Biology subjects

Neyret, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Neyret, M..

12 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Accounting for social feasibility in landscape-scale scenarios for restoring nature beyond protected areas

1. Global restoration targets, including the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the European Union's Nature Restoration Regulation, call for extending restoration beyond protected area boundaries to reconnect isolated ecosystems, yet implementing these landscape-scale interventions forces trade-offs between biophysical effectiveness and social feasibility. 2. In the Grenoble region of the French Alps, we used a gradient analysis of 12 ecosystem services across protected area interfaces to design and compare two restoration scenarios. Both were built from the same set of co-selected interventions but differed only in their spatial allocation: a 'Technical' scenario targeting areas of low ecosystem service continuity around protected areas, and a 'Participatory' scenario co-designed with local stakeholders. 3. Both scenarios physically modified about 14.5% of the landscape, mostly through a forest-based adaptation strategy, yet their effects reached up to more than 60% of the territory for the most connectivity-dependent services, showing that benefits propagate well beyond the area directly modified. 4. The two scenarios diverged mainly in how they treated agricultural land. The Technical scenario reduced abrupt drops in ecosystem service provision at the protected area edge nearly twice as often as the Participatory one (46% versus 26% of the sharp declines it addressed), and at six locations removed them entirely. However, it concentrated over 99% of its non-forest effort in agricultural diversification, such as diversifying crops and adding hedgerows, the action stakeholders ranked hardest to implement, whereas the Participatory scenario favoured more feasible actions such as river restoration, which met less resistance but missed several critical discontinuities in ecosystem service supply. 5. These contrasts show that biophysical potential and social feasibility can pull restoration in different directions, and that the more effective spatial configuration is not necessarily the more implementable one. 6. Closing the implementation gap for nature-based solutions depended less on expanding the area restored than on where interventions were placed. Gradient-based diagnostics appear most useful not as fixed prescriptions but as tools to steer existing sectoral funding in agriculture, urban planning and forestry toward high-impact locations, an approach transferable to other regions working to reconnect protected areas with their surrounding landscapes as coupled social-ecological systems.

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bioRxiv2026

Ecosystem service gradients at protected area borders reveal multiple patterns and prevalent management conflicts

Protected areas cannot halt biodiversity loss in isolation; integrating them with surrounding human-dominated landscapes is critical. However, this integration is challenged by substantial landscape heterogeneity at their borders, hindering our understanding of cross-border changes in ecosystem service provision. We introduce a novel framework for characterizing these dynamics by analyzing ecosystem service gradients along protected area borders. For 16 protected areas in the French Alps, we assessed 12 ecosystem services using a mix of established biophysical models and novel connectivity-based models for mobile species. These were aggregated into three stakeholder-driven domains reflecting respectively rural, cultural, and urban management priorities. Automated polynomial regression analysis classified borders into five gradient types. The most common were Decreasing Gradients, representing a decline in ecosystem services outside the protected area, and Increasing Gradients, with the opposite pattern. Our analysis reveals these patterns are driven by specific landscape configurations, uncovering frequent trade-offs between the three management priorities, where, for instance, landscapes supporting rural priorities often degrade cultural and urban ones. We also identify key opportunities for synergies, by identifying areas where ecosystem services for all three priority domains increase simultaneously outside the protected area. This spatially explicit typology provides a powerful diagnostic tool for designing targeted interventions, such as prioritizing habitat restoration where ecosystem services decline or managing agricultural landscapes to mitigate conflicts across management priorities, supporting a more effective integration of protected areas into the wider landscape. Article impact statementDetermining ecosystem service gradients at protected area borders reveals management trade-offs, guiding targeted spatial planning.

