Objective
Soils and the communities within them have a central role in numerous ecosystem processes, including complex interactions with biotic and abiotic factors, such as climate. The mechanisms of how soil microorganisms interact with climate remain unknown and there may be ways of mitigating climate change impacts through manipulation of soil microbial processes. Mediterranean habitats are particularly threatened by climate change, and are predicted to experience an increase in annual average temperature, by up to 6oC in summer, and a 30-45% decrease in summer precipitation by the end of this century. This region is a conservation priority as it contains high plant diversity and a high percentage of endemic species. The predicted increase in extreme drought in this ecosystem could have wide-ranging impacts on both natural and agricultural habitats, including loss of biodiversity and land degradation. These negative effects will only be mitigated through a thorough understanding of the relationships between drought, plant communities and soil processes. Plants are linked with the soil community through root exudates, which are compounds released by roots into the soil that interact with other plants and microorganisms. However our understanding of the mechanisms behind these interactions is incomplete. In this project we aim to acquire a fuller understanding of the mechanisms of these interactions and the importance of soil communities for ecosystem stability. Specifically, the project has the following objectives:
1) To describe the impacts of drought-driven changes in plant productivity and diversity on the soil community and below-ground plant traits.
2) To characterise the interaction between soil fertility and drought on plant-soil interactions with a particular focus on demand for root exudates under low fertility.
3) To understand the effect of extreme drought on plant-pathogen interactions, and how that in turn affects plant community composition.
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.
- social sciences sociology demography fertility
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology
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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.
FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF
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.
Coordinator
08193 Bellaterra
Spain
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.