Objective
Earth’s environment is ongoing massive changes with strong impacts on ecosystems and their services to human societies. It is thus crucial to improve understanding of ecosystem functioning and its dynamics under environmental change. I propose to do this by assessing the novel hypothesis that ecosystem functioning is subject to long-term constraints mediated by biodiversity effects and driven by past climate change and other historical factors. If supported, we will have to rethink ecosystem ecology, as traditionally ecosystem functioning is understood as the outcome of contemporary environmental drivers and their interplay with dominant species. I will employ an unconventional macroecological approach to ecosystem ecology to investigate this hypothesis for major organism groups and ecosystems across continents, modeling effects of historical factors such as past climate change. My specific objectives are to assess if and how (1) large-scale patterns in functional diversity of a key producer group, vascular plants, and (2) a key consumer group, mammals, are affected by historical factors; (3) if and how plant and mammal functional diversity are linked, and, if such links exist, how and to what extent they are shaped by historical factors; (4) if and how large-scale patterns in vegetation-related ecosystem functioning are shaped by historical factors; (5) if ecosystem functioning is linked to diversity of plants and mammals, and if such links exist, if they are shaped by historical factors; and finally (6) directly translate my findings into a novel framework for predicting spatiotemporal dynamics of ecosystem functioning that accounts for historical constraints. The project relies on extensive geospatial data now available on ecosystem functioning, species distributions, and functional traits as well as on paleodistributions, phylogenies, paleoclimate, environment, and human impacts, in combination with advanced statistical and mechanistic modeling.
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: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
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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.
Topic(s)
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.
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.
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.
ERC-2012-StG_20111109
See other projects for this call
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.
Host institution
8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
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.