Descripción del proyecto
Tender puentes entre la teoría y la práctica para la restauración de los ecosistemas
Los ecosistemas naturales son fundamentales para sustentar la vida en la Tierra. Sin embargo, hoy en día son pocos los ecosistemas que no se ven afectados por el cambio climático y la actividad humana, por lo que es urgente restaurarlos. La pregunta es cómo. La investigación aún tiene que descubrir cómo funcionan los mecanismos y la dinámica de la restauración ecológica, ya que no podemos predecirlos. El equipo del proyecto RECODYN, financiado por el Consejo Europeo de Investigación, propone una investigación pionera e integradora para una restauración ecológica más efectiva. Utilizará la teoría de las metacomunidades y la dinámica de la red alimentaria dependiente de la temperatura en estrecha colaboración con un experimento único de mesocosmos terrestre a largo plazo para permitir la predictibilidad científica y una mejor política ambiental.
Objetivo
Global change degrades ecosystems worldwide. To mitigate its effects is the environmental challenge of our age, and restoration has emerged as the main strategy to stem the biodiversity crisis and repair damaged ecosystems. Despite substantial progress on the number of restoration studies and datasets, there is a fundamental gap in our understanding and prediction of the patterns and mechanisms underlying ecological restoration and how they are altered by global change.
The goal of RECODYN is to determine the recovery rates and trajectories of biodiversity, community structure and ecosystem functioning in complex multitrophic communities, and how climate change and habitat fragmentation – two of the largest threats to biodiversity and ecosystems in terrestrial systems – influence those dynamics. To achieve this, I will use an integrative approach that combines the development of new theory on metacommunities and temperature-dependent food web dynamics in close dialogue with a unique long-term terrestrial mesocosm experiment. RECODYN is articulated around three objectives. First, I will investigate differences between natural assembly and recovery dynamics. Then, I will determine the effects of global change – i.e. climate change and fragmentation – on biodiversity, community structure, spatial and temporal stability, and key ecosystem functions of recovering ecosystems. Finally, I will provide creative solutions to restore ecosystems in a warmer and more fragmented world.
RECODYN proposes an ambitious integrative and innovative research program that will provide a much-needed new perspective on ecological restoration in an era of global change. It will greatly contribute to bridging the gap between theoretical and empirical ecology, and to move restoration from an idiosyncratic discipline to a more predictive science. RECODYN will foster links with environmental policy by providing new restoration measures that derive from our theoretical and empirical findings.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Régimen de financiación
HORIZON-AG - HORIZON Action Grant Budget-BasedInstitución de acogida
48940 Leioa
España