The French Society for Ecology and Evolution’s 2024 Young Researcher Prize Awarded to Jeremy Borderieux, a Ph.D. Student at the Silva Research Laboratory
October 15 2024The French Society for Ecology and Evolution (SFE²) has awarded its 2024 Young Researcher Prize to Jeremy Borderieux, a Ph.D. Student at the Silva Research Laboratory. Supervised by Jean-Claude Gégout and José Maria Serra-Diaz, he was recognized for the publication of his 2024 article in Nature Ecology & Evolution, ‘Extinction Drives Recent Thermophilization but Does Not Trigger Homogenization in Forest Understorey,’ offering an overview of research of vital importance for understanding and preserving plant biodiversity in the face of global warming.
The findings of the research conducted by Jeremy Borderieux on forests in metropolitan France show that species replacement resulting from climate change primarily takes the form of the disappearance of cold-adapted species that are no longer adapted, whereas the literature to date had suggested that while such a disappearance would occur, it would always be accompanied by a greater abundance of warm-adapted species.
In the study of 756 species, 54% experienced a decline, 41% experienced growth, and 5% remained stable. The extinction of cold-adapted species acted as a driver for the increased homogenization of forest plant life, but was compensated by the colonization of rare species and the extinction of common ones, which resulted in the absence of a clear trend toward the homogenization of plant biodiversity. The decline in cold-adapted species might, however, ultimately spur a decrease in forest biodiversity and increased homogenization.
This research therefore contributes to a greater understanding of the changes taking place as plant life undergoes the effects of global warming, and is of great interest in the continuing effort to preserve plant biodiversity.