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Realised ecological niche and species distributions under global environmental change

Project description

Exploring birds’ niche change

Species readjust their geographical distributions as a response to environmental transformation. With ongoing global warming, predicting species distributions is an urgent conservation endeavour. However, the responses of a species to the environment may vary in space and time: this is when a niche change occurs. The EU-funded RELOAD project will study how and why the magnitude of niche change varies among bird species. Scientists will examine the conditions that affect the magnitude of niche change and the impact of this phenomenon on the conservation status of species. The ultimate goal is to produce a global synthesis of spatial and temporal niche change and contribute to better estimated distribution models.

Objective

Species are readjusting their geographical distributions as a response to ongoing environmental change. Thus, predicting species distributions is an urgent conservation endeavour. However, the responses of a species to the environment may vary in space and time (i.e. niche change) as the result of the spatiotemporal context of where and when its different populations occur. Niche changes are expected to have important consequences: (i) they can invalidate niche-based species distribution models, as a widely used predictive conservation tool, due to the limited spatiotemporal context of the underlying species distribution data, and (ii) they can impact the performance of species (e.g. their conservation status and extinction risk) that become decoupled from their optimal environmental conditions. However, we still poorly understand how the magnitude of niche change varies among species, especially within their native distributions and over relatively short time spans under ongoing global change. I will study how and why the magnitude of niche change varies among bird species. More specifically, I will examine how species functional traits and rates of global change within the species' geographical ranges affect the magnitude of niche change, and how niche change may impact the conservation status of species. The ultimate goal is to produce a global synthesis of spatial and temporal niche change to understand the general propensity of bird species to change their realised ecological niches. The project will contribute to estimate species-wise uncertainty of species distribution models and refine their predictions based on species' ecological traits.

Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01

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Coordinator

AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
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.

€ 181 152,96
Address
CALLE SERRANO 117
28006 MADRID
Spain

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Region
Comunidad de Madrid Comunidad de Madrid Madrid
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Research Organisations
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Total cost

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