Microbial and Plant Diversity in Multi-Species Agroecosystems - Modelling Relationships

In an agroecosystem perspective, DIMIVEA focuses on the physicochemical and biochemical characterisation of soils, functional diversity of plant and microbial communities, and the definition of indicators for ecosystem services to improve their simulation.
 
The project aims to model biodiversity dynamics in order to better simulate the provision of ecosystem services. Simulating multi-species systems (grasslands, forests, diversified cropping systems) allows for a detailed representation of coupled carbon-nitrogen cycles, but the models used remain simplified as they reduce biological diversity to simplistic interaction patterns with the environment. Creating simulators based on information provided by diversity attempts to go beyond the paradigm of condensing biological diversity into constant parameters. The results obtained enable exploring new research avenues to explain the synchrony between nutrient demand and supply by modelling certain levels of plant and microbial diversity.

By focusing on the characteristics of plant and microbial communities in mixed vegetation cover, the consortium aims to provide a conceptual framework to extend the potential of models for reliable estimation of ecological processes supporting ecosystem services provided by these covers. Advancing towards the creation of explicit, dynamic, and integrated simulators of microbial and plant diversity, DIMIVEA represents a new paradigm that acknowledges the interconnected aspects of biological diversity in agroecosystem modelling studies.

Approach

DIMIVEA integrates various experiments and knowledge to model the ecological organisations that allow natural ecosystems and certain agrosystems to be productive, multifunctional (contributing to carbon storage, water purification, soil quality improvement), and low-input. The ambition is also to identify ecological organisations to prioritise according to local pedo-climatic contexts and propose agricultural practices that could foster them in agrosystems.
For its reflections and conceptualisations, the consortium relies on aggregated microbial modelling (i.e. storing and depleting microbes in the SYMPHONY model of UREP) and experimental setups from the AGROECOseqC project of the European Joint Programme Cofund on Agricultural Soil Management (EJP SOIL). The partnership is committed to organising and facilitating dedicated workshops within scientific events such as international conferences and study days, and to progress towards the writing of a synthesis and position article, envisioned as the culmination of collective reflection in addition to prototype model production.

INRAE units involved

• UREP Grassland Ecosystem research
• IAM Joint Research Unit - Tree-Microorganism Interactions
• Agroécologie Joint Research Unit - Agroecology

External partnerships

• CREA Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment (Italy)
• CNRS LIEC Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Continental Environments (France)