Descrizione del progetto
Occhi puntati sugli ecosistemi insulari
I cambiamenti climatici indotti dall’uomo causano il riscaldamento globale e la perdita della biodiversità, facendo suonare l’allarme per molte specie ed ecosistemi. Le isole, che costituiscono circa il 30 % degli hotspot di biodiversità del mondo, sono particolarmente vulnerabili agli impatti dei cambiamenti climatici. La stragrande maggioranza (80 %) delle estinzioni riportate riguarda specie insulari, ma si sa poco su queste specie e sulla miriade di interazioni tra di esse. Il progetto IslandLife, finanziato dall’UE, colmerà tale lacuna di conoscenze. Concentrandosi su isole relativamente indisturbate rispetto a quelle di dimensioni simili che sono state colpite da attività antropiche, si farà luce sulla biodiversità unica degli ecosistemi insulari e se ne valuterà la fragilità rispetto ai cambiamenti globali. Questi risultati approfondiranno la nostra comprensione della biodiversità e delle interazioni tra ecosistemi e miglioreranno gli sforzi di conservazione.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsIstituzione ospitante
28006 Madrid
Spagna