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Measuring and explaining the global debt of biotic homogenization in a changing world.

Project description

Understanding biotic homogenisation to enforce global biodiversity protection

The current decline of biodiversity calls for urgent global action as variability of life is crucial for ecosystem services and human welfare, and of particular importance to maintaining a balance between community composition and existing environmental conditions in several biomes and species. Yet, the effects of biodiversity changes, especially on the biotic homogenisation process where two or more spatially distributed ecological communities become increasingly similar over time, remain poorly understood. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the INDEBT project will provide pioneering research on biotic homogenisation at a global scale to determine, explain and measure the harmful effects of its processes. The project’s work will put in motion context-based conservation actions to maintain biological equilibrium.

Objective

The process The process of biotic homogenization corresponds to the increase in similarity between ecological communities through time. It is one of the most significant aspects of the current biodiversity crisis, and limiting its detrimental effects is gaining momentum in conservation biology. Lagged biodiversity responses to past environmental changes might result in disequilibrium states between community composition and present-day environmental conditions in many biomes and taxa across the planet. My hypothesis is that if delayed biodiversity responses affect the community compositions, they should also affect the similarity between communities. If so, lagged biodiversity responses to global changes might build a homogenization debt, here defined as a future increase of similarity between communities resulting from past environmental perturbation. This project will test the existence, quantify, and map the prevalence of the homogenization debt at a global scale, across biomes and taxa (terrestrial plants, birds, fish, and marine invertebrates). Using graphical, analytical and statistical methods, I will quantify disequilibrium states and dynamics of species turnover between communities, and formally test their link with a set of anthropogenic threats to biodiversity. The project will provide a novel assessment of the biotic homogenization at global scale, and a comprehensive assessment of its drivers. The first quantitative estimation and map of the homogenization debt will reveal areas where biodiversity is doomed to homogenize in the near future if no actions are undertaken. Thus, the project outcome will help to prioritize context-dependent conservation actions to mitigate future homogenization. Through this MSCA fellowship, I will acquire a new set of scientific (statistical development, big-data, new concept in ecology) and transversal (project and financial management) skills that will foster my capacity to reach a academic researcher position in France.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITE GRENOBLE ALPES
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 184 707,84
Address
621 AVENUE CENTRALE
38058 GRENOBLE
France

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Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

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.

€ 184 707,84
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