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bioRxiv2026

Disparities in barriers to nature's contributions to people and repercussions on quality of life

While nature contributes to multiple dimensions of human quality of life, access to nature and its benefits is unequally distributed. We surveyed residents of a French metropolitan area to address three research gaps: (i) what are the most common barriers to accessing various Nature's Contributions to People (NCP)? (ii) how these barriers vary across socio-demographic groups? (iii) how do they relate to nature connectedness and impact quality of life? Most frequent barriers, i.e., lack of time, crowding, and low availability or quality of green spaces, differed across NCP categories. Individuals with lower income, limited physical mobility, living in urban areas, and women reported more barriers. More numerous barriers reduced NCP satisfaction, indirectly diminishing quality of life, while nature connectedness independently increased it. Our finding that barriers accumulate for disadvantaged groups, reinforcing social inequities, calls for policies addressing multiple dimensions of access to promote equitable relationships with nature.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Disparities in climate risk-mitigation and recreation services in Grenoble (France)

Urban green spaces provide cultural and climate risk-mitigation ecosystem services (ES) critical for the well-being of urban residents. Yet these benefits are not equally shared across social groups, and environmental segregation - i.e., the spatial separation of population groups between areas of contrasted environmental quality - is common. For instance, environmental justice studies have shown that green space acreage and quality are typically lower in low-income neighbourhoods. However, more detailed assessments integrating a range of ES and the diverse needs of multiple groups are needed to effectively inform equitable urban planning. Here, we combine socio-demographic spatial data with ES modelling to assess social disparities in the distribution of three ES - heatwave mitigation, flood regulation, and urban recreation - in the Grenoble metropolitan area, France. Our results show that low-income households generally benefit from lower climate risk mitigation, but from equal or slightly greater urban recreation opportunities. We also identify mismatches between ES supply and demand from vulnerable groups, which are particularly acute in disadvantaged neighborhoods. These findings highlight the importance of integrating social needs and vulnerabilities into urban greening strategies. Policies that move beyond generic measures of green space provision and explicitly consider multiple ES can help ensure that urban green infrastructure delivers fair and effective benefits across diverse communities.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Accounting for spatial interactions in the upscaling of ecosystem services

O_LIMaps of ecosystem service (ES) supply are frequently used to guide spatial planning, policy making, and ecosystem management. However, these are typically based upon coarse land-cover proxies. This approach lacks a strong mechanistic basis, and neglects spatial biodiversity dynamics and interactions among landscape properties that can modify ES provision. C_LIO_LIWe present an analytical framework for ES upscaling that incorporates spatial interactions between landscape properties to determine ES supply. The resulting models can be viewed as a spatially informed ES production function. The approach comprises seven steps that include several elements absent from most existing approaches, notably a procedure for identifying geodata variables that represent the true mechanistic drivers, the inclusion of spatial interactions in the upscaling model, and modification following expert feedback on the selected model. C_LIO_LIWe demonstrate the approach using two example ES from German grasslands: biodiversity conservation and water supply. We show that the inclusion of spatial interactions in the upscaling model improved model predictions from 15% to 33% depending on the ES evaluated. In addition, inclusion of spatial interactions led to reduced error associated with the upscaled estimates. C_LIO_LIBy overcoming several shortcomings of existing, upscaling approaches we generate resulting maps of ES supply that can more reliably inform spatial planning Further, the underlying models allow for simulation of changes in the drivers of ES supply and estimation of respective outcomes. These advantages have the potential to better link detailed local-scale ecological understanding and land management with large-scale ES supply mapping, and thus better inform decision making and spatial planning. C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Mobile species' responses to surrounding land use generate trade-offs among nature's contributions to people

