Let $X$ be a smooth complex projective manifold of dimension $n$ equipped with an ample line bundle $L$ and a rank $k$ holomorphic vector bundle $E$. We assume that $1\leqslant k\leqslant n$, that $X$, $E$ and $L$ are defined over the reals and denote by $\mathbb{R}X$ the real locus of $X$. Then, we estimate from above and below the expected Betti numbers of the vanishing loci in $\mathbb{R}X$ of holomorphic real sections of $E\otimes L^{d}$, where $d$ is a large enough integer. Moreover, given any closed connected codimension $k$ submanifold ${\it\Sigma}$ of $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ with trivial normal bundle, we prove that a real section of $E\otimes L^{d}$ has a positive probability, independent of $d$, of containing around $\sqrt{d}^{n}$ connected components diffeomorphic to ${\it\Sigma}$ in its vanishing locus.

We associate to a test configuration for a polarized variety a filtration of the section ring of the line bundle. Using the recent work of Boucksom and Chen we get a concave function on the Okounkov body whose law with respect to Lebesgue measure determines the asymptotic distribution of the weights of the test configuration. We show that this is a generalization of a well-known result in toric geometry. As an application, we prove that the pushforward of the Lebesgue measure on the Okounkov body is equal to a Duistermaat–Heckman measure of a certain deformation of the manifold. Via the Duisteraat–Heckman formula, we get as a corollary that in the special case of an effective ℂ×-action on the manifold lifting to the line bundle, the pushforward of the Lebesgue measure on the Okounkov body is piecewise polynomial.

Let S be a smooth surface contained as an ample divisor in a smooth complex projective threefold X, which is a P1 -bundle, and assume that induces OP1 (1) on the fibres of X. The following fact is proven. The restriction to S of the bundle projection of X is exactly the reduction morphism of the pair provided that this one is not a conic bundle. The proof is very simple and does not involve any consideration on the nefness of the adjoint bundle Some applications of the proof are given.