ECOPICS: Belowground ecosystem services in plant communities along elevational gradients in France and Mexico

Altitude integrates changes in the various conditions that determine soil carbon (C) storage, including temperature, soil moisture, litter input, radiation and soil weathering. We will investigate how elevation acts as an environmental filter on belowground plant traits and soil microbial and faunal communities. We hypothesize that shifts in the ratio of functional groups due to climate, alter soil C sequestration rates in both tropical and temperate climates.Objectives: Land use change is widely recognized as a net source of greenhouse gas emissions at a global scale, mostly because these emissions are attributed to losses from aboveground terrestrial pools such as deforestation. Deforestation also impacts severely livelihoods, wildlife and soil quality. Finding alternatives to tree logging in mountain regions requires assessing and promoting ecosystem services. At Mexico's highest mountain, Pico de Orizaba, deforestation in the cloud forest still continues, causing climate and ecological perturbations as well as major soil degradation. In Belledonne, French Alps, tree logging is controlled and the financial income of local communities is more recently assured by eco-tourism, although recent over-use of trails is accused of causing disturbance such as soil erosion. By performing a socio-economic impact assessment of the effects of ecotourism (actual or future), on local communities, we will draft a management plan with the aim of promoting a service(s) depending on the needs of those communities and integrating the results of the ECOPICS project.