Support for coordination and community‑building activities

Each year, managers of protected areas and their partners gather for a meeting facilitated by the French Office for Biodiversity (OFB) to explore a key topic related to the preservation of natural areas. The 2024 edition helped harmonize a shared vision for robust carbon‑sequestration projects that comply with the requirements of the Climate Law and with the carbon baselines of protected areas. It highlighted the interdependence between biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and carbon issues, illustrated through early experiences shared by managers and funders. Finally, it proposed structured, biodiversity‑friendly responses to new societal demands for carbon contribution and compensation, whether mandated by law or voluntary.

FairCarboN presented, together with CITEPA, the scientific foundations of carbon sequestration by natural ecosystems, followed by an open exchange with the audience. This contribution helped clarify the state of knowledge and strengthen dialogue between researchers, practitioners, and stakeholders involved in the management of protected areas.

The sixth FROG symposium brings together around one hundred participants, with a strong emphasis on early‑career researchers (interns, PhD candidates, postdoctoral fellows). The event covers a broad range of topics in organic geochemistry, including carbon modelling, paleoclimatology, (de)pollution processes, organic‑matter dynamics, and analytical developments.

Invited lectures address subjects such as the composition of the Notre‑Dame wood, bacterial biomarkers, and industrial perspectives. The symposium also features convivial evening events, a geological tour of the campus, and numerous opportunities for scientific exchange.

Researchers from FairCarboN are actively involved in this event—both in the organisation and through scientific presentations—notably those from the ALAMOD project, which contributes to advancing knowledge on carbon dynamics in continental ecosystems.

Arid zones, which represent 41% of the Earth’s land surface, are crucial for global food production but suffer from poor soil quality and water scarcity, challenges that are further exacerbated by climate change. The ISADAE 2024 conference, held at the University of Reims Champagne‑Ardenne, brought together more than 100 participants from 33 countries to discuss soil amendments, their uses, and their effects in arid agro‑ecosystems. The objective was to promote international cooperation and the development of strategies for the sustainable management of soils in arid regions.

Researchers from FairCarboN were involved in this event—where the programme was presented—particularly through the SLAM‑B and CANETE projects, which contribute to advancing knowledge on carbon dynamics and soil functioning in water‑limited environments.

The Continental Surface Modelling Days (JMSC) are a two‑day biennial meeting that rotates across different regions of France to bring together the French‑speaking community working on continental‑surface modelling. This 5th edition highlights the contribution of artificial intelligence—including PINNs, surrogate models, parameter optimisation, reduced computation times, and embedded observation—as well as the combined use of heterogeneous datasets (geochemical, hydrological, geophysical, etc.) for model calibration.

The overarching objective, driven by a synergy between physics, biogeochemistry, ecology, agronomy, geography, and remote sensing, is to improve our understanding of the interactions between climate, natural resources, and human activities.

Researchers from FairCarboN are involved in this event—where the programme was presented—particularly through the RIFT and ALAMOD projects, which contribute to advancing knowledge on carbon dynamics and the modelling of continental ecosystems

This year’s event, organised by Biogéosciences – UMR CNRS uB EPHE, focused on organic matter in the environment and society. The objective of the meeting was to reflect on 20 years of analytical and conceptual challenges in research related to organic matter, and to discuss how scientific approaches have evolved over time.

Over four days, researchers from FairCarboN had the opportunity to present the programme’s projects and to strengthen connections with the scientific community working on transversal topics such as biodiversity, modelling, pollution, soils, and water. These exchanges helped reinforce synergies across disciplines and highlighted the relevance of FairCarboN’s work within broader research on carbon dynamics in continental ecosystems.

The SLAM‑B project is organising a summer school on “Coupling Life‑Cycle Assessment & Integrated Modelling”, combining theoretical inputs with hands‑on workshops. The programme covers:

• foresight analysis for a territorial circular bioeconomy based on agroecological systems,
• integrated modelling and assessment using the MAELIA platform,
• life‑cycle assessment (LCA),
• and finally, the coupling of LCA and integrated modelling to support comprehensive environmental evaluation.

The training targets scientists, private‑sector professionals, and environmental‑assessment specialists with experience in data handling and a solid understanding of agricultural systems.

This initiative contributes to strengthening expertise within the FairCarboN community and supports the development of advanced tools for analysing carbon dynamics and sustainability in agro‑ecosystems.

The UMR METIS is organising a training course on aquatic modelling tools for carbon and nutrients, focusing on the pyNuts‑Riverstrahler model, which includes the RIVE biogeochemical module. The training alternates between theoretical presentations, code exploration, and practical applications of the models, allowing participants to understand both the conceptual framework and hands‑on implementation of aquatic biogeochemical modelling.

