Project description
Evaluating the effects of hydrological drought
Hydrological changes such as groundwater decline may threaten plant species and ecosystem productivity. Understanding ecosystem sensitivity to hydrological alterations and the related ecophysiological processes is critical for seasonally dry, semi-arid coastal dune ecosystems of the Iberian Peninsula which experiences heavy human pressure. Community-level methods that can indicate vegetation vulnerability to the restriction of groundwater resources are increasingly required. The EU-funded HyChanCEs project intends to assess the impact of hydrological changes, particularly the water-table level decrease, on semi-arid coastal dune ecosystems and determine their vulnerability to groundwater restriction. The results will contribute to moderate the impact of water-resources’ changes on coastal ecosystems.
Objective
Groundwater dynamics and water table level can greatly influence the physiological performance of plant species, composition of vegetation and ecosystem productivity. Understanding ecosystem sensitivity to hydrological changes such as groundwater decline, and the ecophysiological processes involved, are important challenges. This is particularly relevant in seasonally dry semi-arid coastal dune ecosystems of the Iberian Peninsula, where the human pressure is currently high, exacerbating climatic trends of groundwater scarcity.
Community-level assessments and integrated trait syndromes that can point out vegetation vulnerability to the reduction of groundwater resources are greatly needed. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the effects of hydrological drought, particularly water table lowering, on semi-arid coastal dune ecosystems, and define their vulnerability to groundwater limitation, helping to mitigate the impact of water-resources’ changes on relevant coastal ecosystems.
The project will be based on physiological measures, manipulative approaches, functional diversity, vegetation structure, remote sensing, water-table depth modeling, up-scaling processes and assessment of integrated vegetation responses to groundwater changes. Through a multi-level (plant to ecosystem), cross-scale (local to regional) approach, I will define suitable indicators of the impact of groundwater changes on coastal dune ecosystems and map their vulnerability to hydrological droughts. The outputs of the project will have great implications for water-management plans, by signaling vulnerable and endangered coastal areas to current and future groundwater changes. Ultimately, it will contribute to better outline sustainable management strategies conciliating habitat conservation and water-resources use.
Fields of science
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringecosystem-based managementhabitat conservation
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringremote sensing
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsproduction economicsproductivity
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystemscoastal ecosystems
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Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
1749 016 Lisbon
Portugal