Julien Lamour

Forests exchange vast quantities of carbon and water with the atmosphere, playing a critical role in climate regulation. The dynamics of these fluxes are governed by leaf-level physiological processes— namely photosynthesis, transpiration, and respiration. My research focuses on these fundamental processes to understand how they shape the response of tropical forests to climate change.

A central challenge is understanding the regulation of gas exchange under future climatic conditions, characterized by elevated CO₂ and increased temperatures. While rising atmospheric CO₂ has enhanced forest growth globally by stimulating photosynthesis, this effect is counteracted by the detrimental impacts of heatwaves and water scarcity on leaf function. A key aim of my research is to untangle these competing influences to better predict the fate of these vital ecosystems.

A further layer of complexity—and a long-standing interest in ecology—is the extraordinary biodiversity of tropical forests, which can host more tree species in a single hectare than are native to all of Europe. This diversity presents a major challenge for accurately representing these ecosystems in models and for understanding how species variation influences their vulnerability to climate change. A significant part of my work is therefore dedicated to studying this leaf-level photosynthetic diversity. To this end, I am developing and applying new high-throughput methods to measure photosynthetic properties across a wide range of species.