The long-standing hypothesis that the isotopic composition of plant stem water reflects that of source water is being challenged by studies reporting bulk water from woody stems with an isotopic composition that cannot be attributed to any potential water source. The mechanism behind such...

Most existing forests are subjected to natural and human-mediated selection pressures, which have increased due to climate change and the increasing needs of human societies for wood, fibre and fuel resources. It remains largely unknown how these pressures trigger evolutionary changes. We address...

Maritime pine is a major forest tree grown for wood production in Southern Europe. A breeding program for the selection of fast-growing varieties was established in the 1960s, in France. In the context of climate change, the magnitude of phenotypic plasticity is a key issue for the prediction of...

Robust methodology in charcoal analyses has strong potential in the reconstruction of past environments. However, charcoal assemblages from Pleistocene contexts, particularly those that formed under varying climatic conditions during glaciation and mostly composed of the genus Pinus, can neither...

Understanding plant trait coordination and variance across climatic gradients is critical for assessing forests' adaptive potential to climate change. We measured 11 hydraulic, anatomical and leaf-level physiological traits in European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) along a moisture and temperature...

This article, using an institutional and political ecological perspective, analyses the role of knowledge networks supporting peasant seed groups in France. These groups promote a dynamic approach to agrobiodiversity restoration, developing new models of collaborative "peer-to-peer genetics" and...

Plum is a significant fruit tree worldwide, with the two main species being P. domestica and P. salicina. Chinese plum, originating from China, exhibits high genetic heterogeneity and abundant genetic variation in fruit traits. It is speculated that wild Chinese plums still exist in the Yangtze...

The performance and distribution of woody species strongly depend on their adjustment to environmental conditions based on genotypic and phenotypic properties. Since more intense and frequent drought events are expected due to climate change, xylem hydraulic traits will play a key role under future ...

Climatic refugia have often been associated with hotspots of richness and endemism, and identified on the basis of molecular or paleobotanical information. Here, we apply a phylogenetic analysis to 18,000 plant communities distributed across the Pyrenees, a south European mountain range, to...

Stem water storage capacity and hydraulic capacitance (C_S) play a crucial role in tree survival under drought-stress. To investigate whether C_S adjusts to increasing water deficit, variation in stem water content (StWC) was monitored in vivo for 2 years and related to periodical measurements of...