Descripción del proyecto
Los ecosistemas insulares en el punto de mira
El cambio climático antropogénico provoca un calentamiento global y una pérdida de la biodiversidad, lo cual hace saltar las alarmas para muchas especies y ecosistemas. Las islas, que constituyen cerca del 30 % de los focos de biodiversidad mundiales, son especialmente vulnerables ante los efectos del cambio climático. La gran mayoría (el 80 %) de las extinciones notificadas corresponden a especies insulares. Sin embargo, se sabe poco sobre estas especies y la infinidad de interacciones que tienen entre ellas. El proyecto IslandLife, financiado con fondos europeos, colmará esta brecha del conocimiento. Centrándose en una comparación entre las islas poco alteradas y las del mismo tamaño que se han visto afectadas por actividades antropogénicas, el equipo arrojará luz sobre la biodiversidad única de los ecosistemas insulares y evaluará su fragilidad ante cambios mundiales. Los hallazgos mejorarán nuestra comprensión sobre la biodiversidad y las interacciones ecosistémicas, y reforzará los esfuerzos de conservación.
Objetivo
Biodiversity is declining globally at an unprecedented rate. Representing ~30% of the biodiversity hotspots, islands are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic activities, indeed 80% of reported extinctions are island species. Yet, unique island biodiversity – which includes not only the species but also the myriad of interactions among them – is still greatly unknown. It is thus urgent to describe it and forecast the consequences of its annihilation so we can mitigate the effect of further losses. Detecting ecological interactions and understanding their complexity is, however, one of the big challenges in the natural sciences. The advent of new theories and analytical tools, such as critical transition theory and complex network analysis, provides hope to reach that goal. As relatively simple systems with well-defined borders, islands have a great potential to advance our comprehension of nature complexity. IslandLife will provide the most comprehensive and quantitatively sophisticated study of multilayer networks to date in any terrestrial ecosystem. We will focus on five archipelagos encompassing four oceans and a wide latitudinal gradient, comparing for the first time the food web structure of ‘pristine’ (little-disturbed) islands (of a few km2) with areas of similar size in nearby disturbed (human-inhabited) islands. The objective is to unveil the unique biodiversity of these ecosystems, understand their complexity, and evaluate their fragility to global change drivers, such as biological invasions. We will combine direct observations during intense fieldwork, automated-video monitoring and deep-learning, cutting-edge molecular techniques, and newly developed coextinction models to predict persistence and resilience of island biota to disturbances. The project will represent a major breakthrough towards understanding the effects of global change on these valuable ecosystems, of great relevance to both theoretical ecologists and applied conservationists.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Régimen de financiación
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsInstitución de acogida
28006 Madrid
España