Agricultural landscapes provide material, non-material and regulating contributions that affect human wellbeing. The responses of these natures contributions to people (NCP) to land-use patterns depend on supporting biota with different habitat requirements, generating trade-offs and synergies. Predictions of NCP trade-offs could inform land-use decisions, but these do not typically account for the effects of land-use patterns on the movement of NCP-providing species, nor for interactions among NCP providers. To explore spatial trade-offs and synergies in eight indicators of NCP, we used Bayesian models that allow for interactions among land uses and among NCP using data from 150 grassland sites across rural Germany. We found that spatial arrangements of forest and open habitat influenced many NCP: acoustic diversity, birdwatching potential, natural enemy abundance and pollination. In particular, the amount and proximity of land uses in the surrounding landscape, especially forest and open habitat, drove the supply of most NCP. However, NCP provided by smaller-bodied taxa (herbivory and pathogen infection) responded weakly to landscape factors. Multiple NCP provided by a given taxon responded differently to their surrounding landscape (e.g. bird-provided caterpillar predation and seed predation), leading to trade-offs among NCP over short distances ([≤]60 m). These were caused by different rates and directions of response to amount and location of land uses. Resulting spatial predictions revealed that grassland-dominated or mixed forest-grassland areas better maximize beneficial NCP and minimize detrimental NCP across landscapes than purely forest-dominated areas. This suggests promoting semi-natural vegetation in agricultural landscapes to provide greater-than-additive benefits to net NCP supply. Significance StatementLand use affects natures contributions to people (NCP), including those provided by mobile species, in complex ways. Variation in the responses of species to the amount and location of land uses results in NCP trade-offs across landscapes, but decision-makers lack the capacity to spatially predict these trade-offs. We predict how the supply of both beneficial and detrimental NCP and associated trade-offs vary across diverse rural landscapes and find that grassland-dominated or mixed forest-grassland areas deliver higher net NCP supply than forest-dominated areas in our study system. Our findings support policies for promoting semi-natural vegetation cover in agricultural landscapes, as these may provide non-additive benefits for NCP.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Community-level plant functional strategies explain ecosystem carbon storage across a tropical elevational gradient

1. Plant functional traits play an important role in shaping plant ecological responses to environmental conditions and influencing ecosystem functioning. However, how whole-plant functional strategies manifest at the community level to influence aboveground and belowground carbon storage across environmental gradients remains poorly understood. 2. We measured aboveground and belowground carbon stocks and the variation in whole-plant (above- and belowground) functional strategies at the community level in twelve ecosystem types across a broad savanna-forest-alpine elevational gradient of climate and land use on Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Using Structural Equation Models, we disentangled the direct and land use mediated influences of climate on carbon storage from indirect influences mediated by variation in plant functional strategies. 3. We found strong coordination between above- and belowground functional traits at the whole community level, which corresponded with functional strategies related to two major trade-offs: a slow-conservation to fast-resource acquisition axis represented by a spectrum from high leaf dry matter content to high fine root nitrogen concentration; and a size-related woody to grassy community axis represented by a spectrum spanning high canopy height to high specific root length. The slow-fast and woody-grassy strategy axes were primarily driven by precipitation and land-use intensity, respectively. 4. Both functional strategies mediated the effects of climate on carbon storage. The slow-fast strategy axis was strongly and positively associated with aboveground carbon stocks. Meanwhile, the woody-grassy strategy axis was negatively associated with both aboveground carbon stocks and soil organic carbon stocks. 5. Synthesis. We demonstrated that major plant functional strategies manifest at the community level along elevational gradients. These strategies also explain variation in carbon storage, although aboveground storage is mostly driven by trait effects, and belowground storage by direct effects of climate. Together, these results underscore the importance of incorporating functional community data into future analysis of climate change impacts on carbon storage, which would enhance our ability to predict potential shifts in ecosystem functioning.

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bioRxiv2024

One cannot have it all: trading-off ecosystem services and biodiversity bundles in landscape connectivity restoration

