Latest Articles

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  Section: Ecology ; Topics: Ecology, Agricultural sciences, Sustainability science

  Ground beetles in agroforestry system show functional traits and activity-density differences according to distance to trees

  Kletty, Florian;   Deville, Pascal; Devigne, Cédric; Machelart, Sophie; Benamrouz-Vanneste, Sadia;   Vanhée, Benoît

  10.24072/pcjournal.780 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e87

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  Alley-cropping systems are arable agroforestry systems in which tree rows and associated grassy strips are established within cropped fields. This constitutes a promising approach to promote biodiversity and associated services in the vicinity of crops. However, there is still little knowledge on the functioning of these systems, especially when they are developed in combination with other agroecological practices or models. We studied ground beetle (Carabidae) communities in such silvoarable systems (SAS), with a particular focus on the effect of distance to tree rows. The studied fields were managed using conservation agriculture practices, namely no-tillage, cover crop maximisation, and crop diversification, carried out over the long term. This study aimed to assess the response of carabid beetle communities to these specific but promising agroecological systems. Ground beetle activity-density, which reflects both abundance and activity, was higher in crop alleys than in tree rows. We did not detect clear differences in species richness or overall community composition along the distance gradient from tree rows. However, diversity patterns based on effective diversity revealed marked structural differences, with communities near tree rows being more diverse, whereas carabid assemblages within crop alleys, especially at 20m from tree rows, were increasingly dominated by a limited number of abundant species. Consistent with these structural patterns, functional trait composition varied with distance to trees, with crop alleys harbouring less winged, less zoophagous communities and a higher proportion of adult-overwintering species, while larger species were more frequent in the middle of crop alleys. SAS associated with conservation agriculture therefore exhibit strong potential to support biocontrol services and promote carabid communities that are resilient to climatic or agronomic perturbations. Further studies are needed to understand the functioning of ecosystems by integrating other taxonomic groups and abiotic factors.

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  Section: Genomics ; Topics: Genetics/genomics, Agricultural sciences, Biophysics and computational biology

  Adopting graph-based pangenomics for agronomy and biodiversity studies: current resources and challenges

  Bocs, Stéphanie;   Carrette, Camille;   Confais, Johann;   Dubois, Siegfried;   Duvaux, Ludovic;   Klopp, Christophe;   Lapalu, Nicolas;   Lasserre-Zuber, Pauline;   Legeai, Fabrice;   Lemaitre, Claire;   Linard, Benjamin;   Marthe, Nina;   Pierre, Baptiste;   Sarah, Gautier;   Sabot, François;   Tranchant-Dubreuil, Christine;   Zytnicki, Matthias  

  10.24072/pcjournal.781 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e86

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       Pangenomics is transforming the way genomics is done. By using assemblies of multiple complete genomes for the same species, it is possible to depart from a biased, reference-centric, point of view. Represented as graphs, these pangenomes open new paths for genome understanding and improvement of species of agricultural interest. They have, for instance, been used to discover new structural variants linked with traits of interest, and increased the heritability prediction. However, transitioning to a graph-based approach is not straightforward, and many tools are still needed for this shift. While numerous papers present both methodological and applied approaches on pangenomics, and many reviews present advantages of these methods, very few resources outline what remains to be done. In this paper, we would like to list methods that are still required to fully exploit pangenomes, and favor the widespread adoption of this approach.

   

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  Section: Ecotoxicology & Environmental Chemistry ; Topics: Environmental sciences, Applied biological sciences

  Vineyard footprint revealed by honey bees used as sentinels for organic and inorganic contaminants in contrasted environments

  Tison, Léa;   Franc, Céline;   Burkart, Louisiane;   Larrue, Camille; Grosgeorge, Camille ; Dalix, Thierry ; Rusch, Adrien ;   Le Provost, Gaëtane;   de Revel, Gilles ;   Thiéry, Denis  

  10.24072/pcjournal.774 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e85

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  The contamination of non-target organisms by elements and pesticides can adversely affect biodiversity and key ecosystem services such as pollination. In this study, we used honey bee colonies as sentinels of environmental contamination in four distinct habitats - urban, suburban, forest, and vineyard - and collected bees every three weeks from May to November. Pesticide residues were extracted using an adapted QuEChERS method and analyzed by LC-MS/MS, while inorganic major and trace elements were measured by ICP-MS and ICP-AES. Our results show that land-use and seasonal changes shape contaminant profiles in bees. Bees from vineyards exhibited the highest contaminant diversity and loads, indicating a particularly intense contamination profile in this environment. This reflects exposure to multiple pesticide inputs - such as copper - which can accumulate over time to potentially harmful levels. Pollinators like honey bees provide effective indicators of environmental risk, as their contaminant loads may affect honey bee health and can reveal broader ecological impacts.

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  Section: Evolutionary Biology ; Topics: Evolution, Ecology, Plant biology

  Architectural traits constrain the evolution of unisexual flowers and sexual segregation within inflorescences: an interspecific approach

  Torices, Rubén;   Afonso, Ana;   Anderberg, Arne A.;   Gómez, José M.;   Méndez, Marcos  

  10.24072/pcjournal.739 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e84

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  Male and female unisexual flowers have repeatedly evolved from the ancestral bisexual flowers in different lineages of flowering plants. This sex specialization in different flowers often occurs within inflorescences. We hypothesize that inflorescence architecture may impose a constraint on resource availability for late flowers, potentially leading to different optima in floral sex allocation and unisexuality. Under this hypothesis we expect that inflorescence traits increasing the difference in resource availability between early and late flowers would be phylogenetically correlated with a higher level of sexual specialization. To test this hypothesis, we performed a comparative analysis of inflorescence traits (inflorescence size, number of flowers and flower density) in the sunflower family, which displays an extraordinary variation in floral sexual specialization at the inflorescence level, i.e. hermaphroditic, gynomonoecious and monoecious species. We found that species with a complete sex separation in unisexual flowers (monoecy) had significantly denser inflorescences. Furthermore, those species arranging their flowers in denser inflorescences also showed greater differences in the size of early and late fruits, a proxy of resource variation between flowers. Our findings support the idea that floral sexual specialization and consequently sexual segregation may be the consequence of different floral sex allocation optima driven by the sequential development of flowers that results in a persistent resource decline from earlier to later flowers.