budgets at the Earth’s surface.

A glasshouse experiment investigating the role of drought and soil properties on Beech stable isotope fractionation as part of the Labex COTE HydroBeech and Bordeaux Idex Hydro-Eco-Refu projects.

In the past years our activities have been structured around a number of projects addressing some big questions:

1. Can we find new tracers to quantify photosynthesis and respiration at large scales and evaluate our models of the global carbon cycle?
2. How do trees dynamically use their carbon reserves for primary and secondary growth and how do they respond to environmental triggers?
3. What is the adaptation potential of plants to elevated CO₂ and temperature and/or changes in the precipitation regimes?
4. What is the drought sensitivity of forests across the globe and can we predict drought-induced tree mortality?

Forestry field trips in Les Landes and the Pyrenees as art of the Forestry engineering Masters programme at Bordeaux Sciences Agro.

We welcome visitors from all over the world in our lab for training and project collaborations.

Our team also actively contributes to teaching on the Masters courses conducted at Bordeaux Sciences Agro and at The University of Bordeaux. We also have an active programme for hosting, mentoring and training students from all over the world that have a passion to understand better terrestrial ecosystem function and response to global change.