Countering the impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation on ecosystems requires complementing conservation areas with Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures within landscapes to promote biodiversity and multiple ecosystem services (ES). However, critical knowledge gaps persist in where and how natural elements should be restored to improve landscape connectivity to simultaneously support, and reduce trade-offs between biodiversity and ES. In virtual landscape experiments that allow exploring the effects of spatial pattern systematically, we generated alternative landscape restoration scenarios aimed at fostering ecological connectivity. Scenarios varied in the location and size of restored areas complementing existing natural areas. We analysed the impact of these scenarios on four bundles representing distinct priorities of target ES and biodiversity-related values. As expected, all bundles were favoured by increasing restored area in the landscape, but they were promoted by different spatial configurations. Restoration scenarios that fostered high aggregation of natural habitats promoted biodiversity and cultural value-related bundles, while smaller natural elements dispersed throughout the landscape were more beneficial for the sustainable production and climate adaptation bundles. These contrasts were most pronounced at low restoration efforts, where landscape configuration had greatest impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem processes. Effective spatial planning of restoration initiatives within landscapes should consider these trade-offs, along with context-specific constraints, when prioritizing areas for restoration or conservation. Our findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of how protected and restored areas can be integrated within landscapes to jointly support connectivity for both biodiversity and people. HighlightsO_LIVirtual landscape restoration options effects on four ecosystem services and biodiversity bundles C_LIO_LIHigh aggregation of restored elements promoted biodiversity and cultural value C_LIO_LILow aggregation promoted sustainable production and climate adaptation C_LIO_LIThese contrasts were most important at low restoration targets C_LIO_LIThese results highlight the importance of configuration trade-offs in restoration planning C_LI

ecology↗

bioRxiv2024

Old, deciduous stands support both high biodiversity and carbon storage in German forests

Ecosystems worldwide face threats related to human-driven degradation, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Addressing these challenges requires management strategies that combine biodiversity conservation with climate change mitigation. Here, we aimed to identify local-scale management actions that promote biodiversity at multiple trophic levels while also promoting carbon storage and sequestration. We combined data on the diversity of nine taxonomic groups (plants, birds, moths, Mollusca, soil fungi, active soil bacteria, Cercozoan and Endomyxan soil protists, Oomycotan soil protists, and nematodes), with above- and belowground carbon storage in 150 temperate forest plots in three regions of Germany. These were dominated by European beech, pine, spruce and oak. We investigated the relationships between multiple forest structure and management variables, biodiversity and carbon storage and sequestration in forest plots with different management types. Carbon storage was 32% higher in uneven-aged than even-aged forests and increased with mean tree diameter, while carbon sequestration in trees was 15% higher in even-aged than uneven-aged stands. Mean tree diameter was positively related to overall biodiversity, especially bird species richness and the richness of forest specialist birds. Oak and beech-dominated stands harboured higher biodiversity than stands dominated by conifers (especially Pine). One exception to this was the richness of plant species and forest specialist plants, which were highest in spruce plantations. Surprisingly, deadwood input did not significantly affect the diversity of any taxonomic group in this study. By showing that older forests with a high proportion of uneven-aged broad-leafed trees, or oak-dominated forests, can promote both biodiversity and carbon storage, our results could help inform sustainable local-scale forest management in Central Europe that promotes both biodiversity conservation and carbon storage. These findings can form the basis of further larger-scale studies investigating such relations at larger spatial scales to inform landscape-level recommendations for sustainable multifunctional forest management.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2023

A fast-slow trait continuum at the level of entire communities

Across the tree of life, organismal functional strategies form a continuum from slow-to fast-growing organisms, in response to common drivers such as resource availability and disturbance. However, the synchronization of these strategies at the entire community level is untested. We combine trait data for >2800 above-and belowground taxa from 14 trophic guilds spanning a disturbance and resource availability gradient in German grasslands. Most guilds consistently respond to these drivers through both direct and trophically-mediated effects, resulting in a slow-fast axis at the level of the entire community. Fast trait communities were also associated with faster rates of whole ecosystem functioning. These findings demonstrate that slow and fast strategies can be manifested at the level of whole ecosystems, opening new avenues of ecosystem-level functional classification.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

