Author's posts
May 29
Visit of the Irstea Measurement Network, May 17 and 18
Last May 17 and 18, the Forest Ecosystems research unit of Nogent-sur-Vernisson (Irstea, EFNO) welcomed the 9th Irstea Measurement Network meeting. On this occasion, a group of forty people from all IRSTEA centers went to visit OPTMix. After an introduction about the Orleans’s forest and OPTMix network the visit focus on four main points: – …
Apr 26
Functionning of perched water table and impact on tree growth
The functioning of perched water tables and their impacts on tree growth are still poorly documented while soils with temporary waterlogging are very frequent in France. How does perched water table change during winter? Are these changes influenced by the forest stand features? Is this perched water table a disadvantage or an advantage for the growth …
Mar 27
Application forms for new experiments are available
The application forms to perform a new experiment in the OPTMix plots are available here (french version only). You will find a form for external demands (for researchers belonging to another research unit than the Irstea-EFNO research unit at Nogent-sur-Vernisson) and a form for internal demands. To help you in this process please contact Nathalie Korboulewsky.
Feb 22
Measuring soil moisture with a neutron probe
This week began the installation of aluminum tubes at a depth of 125cm for measuring soil moisture content with a neutron probe. These tubes are installed near the pits already equipped with probes recording water content (CS616 – Campbell Scientific). The measurements of the neutron probe, considered as reference measurements, will be used to validate …
Feb 20
Article published: predicting solar radiation transmittance in mixed forests
An article on predicting solar radiation transmittance in pure and mixed stands has just been published in Forest Ecology and Management. This work was carried out on the experimental plots of the OPTMix device. Below are the key points of the article. Perot, T., A. Mårell, N. Korboulewsky, V. Seigner and P. Balandier (2017). « Modeling …
Jan 20
OPTMix annual meeting, 10, 12 and 13 january 2017
The annual meeting of the project took place on 10, 12 and 13 January, 2017 at Irstea Nogent-sur-Vernisson. The participants presented recent results and ongoing works concerning the different topics of the project. They also presented the program of future works.
Jan 18
News from the ScanComp project
Data form T-Lidar of the ScanComp project (see corresponding article) were analyzed by a Master1 student (Enrick Potiron, UMR Lerfob, supervisors Ignacio Barbeito and Mathieu Dassot). Dendrometric variables (diameter, height, crown surface, crown volume …) were extracted using the Computree platform of the French National Forest Office (http://computree.onf.fr/). Below are some pictures obtained from the …
Dec 06
Two classes of students participated in experiments
Two classes of the Chesnoy High school (45) participated in the collection of understorey litter and soil sampling the 14 of November and the 1st of December.
Sep 28
Tree health evaluation
Following the meeting with the Forest Health Department in June (see related article), evaluation of tree health was performed on OPTMix plots in collaboration with the University of Orléans (Cécile Barbaroux, Aurélien Salle, LBLGC laboratory), the National Forest Office (Michel Sottejeau) and the Forest Health Department (DSF). This operation took place from September 5 to September …
Sep 15
Ongoing experiments on the drought effects
After a very wet spring, a severe drought has occured from July to August with very low rainfall (20 mm for the two months) and high temperatures (days above 35°C). These weather conditions added to the harsh soil conditions of the Orleans forest led to significant stress for the trees. To better understand the effects of …
