Advances in modeling interactions between soils and trees

Forest ecosystems are, by their very nature, highly variable. — Vertical variation: the interaction with the environment extends from the parent rock to the atmosphere. — Horizontal variation: the spatial variability of the topography, the soil properties, the type of forest management and the previous soil use and management means that the structure and functioning of an ecosystem can vary significantly within a limited area. — Temporal variation: rotations can vary from under ten years (typically eucalyptus or acacia forests in tropical environments), through several decades (beech and conifers in temperate and tropical environments) to several hundreds of years (oak and sequoia). These rotations may be affected by abrupt or gradual changes or by long-term natural or human forcing, resulting in dynamics, the scale and progression of which are not immediately evident.