Project description
Developing biomimetic models to study embolism and predict plant resilience to water stress
The growing frequency of droughts is causing global forest decline. Drought-induced embolism, or the formation of air bubbles in a plant’s water-transporting xylem tissue, blocks water and nutrient flow. This leads to hydraulic failure. The ERC-funded EMBIOMO project will develop reliable models to predict plant resilience to water stress and improve understanding of embolism formation, spread and repair in plant tissues. Using ultra-fast optical imaging techniques, it will analyse the dynamics of embolism propagation on leaves and develop biomimetic models to study embolism under controlled extreme conditions. Ultimately, these predictive models will provide critical information to facilitate resilience strategies in agriculture and forest management.
Objective
Embolism, the formation of air bubbles in a plant’s vascular system responsible for water transport (the xylem), disrupts the flow of water and nutrients, leading to hydraulic failure. With the increasing frequency of droughts due to climate change, embolism has become a leading factor in the decline of forests worldwide, contributing to tree mortality and ecosystem collapse. Understanding how embolism forms, spreads, and is repaired in plant tissues is critical for predicting plant resilience to water stress, but current models lack the necessary data to make sufficiently accurate predictions.
The EMBIOMO project employs a multidisciplinary and multi-tool approach to address this challenge. By integrating on leaves ultra-fast optical imaging, advanced 3D micro-CT, and confocal microscopy, the project will capture embolism propagation with unprecedented temporal resolution and at high spatial resolution. In parallel, biomimetic systems replicating key aspects of plant leaves xylem will be developed to study embolism under controlled extreme conditions, such as negative pressure. These biomimetic models will not only help investigate embolism dynamics but also serve as validation platforms for advanced theoretical modeling of vascular flows in intricate fluidic networks.
This synergistic combination of approaches will significantly advance the state of the art in plant hydraulics, enabling unprecedented mechanistic insights into embolism propagation, generating unique databases and opening unique perspectives for fluidic network dynamics studies, beyond plant vascular systems. The outcomes will be transformative, providing novel predictive models of plant vulnerability to droughts and contributing critical data to improve resilience strategies in agriculture and forest management, particularly in the face of increasing environmental stresses.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology demography mortality
- natural sciences computer and information sciences databases
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine angiology vascular diseases
- natural sciences physical sciences optics microscopy
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
75794 PARIS
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.