En France, dans les Alpes-Maritimes, une recherche est menee pour connaitre l' impact eventuel de l' ozone sur l' endommagement foliaire repere ces dernieres annees sur peuplements de pins d' Alep, sylvestre et cembro. L' etude s' effectue dans le cadre d' un contrat franco-italien Interreg 2 et d' un programme Primequal. Cet article donne tout d' abord, les resultats pour l' ete 1999, interessant les niveaux de concentration d' ozone mesures depuis le littoral azureen jusqu' au massif du Mercantour au moyen d' analyseurs physico-chimiques et de capteurs passifs. La dose d' AOT 40 et la somme cumulee des concentrations horaires sont indiquees pour les periodes de mesure estivales. Les capteurs passifs se situent notamment parmi des placettes de suivi d' arbres. Afin d' apprehender l' impact de la pollution par l' ozone sur ces ecosystemes forestiers, des notations d' endommagement foliaire sont effectuees. Des correspondances sont recherchees entre les niveaux moyens d' ozone et les degres d' atteinte des trois principales essences suivies (pins d' Alep, sylvestre et cembro). Il semble y avoir une correlation entre augmentation des concentrations d' ozone et endommagement foliaire au moins en ce qui concerne les pins cembro.

International audience | Radioactive contamination of the natural areas is one of the most long-lasting anthropogenic impacts on the environment. Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is a promising organism for radiation-related research because of its high radiosensitivity, but the genome size of Pinacea species has imposed obstacles for high-throughput studies so far. In this work, we conducted the analysis of the de novo assembled transcriptome of Scots pine populations growing in the Chernobyl-affected zone, which is still today contaminated with radionuclides because of the accident at the nuclear power plant in 1986. The transcriptome profiles indicate a clear pattern of adaptive stress response, which seems to be dose-dependent. The transcriptional response indicates a continuous modulation of the cellular redox system, enhanced expression of chaperones and histones, along with the control of ions balance. Interestingly, the activity of transposable element families is inversely correlated to the exposure levels to radiation. These adaptive responses, which are triggered by radiation doses 30 times lower than the one accepted as a safe for biota species by international regulations, suggest that the environmental management in radiation protection should be reviewed.

The investigation was carried out in three areas characterised by different levels and types of PAHs emission. The difference in total amount of PAHs in pine needles from investigated areas was accompanied by a significant changes in mutual ratio of PAHs with different number of rings

Investigation of air pollution impact on tree condition indicates the greatest correlation between pine defoliation and SO2, SO4 and NH4 concentration in the air, NH4 load with precipitation and its pH in the eastern part of Lithuania. In the southern part significant correlation was found between defoliation and SO4 concentration in the air and SO4, NH4 load with precipitation and its pH. No significant correlation was found in the western region of the country, which includes seaside part. Tree age and tree development classes have an essential effect on the correlation significance

The response of Betula pubescens Ehr., B. pendula Roth and two provenances of Pinus sylvestris L. to solar ultraviolet radiation were investigated in a UV exclusion field experiment during the 1997-1999 growing seasons in Finnish Lapland. The seed-grown seedlings were grown under UV-B exclusion and UV-B/UV-A exclusion as compared to control treatment and ambient plants. The only significant impacts of UV exclusion were found in P. sylvestris provenance Enontekio. Longer-term field studies are needed to detect the cumulative characteristics of the UV responses

Taking into account the results of environmental monitoring in forest ecosystems (European Level I- and II-Programme) showing high degrees of soil acidification and still a widespread exceedance of critical loads by deposited sulphur and nitrogen compounds, the programme of differentiated forest protection liming should continue with site specific doses. On the other hand the programme to restore forest ecosystems with higher stability and to a large extent balanced nutrient cycles has to be carried out in order to minimize internal acid-generating processes