Montpellier Scientific Community



Mediterranean environment and modelling of agri-hydrosystems (EMMAH)

Director: Liliana Di Pietro
Website :
Research area
The Mediterranean Environment and modelling of agri-hydrosystems research unit conducts research on mass (water, solutes, gases and particles) and energy transport in the groundwater-soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, the coupling of soil transport processes with biogeochemical cycles, and the development of vegetation in cultivated ecosystems in relation to climate, soil properties and farming practices. This targeted research aims at quantifying the environmental impact of global changes (climate, farming practices and land occupation) on the quantity and quality of groundwater, on soil degradation and on the potential of agricultural production zones according to expected climate and environmental changes, mainly in Mediterranean zones.

Research highlights
The unit has developed strong background in:
  • Modelling and quantification of soil transport processes (water flow including preferential flow, mass transport (solutes, colloids, bacteria, ...), coupling between microbial activity and geochemistry, non-fickian solute transport, soil water uptake by 3D plant root system architecture, ...;
  • Characterization and modelling in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system (crop production processes, water transport, SVAT models);
  • Assimilation of remote sensing data (full range of wavelengths) into crop models and SVAT models and extraction of surface biophysical variables, including validation methods for remote sensing products;
  • Direct and inverse radiative transfer modelling inside canopies and soil (solar to µwave domains);
  • Evapotranspiration and microclimate mapping;
  • Aquifer modeling for water resources and water pollution assessment, and isotopic analysis of water composition for water origin and age determination.
The unit has developed widely used models (e.g. the STICS crop model, the PROSPECT leaf optical property models, the PASTIS model ...) and measurement methods (e.g. the Caneye software for LAI estimation).
Staff profile
 
Total permanent staff Total Scientists Scientists with "HDR" [1] Post-doc fellows PhD
59
30
14
7
14
*Scientists per member institution: 14 INRA, 16 UAPV
[1]French university degree for confirmed thesis supervisor
    
         
Research teams
Water and Mediterranean Landscapes
http://www.inra.fr/compact/nav/externe/fr/equipes/ecrans/1114_1

Soil, Transport Processes and Biogeochemistry
http://www.inra.fr/compact/nav/externe/fr/equipes/ecrans/1114_2
Platforms and other tools
Laboratories:
Five laboratories dedicated to Analytical chemistry, Isotope analyses, Microbiology, Soil hydrodynamic properties, and Plant analysis

Platforms:
Experimental site dedicated to monitoring soil water and solute transport to groundwater, equipped with a lysimeter, 24 piezometers and associated instruments
Experimental site dedicated to remote sensing operations and soil-atmosphere exchanges, equipped with a crane and a permanent follow-up structure for soil water status, crop evolution and surface flows (water, energy, CO2), and associated with climate monitoring following WMO standards.
Meteorological and micro-meteorological station network for evapotranspiration and microclimate assessment at the landscape scale.
Platform for remote sensing equipped with thermal and visible spectrum cameras borne by a tethered balloon (the platform can also be borne by a small aircraft)
Lower atmosphere parameter monitoring platform to be used with the tethered balloon or radioprobing

Measurement devices:
Large range of measurement devices for field experiments (including a field GC apparatus for soil gas analysis) and a sun photometer connected to the AERONET network

Software:
GIS, image processing software, crop and SVAT models, radiative transfer models, soil transport models (PASTIS, KDW, ...), scientific software (Matlab, Mathematica, Comsol...).
Most important international partnerships
The unit has been leading several large international programs, in particular for remote sensing studies: Alpilles-ReSeDA, CYCLOPES, VALERI, WATERMED, and involved in several Earth observation sensors and missions: VEGETATION and VENµS (CNES), SPECTRA and SMOS (European Space Agency).

Some of the most important partnerships are listed below.
Argentina: INTA
Canada: CCRS Ottawa
Chile: Univ. of Talca
Estonia: Tartu Observatory
Finland: Univ. of Helsinki
Germany: Univ. of Bayreuth / Agrosphere Institut, IGC 4, Jülich
Italy: Univ. of Milano
Japan: NIAES
Mexico: Univ. of Michoacan
Netherlands: ITC
Spain: CSIS (Barcelona) / Univ. of Valencia
Tunisia: Univ. of Sfax
USA: Univ. of Boston / NASA Godard Space Flight Center
Facts and figures
Publications in international ranking journals
2007: 31
2006: 36
2005: 35
Representative publications
Baret F., Hagolle O., Geiger B. et al. 2007. LAI, fAPAR and fCover CYCLOPES global products derived from VEGETATION: Part 1: Principles of the algorithm. Remote Sensing of Environment, 110 (3): 275-286

Doussan C., Pierret A., Garrigues E., Pagès L., 2006. Water uptake by plant roots: II- Modelling of water transfer in the soil plant system with explicit account of the flow within the root system- Comparison with experiments. Plant and Soil, 283, 99-117.

Jacobs, A; Lafolie, F; Herry, JM, et al. 2007. Kinetic adhesion of bacterial cells to sand: Cell surface properties and adhesion rate. Colloids and surfaces B-Biointerfaces 59 (1): 35-45

Neel M. C., Abdennadher A., Joelson, M., 2007, Fractional Fick's law: the direct way. Journal of Physics A- Mathematical and theoretical. 40, 8299-8314.

Marc V, Robinson M, 2007. The long-term water balance (1972-2004) of upland forestry and grassland at Plynlimon, mid-Wales. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences , 11 (1): 44-60