Researchers from FairCarboN are involved in this event—particularly through the CarboNium project, which contributes to advancing knowledge on carbon dynamics and nutrient fluxes in continental aquatic systems

Carbon allocation in plants is a dynamic process influenced by environmental conditions, genetic regulation, and complex biological interactions—including both above‑ and below‑ground factors, as well as relationships with symbiotic microbes. Recent advances in genetics, phloem biology, and biotechnology have improved our understanding of how carbon is distributed within plants and how this allocation can be optimised to enhance crop productivity and resilience.

This workshop brought together physiologists, geneticists, biotechnologists, soil scientists, and ecologists to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and open new perspectives for agriculture and environmental sustainability. Discussions highlighted the importance of integrating knowledge across scales to better understand carbon dynamics and plant–microbe–soil interactions.

Researchers from FairCarboN were involved in this event—where the programme was presented—particularly through the GREENSCALE and RhizoSeqC projects, which contribute to advancing research on plant carbon allocation, root–microbe interactions, and ecosystem functioning within continental ecosystems.

The Angers Autumn School (AAS) is a scientific event organised by students of the Master’s programme Biology, Ecology and Evolution (BEE), specialising in Marine Environments, Anthropisation and Diagnostics (MAD) at the University of Angers, in collaboration with researchers from the Laboratory of Planetology and Geosciences (LPG).

This edition focuses on exploring biogeochemical processes in sediments in two dimensions at the sub‑millimetre scale, using 2D‑DET gels (Diffusive Equilibrium in Thin film) combined with colorimetric methods and hyperspectral imaging. The programme combines field excursions, scientific presentations, and hands‑on workshops, offering participants a comprehensive introduction to sediment biogeochemistry and advanced analytical techniques.

Researchers from FairCarboN were involved in this event—where the programme was presented—particularly through the CABESTAN and TROPECOS projects, which contribute to advancing knowledge on carbon dynamics and biogeochemical processes in continental aquatic systems.

 “Plants in a high‑CO₂ environment: constraints and opportunities”

Climate change driven by rising atmospheric CO₂ and other greenhouse gases intensifies the abiotic stresses experienced by plants—drought, heat, and extreme climatic events—threatening their productivity and even their survival. At the same time, and unlike most other living organisms, higher CO₂ concentrations stimulate plant growth through enhanced photosynthesis. This positive effect, known as CO₂ fertilisation, also strongly influences carbon transfer to soils, thereby contributing to climate‑change mitigation.

Jointly organised by the Académie des sciences and the Académie d’agriculture de France, this symposium will review the current biological knowledge in these fields and synthesise both the constraints and opportunities that elevated atmospheric CO₂ represents for plants and associated agro‑ecosystems.

Researchers from FairCarboN were involved in this event—where the programme was presented—particularly through the GREENSCALE, RhizoSeqC and CO2_CMΨ projects, which advance research on carbon dynamics, plant physiology, and plant–soil–microbe interactions in continental ecosystems.

These three days dedicated to technical, bioinformatic and methodological advances in metabarcoding bring together a particularly diverse metabarcoding/metagenomics community, both institutionally and geographically. The event serves as a structuring space for the community, complementing other existing initiatives, with a clearly methodological and tool‑oriented focus that aligns with current research needs.

Researchers from FairCarboN were involved in this event—where the programme was presented—particularly through the CANETE project, which contributes to advancing metabarcoding approaches and their application to the study of carbon dynamics and biodiversity in continental ecosystems

The 3rd OZCAR–TERENO conference is jointly organised by the French OZCAR research infrastructure and the German TERENO network. The scientific programme is structured around sessions drawing on disciplines such as hydrology, hydrogeology, geophysics, soil science, geochemistry, ecology, and socio‑ecology. A central objective is to show how interdisciplinarity enables a deeper understanding of the functioning of the critical zone and its evolution in the Anthropocene.

The sessions also highlighted the importance of critical‑zone observatories—highly instrumented field sites where multiple disciplines interact and generate data and models—to support an integrated understanding of Earth surface processes. These observatories play a key role in linking biogeochemical cycles, water resources, soil dynamics, and human impacts.

Researchers from FairCarboN were involved in this event—where the programme was presented—particularly through the CarboNium, RIFT and ALAMOD projects, which contribute to advancing knowledge on carbon dynamics and modelling approaches within continental ecosystems.

The STICS 2026 seminar brings together the designers, developers, and users of the STICS crop model to present the latest technical and scientific advances, illustrated through concrete use cases. In a context marked by climate, environmental, and food‑security challenges, crop modelling is highlighted as a major lever for designing sustainable and resilient agroecological systems.

The event aims to foster the exchange of ideas and to define strategies for the deployment of the model in order to address current and future agricultural challenges. Discussions emphasise the importance of integrating agronomy, ecology, biogeochemistry and modelling approaches to support decision‑making in agricultural transitions.

Researchers from FairCarboN were involved in this event—where the programme was presented—particularly through the SLAM‑B and ALAMOD projects, which contribute to advancing carbon dynamics modelling and the development of tools for assessing sustainability in agro‑ecosystems.