Descrizione del progetto
Comprendere i cambiamenti repentini degli ecosistemi nelle zone aride
Le zone aride sono sempre più vulnerabili ai cambiamenti repentini dovuti al cambiamento globale e ai fattori di desertificazione. Tuttavia, non abbiamo una comprensione completa della prevalenza e dei fattori scatenanti di questi spostamenti a causa dell’assenza di tentativi di monitoraggio ed esperimenti internazionali. Una valutazione sistematica delle azioni di ripristino è necessaria per prevenire bruschi spostamenti degli ecosistemi e combattere i cambiamenti climatici e la desertificazione. Il progetto BIOSHIFT, finanziato dal CER, utilizzerà esperimenti su scala globale, indagini sul campo e tecnologie avanzate per studiare i cambiamenti repentini degli ecosistemi nelle zone aride. L’obiettivo è comprendere le cause, la prevalenza e le conseguenze di questi spostamenti. Verrà inoltre valutato se la biodiversità e i servizi ecosistemici delle zone aride presentano risposte simili a soglie lungo i gradienti di aridità e si valuterà l’impatto ecologico delle piantagioni di alberi.
Obiettivo
Global change and desertification drivers, such as climate change and increased fire frequency, make drylands more prone to abrupt shifts that can lead to the emergence of degraded states unable to provide key ecosystem services and to sustain life. However, we still lack an in-depth understanding of the prevalence and triggers of these shifts, and of the identity of those ecosystem attributes and services that are most affected, across global drylands. These uncertainties arise largely from the absence of global monitoring efforts and experiments investigating temporal changes in biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. Furthermore, the lack of a systematic evaluation of the ecological impacts of restoration actions, such as tree planting, hampers our capacity to assess their usefulness to prevent abrupt ecosystem shifts and to combat climate change and desertification. BIOSHIFT will combine global-scale experimentation and temporal field surveys with state-of-the-art Earth observation, mathematical modelling, -omics approaches, and statistical analyses to tackle these key knowledge gaps. Specifically, I will: i) determine the prevalence, drivers and consequences of abrupt ecosystem shifts in drylands, ii) assess whether in situ temporal changes in dryland biodiversity and ecosystem services exhibit threshold-like responses along global aridity gradients, and iii) conduct the first systematic field assessment of the ecological impacts of tree plantations and their capacity to prevent abrupt ecosystem shifts in drylands worldwide. By doing so, BIOSHIFT will make a major leap forward in our understanding of abrupt ecosystem shifts and provide unprecedent insights on how to monitor and manage them. This project will also provide the ecological underpinning to high profile international initiatives aimed at tackling biodiversity losses, mitigating global change and desertification impacts, and restoring degraded ecosystems across global drylands.
Campo scientifico
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculturehorticulturearboriculture
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
- natural sciencesmathematicsapplied mathematicsmathematical model
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsIstituzione ospitante
03690 Alicante
Spagna