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My research interests are related to the dynamics of carbon, nutrients and trace elements in soil-plant systems. I am currently working on trophic fluxes from plants to rhizosphere, by investigating how rhizodeposition and root mortality can regulate soil carbon storage. My aim is to understand how these different fluxes (exudation of soluble compounds, mucilage secretion, cells sloughing, etc.) are controlled by plant growth and its environment. I use both an experimental approach - quantitative and qualitative analysis of rhizodeposition - and modelling - development of new functional-structural plant models intended to be coupled to models describing soil organic matter dynamics.

I have worked previously on the dynamics of heavy metals in soil-plant-biochar systems during my PhD, on the dynamics of carbon in constructed Technosols during my first postdoc and on the dynamics of nutrients in mining Technosols of Alberta during my second postdoc in Canada.

Publications

Rees F., Simonnot M.O., Morel J.L. 2014. Short-term effects of biochar on soil heavy metal mobility are controlled by intra-particle diffusion and soil pH increase. European Journal of Soil Science, 65, 149-161

Rees F., Germain C., Sterckeman T., Morel J.L. 2015. Plant growth and metal uptake by a non-hyperaccumulating species (L. perenne) and a Cd-Zn hyperaccumulator (N. caerulescens) in contaminated soils amended with biochar. Plant and Soil, 395 (1), 57-73

Rees F., Sterckeman T., Morel J.L. 2016. Root development of non-accumulating and hyperaccumulating plants in metal-contaminated soils amended with biochar. Chemosphere, 182, 1-196

Bachmann H.J. et al. 2016. Toward the Standardization of Biochar Analysis: The COST Action TD1107 Interlaboratory Comparison. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 64, 513-527

Zhang W., Huang X.,Jjia Y., Rees F., Tsang D.C.W., Qiu R., Wang H. 2017. Metal immobilization by sludge-derived biochar: roles of mineral oxides and carbonized organic compartment. Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 39(2): 379-389

Rees F., Dhyevre A., Morel J.L., Cotelle S. 2017. Decrease in the genotoxicity of metal-contaminated soils with biochar amendments. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 24 (36): 27634-27641

Tammeorg P., Bastos A.C., Jeffery S., Rees F., et al. 2017. Biochars in soils: towards the required level of scientific understanding. Journal of Environmental Engineering and Landscape Management, 25(2): 192-207

Rees F., Watteau F., Mathieu S., Le Brech Y., Turpault M.P., Qiu R., Morel J. L. 2017. Metal immobilization by wood-derived biochars: distribution and reactivity of carbonate phases. Journal of Environmental Quality, 46(4): 845-854

Hazotte C., Laubie B., Rees F., Morel J.L., Simonnot M.O. 2017. A novel process to recover cadmium and zinc from the hyperaccumulator plant Noccaea caerulescens. Hydrometallurgy, 174: 56–65

Quideau S.A., Norris C.E., Rees F., Dyck M., Samadi N., Oh S.W. 2017. Carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus release from peat and forest floor cover soils used during oil sands reclamation. Can. J. Soil Science, 97(4): 757-768

Watteau F., Huot H., Séré G., Begin, J.C., Rees F., Schwartz C., Morel J.L. 2018. Micropedology to reveal pedogenetic processes in Technosols. Spanish Journal of Soil Science, 8(2), 148-163

Rees F., Dagois R., Derrien D., Fiorelli J.L., Watteau F., Morel J.L., Schwartz C., Simonnot M.O., Séré G. 2019. Storage of carbon in constructed Technosols: in situ monitoring over a decade. Geoderma. 337:641-648