Project description
Innovative tools to assess species adaptation to environmental changes
Populations can adapt to changes in their environment, but analyses of their capacity to do so must be grounded in theories that account for realistic ecological assumptions. The ERC-funded EcoEvoRescue project aims to develop a predictive model for eco-evolutionary rescue. It will create a unified theoretical framework for analysing eco-evolutionary dynamics and develop tools to assess population adaptation to environmental changes. Drawing on a newly developed set of theories and data from a large-scale study of house sparrows in northern Norway, the project will establish metrics for evaluating a population's ability to withstand environmental change. Ultimately, the goal is to assess species' vulnerability to global environmental changes.
Objective
Here I will establish eco-evolutionary rescue analyses as a predictive science. I will do this by developing theories, principles and tools for assessing whether populations can cope with changes in the environment at both short (ecological) and long (evolutionary) timescales. I contend that analyses involving the capacity of organisms to adapt to environmental changes must be based on theories including realistic ecological assumptions. My aim is therefore to develop a common theoretical framework for analyses of eco-evolutionary dynamics that includes basic features that characterize almost all natural populations, such as stochastic fluctuations in population size, density-dependent feedback mechanisms and dispersal among geographically separate populations. I will be able to achieve this ambitious goal because I have recently been involved in developing a new set of theories that have identified novel quantities based on general ecological characteristics that eco-evolutionary processes tend to maximize. These provide objective measures of a population’s capacity to change, which can be used to assess the consequences of habitat loss and changes in environment variation such as those expected due to climate change. I will be able to parameterize these models via my access to one of the largest individual-based long-term field studies of any vertebrate species including data of more than 36000 individual house sparrows from 18 populations on islands within a large geographical area of northern Norway, which will enable me to quantify processes rarely analysed before in natural populations. A central focus will be to derive new metrics that describe how the degree of persistence of a population to environmental change depends upon its size and population dynamic characteristics. Thus, this project will provide operationalization of eco-evolutionary rescue analyses as a research field for assessment of the vulnerability of species to global changes.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-ADG
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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.
7491 Trondheim
Norway
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.