Phd contract in the field of Biological sciences financed for three years by the University of Clermont Auvergne

Modeling the effects of tree canopy structure on resource sharing and microclimateT

he structure of the tree canopy has a clear influence on resource sharing(light, water, nitrogen) amongdifferent strata of natural or cultivated ecosystems, including functional interactions between them. This structure induces emergent meteorological and microclimatic properties that can influence functional interactions between different plant strata (Gaudio et al., 2017). To optimize and predict the evolution of different functions of these multi-stratum, agroforestry or forest ecosystems (microclimate, production, resource use efficiency) it is necessary to take into account these multi-stratum interactions. The hypothesis tested would be that there is (are) a tree structure(s) (neither too open nor too closed, tiered) that allows to optimize these different functions under different assumptions of climate forcing. The ideais, on the basis of one or two case studies in the field, to parameterize and validate a model in order to test in silicothe effect of different tree structures. Ideally, we would like to compare structures with increasing levels of complexity, both in forest and agroforestry environments. The thesis would rely onthe modelling platform already used by the team and in which candidate multistratum models already exist but would require development.

Gaudio N, Gendre X, Saudreau M, Seigner V, Balandier P. 2017. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 237-238: 71-79.