Biodiversity, fluxes, and global changes

Alexandru MILCU

 Chargée de recherche (CR) & Ecotron Director

MilcuA

 

CNRS CEFE (Room 216A)
1919, route de Mende
34293 Montpellier 5
tel:+33 (0) 618.596.094
alex.milcu(at)cnrs.fr

       Short Biography

 

I am an ecosystem ecologist whose research interest focuses on the consequences of global changes such as biodiversity loss and climate change for the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems.

  • Since 2015 - Researcher CR, CNRS CEFE
  • Since 2018 - Ecotron Director
  • 2016-2018 - Adjunct Director, CNRS, Ecotron
  • 2012-2014 - Research Associate, CNRS Ecotron
  • 2007-2012 - Ecotron Project Leader, Imperial College London (Silwood Park)
  • 2005-2007 - Ecotron Research Officer, Imperial College London (Silwood Park)
  • 2002-2005 - PhD, Technical University of Darmstadt 

      View CV and complete publicaiton list 

      Acess publications at Researchgate 

      Publication metrics on Google Scholar                      

In my research I often use functional traits as a predictive framework for ecosystem functioning. In particular, I have a great interest in controlled environment facilities for ecosystem research (ECOTRONs) because they have the capacity to simultaneously control environmental conditions while allowing for ecosystem-level measurements of carbon and water fluxes. My research time is currently shared between CEFE and the CNRS Ecotron of Montpellier. I also act as an Associate Editor for Scientific Reports Rplot01

 Selected Publications

Milcu, A., et al. (2018). Genotypic variability enhances the reproducibility of an ecological study Nature Ecology and Evolution, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0434-x

Roy, J., Picon-Cochard, C., Augusti, A., Benot, M.-L., Thierry, L., Darsonville, O., Landais, D., Piel, C., Defossez, M., Devidal, S., Christophe, E., Ravel, O., Fromin, N., Volaire, F., Milcu, A., Bahn, M. & J-F. Soussana. (2016). Elevated CO2 maintains grassland net carbon uptake under a future heat and drought extreme. PNAS (Proceedings Natl. Acad. Sci. United States Am), 113, 6224–6229.

Milcu, A., Eugster, W., Bachmann, D., Guderle, M., et al (2016). Plant functional diversity increases grassland productivity-related water vapor fluxes: an Ecotron and modeling approach. Ecology, 97, 2044-2054, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/15-1110.1/full).

Milcu, A., Roscher, C., Gessler, A., Bachmann, D., et al. (2014). Functional diversity of leaf nitrogen concentrations drives grassland carbon fluxes. Ecology Letters, 17, 435–444.

Milcu, A., Lukac, M., Subke, J., Manning, et al. (2012). Biotic carbon feedbacks in a materially closed soil – vegetation – atmosphere system. Nature Climate Change, 2(April), 281–284. 

Scherber, C., Eisenhauer, N., Weisser, W. W., Schmid, B., … Milcu A et al. (2010). Bottom-up effects of plant diversity on multitrophic interactions in a biodiversity experiment. Nature, 468, 553–556.

 

  TAGS