Research areas

Research areas

The research unit's mission is to respond to societal demands concerning transfers between plants and the surrounding environment in horticulture and urban and peri-urban contexts.

To do so, its research activities are focused on the following problematic: 
How to act on the interactions between plants and their environment in a highly anthropized environment, in order to promote plant development and the pedoclimatic services provided?

We formulate the following hypotheses:

  • The above-ground and below-ground environment influences the development of the plant, and conversely, it is possible to act on the environment to promote the development of the plant,
  • The plant modifies the microclimate and the properties of the planting medium,
  • Closed and semi-closed environments exacerbate these interactions.

Horticulture context

Moderators: Jean-Charles Michel and Rousseau Tawegoum

In the horticultural context, societal demand is focused on designing sustainable production systems. The objective is to produce healthy plants with a reduced environmental footprint, with a focus on the use of local and recyclable resources. A number of issues are part of this demand:

  • The preservation of natural resources and in particular of peat, water, fossil energy and phosphorus,
  • The sustainable, efficient and reasoned management of inputs (water, fertilizers, growing media) while meeting the needs and health of plants,
  • The reduction of waste towards zero loss (pollutants, waste, greenhouse gas emissions). 

To do this, the action plan of the unit is structured in 6 scientific themes:

  1. The optimization of the greenhouse production tool 
  2. The energy performance of greenhouses
  3. Climate regulation for the control of pathogens
  4. Biodegradation of organic fertilizers
  5. Agronomic performance of growing media 
  6. Efficiency of agroforestry systems

Urban and peri-urban context

Moderators : Laure Vidal-Beaudet and Sophie Herpin

In the urban and peri-urban context, the societal demand concerns the adaptation of plants to climate change and the functional ecosystem services provided by soils and plants. The associated issues are:

  • The mapping and protection of soils according to their agronomic quality,
  • The valorisation of anthropic and local materials in soils,
  • The maintenance or development of ecosystem services essential to the sustainable city (carbon capture, cooling).

To do this, the research unit's action plan is structured into 6 scientific themes:

  1. Human thermal comfort and microclimate regulation by plants
  2. The response of plants to abiotic stresses
  3. The renaturation of desilted soils
  4. Designing fertile soils from waste and by-products
  5. Greenhouse gas emissions (C and N cycles)
  6. Methodological development of urban soil mapping  

Processes and objects of study

The processes studied in the unit are shown in the following figure:

Research areas

The objects of study to which the EPHor research unit dedicates its research work are presented in the following figure:

Research objects