Research laboratories

The URFM is conducting a finalised, multidisciplinary research project whose general objective is to understand and predict the dynamics, functioning and evolution of Mediterranean forests in order to assess the risks and provide management strategies for the adaptation of forests in a context of disturbances and global change. This context generates important stakes for Mediterranean woodlands, not only because of the specific threats expected in the region linked to climate (aggravation of summer droughts, increase in the frequency of extreme events), anthropic pressure (in the past overgrazing, now the challenge of wood energy), but also because of the potential interest of forest genetic resources located in the Mediterranean area for other regions in the near future.

Management tools for forest adaptation must be based on a good knowledge of ecological and evolutionary processes of adaptation. To move towards a more predictive ecology of adaptation, in a context of significant change in disturbance regimes, the URFM favours a modelling approach of physical and biological processes, based on numerical simulation and experimentation.

The URFM is developing an integrated project on the dynamics and functioning of mixed forests:

• Dynamic-functioning integration
The structure of these ecosystems (age and size classes, species composition and genetic diversity), which depends on their demographic dynamics, determines their water use and carbon balance. In return, their physiological functioning determines their demographic dynamics (growth, competition, mortality, regeneration).

• Demo-genetic coupling
In all organisms, the genetic diversity of populations is shaped by drift, reproductive regime, selection and migration resulting from local or landscape-scale demographic processes, as well as historical factors. Conversely, the genetic quality of individuals determines their potential for survival, growth and reproduction, the basis of demographic dynamics. In addition, at the landscape scale, the spatial dynamics of seed insect pests and their host trees are closely related.

• Bio-physical approach to fire ecology
The forest is a fuel whose structure (spatial distribution of thin branches and leaves), physical state (water content, mortality) and heterogeneity determine the spread of fire and its intensity. In turn, the physical fire passage parameters influence the physiology, population dynamics and biotic interactions that shape the fuel.