Landscape management for grassland multifunctionality

Land-use intensification has contrasting effects on different ecosystem services, often leading to land-use conflicts. While multiple studies have demonstrated how landscape-scale strategies can minimise the trade-off between agricultural production and biodiversity conservation, little is known about which land-use strategies maximise the landscape-level supply of multiple ecosystem services (landscape multifunctionality), a common goal of stakeholder communities. We combine comprehensive data collected from 150 German grassland sites with a simulation approach to identify landscape compositions, with differing proportions of low-, medium-, and high-intensity grasslands, that minimise trade-offs between the six main grassland ecosystem services prioritised by local stakeholders: biodiversity conservation, aesthetic value, productivity, carbon storage, foraging, and regional identity. Results are made accessible through an online tool that provides information on which compositions best meet any combination of user-defined priorities (https://neyret.shinyapps.io/landscape_composition_for_multifunctionality/). Results show that an optimal landscape composition can be identified for any pattern of ecosystem service priorities. However, multifunctionality was similar and low for all landscape compositions in cases where there are strong trade-offs between services (e.g. aesthetic value and fodder production), where many services were prioritised, and where drivers other than land use played an important role. We also found that if moderate service levels are deemed acceptable, then strategies in which both high and low intensity grasslands are present can deliver landscape multifunctionality. The tool presented can aid informed decision-making by predicting the impact of future changes in landscape composition, and by allowing for the relative roles of stakeholder priorities and biophysical trade-offs to be understood by scientists and practitioners alike. HighlightsO_LIAn online tool identifies optimal landscape compositions for desired ecosystem services C_LIO_LIWhen the desired services are synergic, the optimum is their common best landscape composition C_LIO_LIWhen the desired services trade-off, a mix of grassland intensity is most multifunctional C_LIO_LISuch tools could support decision-making processes and aid conflict resolution C_LI Graphical abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=111 SRC="FIGDIR/small/208199v5_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (27K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@3273f6org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@5b3a5aorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@153f526org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@103cbea_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

ecology↗

bioRxiv2020

Year-to-year crop shifts promote weed diversity in tropical permanent rainfed cultivation

In the past decades, the expansion and modernisation of agriculture in the mountainous areas of Southeast Asia has had severe impacts on biodiversity, as the once species-rich forests were turned into homogeneous fields receiving ample external inputs. A common feature of permanent cropping with annual crops is the frequent change of crop choice, depending on market opportunities or other motives. However, the precise effect of crop shifts on weeds in tropical areas is largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the short-term effect of crop sequences on the diversity of weed communities in smallholder fields in Northern Thailand. Crop choices were upland rice, maize, fallow and young tree plantations with or without intercrop. We counted the number of crop shifts and the number of crops involved during a 3-years period preceding weed sampling. We showed that the number of crop shifts did not affect weed density and biomass. However, herbaceous species number and diversity (measured as Shannon index) increased by 36% and 46% respectively, while herbaceous species dominance decreased by 38%, in fields with yearly crop shifts compared to fields with no shifts in the previous three years. The effect of a particular crop on diversity, or the effect of intercropping with young trees, was weaker. It was likely due to the more variable resources (especially light) in fields with two crop shifts, allowing species with different niches to co-exist. Crop type and frequent crop shifts did not affect shrub and tree species number, diversity or dominance. Some species were strongly associated with fields with no crop shift in the sequence (e.g. the tree Antidesma velutinosum) or to fields with two crop shifts in the sequence (e.g. the herb Centella asiatica, the C4 grass Digitaria radicosa). Overall, this study showed that in this agronomical system, maintaining yearly crop shifts does not significantly affect weed abundance, but supports in-field plant species diversity, which is likely to impact the services provisioned by tropical mountainous agro-ecosystems HighlightsO_LIFrequent crop shifts in a crop sequence increased weed richness and diversity. C_LIO_LICrop shifts had a stronger effect on weed richness and diversity than the current crop. C_LIO_LIThe number of crop shifts did not affect weed biomass and density. C_LI Graphical abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=134 SRC="FIGDIR/small/988469v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (28K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1bf6c81org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@6cb72forg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@16e825eorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@30ff98_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

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